Mango’s Tropical Café Owner Considering Selling South Beach Club

The owner of the famous Mango’s Tropical Café has a business proposition to consider. According to the Miami Herald Newspaper owner, David Wallack is under contract to purchase three adjoining properties behind Ocean Drive club to develop a “reimagined” South Beach.

The development will likely be a mixed-use complex with the possibility of having luxury residences coupled with retail space. Officials want to change the district from a heavy entertainment scene to an area of arts and culture, the ReMiamiBeach website reports.

For the past 65 years, the Wallack family has owned 900 Ocean Drive. David Wallack, 72, told the Herald he’ has the opportunity to buy the properties near Mangos.

This option to buy has sparked a vision to reinvent the 29-year-old club and expand to the South Beach cabaret district.
Mango’s has been closed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The closure has allowed David and his son Joshua Wallack to develop new business ideas that could be cohesive with the reinvention plans of South Beach.

“It may be time now, and the right time, for everybody to gather around a new vision,” David Wallack said. Or it could be the Wallack’s exit from the popular scene. It’s still uncertain if Mango’s will be apart of the new South Beach.

David Wallack mentioned that Mango’s could become a tenant in the redevelopment, but its business model could be a different model than it has been. It may no longer be a late-night hot spot but a new area for fine dining.

The father-son duo is open to ideas for the area, adding that a portion of it could be used for residential or hotels.

“We don’t have a plan, we don’t have any kind of development,” Joshua Wallack said. “We’re looking for the best and the brightest, we’re looking for the highest level of quality.” The project location is close to 0.8 acres.

Commissioners are tired of the name South Beach has created and no longer want to be associated with the “anything goes” reputation that attracts partygoers. There will be a meeting with residents soon to discuss the future of the now-hotspot.

Commissioners hope to see policy measures to change the area from an entertainment district to something more serene. December 4 was the first time commissioners gathered to vote on the proposed legislative package drafted by Mayor Dan Gelber.

The board gave preliminary approval to a plan that would prohibit loud music after 2 am in the popular areas of Ocean Drive. They also voted to enforce stricter rules on sidewalk cafés that solicited pedestrians in the area.

But Mango’s may be slighted by a proposal that will allow multi-story additions and buildings along Collins Avenue to have a 25-foot height increase. However, commissioners won’t meet on that until January at the earliest.

The Wallack’s have asked the real estate firm CBRE to look for proposals to buy the assemblage of properties and help with the redeveloping plans. The firm made a website dedicated to this purpose and sent out requests for proposals last week.

The project will be known as “Evolution of Ocean Drive.” For now, David Wallack has the first option to purchase the lots; until he’s made a final decision, the owners cannot sell to anyone else.

All we know now are conceptualized ideas that Joshua Wallack decided to share. The drawings display a multi-story complex at the Mango’s site and a pedestrians only Ocean Drive, the Herald reported.

“We really felt like this was critical-mass, cathartic vision to evoke the kind of things that the commissioners are saying,” the son said.

Proposals will likely come in in the early part of next year. Until then, Mango’s will open back up when COVID-19 dies down, which may be March; good timing considering it will be Mango’s 30th anniversary that month.

“Regardless of what we do, it’s going to take time to do it,” David Wallack said. “I’m hoping certainly that Mango’s will still be a shining light for the near future.”