By Coral Gables Gazette staff

The City Commission voted unanimously May 5 to approve an additional $100,000 in funding for the expansion of the Coral Gables Art Cinema, a city-owned property on Aragon Avenue, bringing the city’s total commitment to $450,000 for a project that has been six years in the making.

Plans for the expansion have been permitted, the city will serve as construction manager — as it did on the original cinema buildout — and contractor procurement is currently underway. All funds, including private donations raised by the cinema, will flow through the city before contracts are awarded. The city owns the building at 240-260 Aragon Avenue, making this a city-managed construction project on a city asset rather than a direct grant to a private organization.

A project six years in the making

The commission first committed $350,000 to the expansion in 2019. The cinema was tasked with raising the remaining funds. What followed was a years-long campaign that collided with the pandemic, rising construction costs, and repeated delays. The cinema ultimately raised more than $1 million in private donations, including seven-figure gifts, before the funding gap required the city’s additional commitment to close.

The expansion will convert a storefront retail space at 240 Aragon Avenue — directly adjacent to the cinema’s existing 141-seat auditorium at 260 Aragon Avenue, with a city parking garage between the two locations — into a 90-seat second auditorium. The new space will also include a larger lobby, a curated café, administrative offices, an 18-foot video wall, and a rotating window exhibit featuring founder Steven Krams’ collection of late 19th and 20th century cinema technology. Original groundbreaking was planned for February 2022. An asbestos inspection of the new space is required before construction access can begin.

The economic case

Cinema executive director Brenda Moe presented the commission with detailed economic impact figures that shaped the discussion. From August 2024 to August 2025, nearly 18,000 patrons used the parking validation machine in the cinema’s lobby, generating an estimated $53,000 in city parking revenue. An additional 16,000 patrons who did not use the validator contributed approximately $48,000 more. Total parking revenue attributable to cinema attendance currently exceeds $130,000 annually.

The cinema’s current total economic impact is $2.82 million. Nearly 23,000 tickets were purchased by visitors from outside Coral Gables during the same period — representing, at a conservative estimate of $20 in local spending per visitor, approximately $500,000 in outside dollars entering the downtown corridor each year.

“The expansion of our patronage will only expand the city’s revenue,” Moe told commissioners. “Currently, our total economic impact is $2.82 million. Our membership impact — we have hit 2,500 members, which is an incredible milestone for a small organization like ours.”

The expansion is projected to increase annual attendance from approximately 60,000 to nearly 80,000, with an expected economic impact of $3 million.

What the expansion changes

The cinema currently operates as a single-screen venue. It is the only cinema in South Florida with dedicated 70mm projectors. With a second auditorium, the cinema projects it could screen approximately 400 titles annually — expanding offerings that already include independent, foreign, avant-garde, and classic films, as well as sensor-friendly screenings for attendees with autism spectrum disorder, pay-what-you-can family programming, and the Unwind program, which provides children from families experiencing incarceration, homelessness, or financial hardship with a day at the movies.

Moe told commissioners that the cinema’s economic footprint extends well beyond its own doors. “If we put a conservative $20 in local spending to every one of those customers, we are seeing outside dollars coming into the downtown corridor of almost half a million dollars,” she said. “That’s real impact that our cultural center is having on the downtown corridor, and that’s the value that we bring.”

A second screen also addresses a practical competitive challenge. Film distributors sometimes require extended runs, making it difficult for a single-screen venue to keep content fresh. The Coral Gables Art Cinema competes with seven other cinemas within a three-mile radius.

Commissioners frame the investment

Mayor Lago, who sponsored the 2019 legislation and the current resolution, described the cinema as a legacy project alongside the Underline and the city’s mobility hub, framing the expansion as anchoring Aragon Avenue as a concentrated cultural center alongside Books & Books and the Coral Gables Museum. “This is another feather in our cap for the City of Coral Gables,” he said.

Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson cited a seven-times return on arts investment, describing the cinema’s role in the broader downtown economy. “This is a fabulous gem,” she said. “This is not your typical cinema to go to.”

Commissioner Ariel Fernandez noted the observable effect of cinema attendance on the surrounding corridor. “I think there’s no bigger testament to the work that you all do than standing outside when people are leaving from watching a film in your venue — just the smiles on their faces,” he said. “And they don’t go home. They go to another place in Coral Gables.”

Krams, who founded the cinema and has worked with successive city commissions since 2006, acknowledged what the institution has become. “We’ve created something that none of us really expected would turn into what it is today,” he said. “We’re on a national radar and we have a commission that believes in the arts.”

Moe credited City Manager Peter Iglesias for his sustained engagement with the project. “I would like to say thank you to City Manager Iglesias, who has been so incredibly patient and generous with our plans for years,” she said. “We’re really grateful to have you as a partner on this project.”

What comes next

With plans permitted and procurement underway, the city is moving toward contractor selection. City Manager Iglesias confirmed that all funds must be in hand before contracts are awarded. “The drawings have been permitted,” Iglesias told commissioners. “We need to select the contractor to award the contract. It’s in procurement right now.”

Once the second auditorium opens, the cinema’s new lobby will serve both locations, with the parking garage between them providing direct access to both screens.