"Some of those problems have been kind of fixed, but these are temporary fixes," Fritz Fenelon of the Little Haiti nonprofit L'Heure Productions told WLRN in October 2024. "A lot of the frustration comes from, we want permanent stuff."
He said that the same month the Caribbean Marketplace reopened. The building had been closed for four months over roof leaks and mold, and it came back after the City of Miami sealed the roof as a stopgap. The permanent version is now under way. On October 1, 2026, the Marketplace at 5925 NE 2nd Ave. closed to the public, and the City lists its anticipated completion as December 2027.
That makes this a long closure. It is also the one the 2024 repair was meant to lead to. And while the building is dark, much of what the Marketplace did on a weekend is happening in smaller rooms a few blocks away.
Thirty-six years, three closures
The Marketplace has been through this before, and the dates help explain the current schedule.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1990 | Marketplace opens. It cost $1.2 million to build and was designed by Charles Harrison Pawley |
| 1999 | Closes after structural and financial problems |
| 2005 | City of Miami takes ownership and plans to demolish it. Community pressure saves the building |
| 2009 | Little Haiti Cultural Center opens next door |
| 2014 | Marketplace reopens after a renovation |
| June 2024 | Closes again over roof leaks and mold tied to drainage problems |
| October 2024 | Reopens after temporary roof sealing |
| October 1, 2026 | Closes for full roof replacement and upgrades |
| December 2027 | Anticipated completion |
The first closure lasted about fifteen years. The 2024 closure lasted four months, and the building reopened with the roof patched rather than replaced. In that same 2024 WLRN report, City officials said the roof replacement was slated for completion by late 2025 or early 2026. The building closed for the replacement on October 1, 2026, and the project now covers more than the roof alone.
What $5.46 million buys on a 9,000-square-foot building
The City's project page puts the estimated cost at $5,464,250 and lists four items of work:
- Roof replacement
- A new air conditioning system
- Interior upgrades
- New exterior lighting
The building cost $1.2 million to build in 1990. The current project is more than four times that, for a hall the City describes as 9,000 square feet. In July 2024, Assistant City Manager Asael Marrero told a Little Haiti Revitalization Trust meeting that the City had capital projects worth $5.3 million planned for the whole cultural complex. The Marketplace project alone is now budgeted above that.
For anyone who knows the building, the most reassuring detail is in the City's bid notice. It describes structural repairs and a roof-system replacement that will not change the building's area, height, occupant load or use. Pawley based the design on Haiti's gingerbread-style houses and on the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince, a bazaar built in the late 1800s. On a building like this, the roofline is a large part of the design, so the commitment to keep the same height and area means the replacement roof is meant to keep the silhouette people already recognize from NE 2nd Avenue.
The air conditioning item is important too. The 2024 repair list already mentioned A/C problems in parts of the complex, along with restroom upgrades in the Marketplace and a new storm drainage system between the Marketplace and the cultural center. Leaks, drainage and air handling are all connected in a large open hall, so the 2026 scope deals with the conditions behind the 2024 mold closure rather than just the visible leak.
The complex's former director, now on 54th Street
Around the time the Marketplace closed, a smaller room opened about five blocks south. Tanbou Collective, a Haitian and Caribbean gift shop and cultural boutique at 91 NE 54th St., held its soft opening on Saturday, October 17, 2026. The Miami Herald described a storefront of just over 900 square feet, packed with paintings, handmade garments and vendors selling fresh fruit and spice drinks.
The Herald reported that the collective is a group of 20 Haitian artists selling their own work, and named Sandy Dorsainvil and Evelyne Blanchard, an event designer, as owners. Dorsainvil has a direct connection to the building that just closed. According to WLRN, she managed the Little Haiti Cultural Complex on and off from 2013 to 2022, a stretch that began shortly before the Marketplace's 2014 reopening. Now she curates for the collective. "It's the creative people that will save its cultural identity," she told the Herald.
The vendors the Herald profiled show what kind of place this is:
- Spiced Hut Beverages, a mobile natural juice business co-owned by Francoise Penha, sells drinks made with ingredients like fresh ginger. The Herald reported that her father, Michel, was the first Haitian business owner on 54th Street, with a clothing store. "I always find myself coming back where he started," she said.
- Apparel Milou, Myriame Pierre's clothing and accessories brand, prints popular Creole sayings like Mezanmi on its pieces.
At just over 900 square feet, the shop keeps the Marketplace's basic model going, with many independent makers sharing one room, on the street where Haitian retail in the neighborhood first took hold.
The rest of the complex is still busy
The closure covers the Marketplace building specifically. The City's notice names that building as the closed area, and the complex's other rooms have events on the calendar for the coming weeks. Scheduled from publication day forward:
- Thursday, November 12, 7 to 9 p.m.: an Oolite Arts public talk in the complex's Proscenium Theatre.
- Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: a free, RSVP mixed-media workshop for all ages from Oolite Arts On the Move, led by Oolite Arts alumnus Mark Delmont.
- Thursdays, November 19 and 26: line-dance classes at 260 NE 59th Terrace, according to the complex's events directory.
- Friday, November 20, 6 to 11 p.m.: Sounds of Little Haiti, an outdoor evening at the complex, 212 NE 59th Terrace, presented by Purforce Group and the Route 1804 Foundation.
The Sounds of Little Haiti listing places the event outdoors on the complex grounds, so a closed Marketplace does not keep it from going ahead.
A few blocks north, another City-owned space on the same avenue recently finished its own rebuild. Little Haiti Soccer Park at 6301 NE 2nd Ave. has reopened after City-led improvements to its turf, bleachers, railings and facilities, Hoodline reported in September. That project finished. The Marketplace's has just started.
December 2027, and the roof that has to last
The 2024 patch was meant to hold until a replacement arrived. Two years later, the replacement is funded, scoped and scheduled. It comes with new air conditioning, interior work and exterior lighting, on a building whose height and footprint are staying exactly as Pawley drew them in 1990. Until the City's anticipated December 2027 completion, the Marketplace's Saturday crowds and maker stalls are spread across the complex's theater and grounds, and a storefront at 91 NE 54th St.
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