The MIA Marketplace, consisting of 10 culturally diverse dining and retail concepts, is now completed and open in Miami International (MIA).
Located between Gates D26 and 29, the marketplace is meant give a taste of the cultural diversity of the Miami area. Many of the tenants are local small-business owners who hadn’t operated in an airport before.
“We created this concept, and this does two things: It gives the small business, local business an opportunity to gain airport experience and it also gives them an opportunity to say to say in the future if we have a procurement, … ‘Hey, I have airport experience,’” said Greg Owens, assistant director of business retention and development.
Many of the locations are already capitalizing on the opportunity. “It’s a game changer,” says Pilar Guzman Zavala. She and her husband, Juan Zavala, operate Half Moon Empanadas, one of the first of the MIA Marketplace concepts to open. They say the location has helped them triple their revenue across their business, which includes eight locations.
Other concepts in the marketplace include 305 Pizza; Cuban Crafters, a cigar shop; Estefan Kitchen Express, which is owned by Emilio and Gloria Estefan; Chefs of the Caribbean, which serves of a variety of dishes and treats specific to that region like Jamaican patties and rum cake; Fig and Fennel, a farm-to-table concept; the Miami Marlins merchandise store; Maru and Friends, which features artist Dianna Effner’s collectible, ethnically diverse porcelain dolls; My Ceviche, a seafood deli with five locations in the Miami area; and The Penguin Store, a clothing store by Miami-based Perry Ellis.
