ROC Resto-Lounge & Fashion (Coral Springs)
* ROC Resto-Lounge & Fashion.
Reprinted below is an article which Jeff Eats just read in the Sun Sentinel…
If I was a betting man, ROC Resto-Lounge & Fashion has absolutely no chance of “working” in Coral Square Mall.
The location stinks, the demographics stink, the concept stinks.
The guys behind this business should “walk away” from this project right now…unless they enjoy losing money.
While Jeff Eats is on the subject of losing money…ROC currently has a location at Delray Marketplace–unless I’m dead wrong on this, that joint has to be a financial disaster. Literally, I have never seen anyone shopping in there on the numerous occasions that I have been in the center.
Since Jeff Eats has no skin in the ROC game- whether it does well or not is of no concern to me. Here’s wishing its owners good luck with this latest project, but I just don’t see anything even remotely promising about it.
In all honesty, Jeff Eats can’t figure how anyone-including ROC executives, Real Estate executives- would even consider Coral Square Mall for such an elaborate and upscale concept. The only difference between ROC in Coral Springs and the Titanic is that the Titanic had a band.
Like I said before, good luck to ROC-
*****
ROC Resto-Lounge & Fashion combines dining, drinking and shopping
By Miriam Valverde, Sun Sentinel
5:36 pm, July 1, 2014
No more driving from place to place if you want to eat, drink and shop.
Gaston Garcia, a Weston resident and retail veteran, is building a complex at Coral Square Mall in Coral Springs where he plans to combine a restaurant, store and nightclub under one roof — a first for South Florida, retail experts say.
Garcia is calling it ROC Resto-Lounge & Fashion and expects to open it to the public by mid-September.
“It’s a lifestyle concept, sort of what we already do on a regular basis,” said the 36-year-old Garcia, founder and chief executive of ROC.
He said he’s approaching the concept from the point of view of millennials.
“If you look at their tablet or phone, they have four to five apps running at the same time,” Gaston said of millennials, typically defined as those aged 18 to 33. “It’s a big benefit to have many things in one space, and that’s exactly what we are bringing to life at ROC.”
Late-night crowds will be able to grab drinks and enjoy live music and entertainment at the ROC nightclub and lounge, and if they get hungry or feel the need to shop, they can wander to the retail and restaurant areas.
The restaurant’s menu will feature American fare “with Asian and Latin twists.” Dinner choices will include entrees starting at $15. Lunch crowds will be able to grab meals ranging from $4 to $12.
The shop will feature apparel and accessories priced around $35, as well as designer clothing. Gaston also envisions fashion shows where people can use a ROC phone app to buy clothes they see.
“The whole concept is affordable luxury,” said Larry Hotz, marketing director for ROC Resto-Lounge & Fashion. “Accessible to all people who already go to Coral Square Mall.”
“We are super excited,” said Xiomara Fraga, director of marketing and business development for Coral Square Mall. “The cool thing is they have fashion, apparel, restaurant and entertainment all in one location.” ROC will fill 10,000 square feet once occupied by three different retailers. It will open at the west entrance of the mall, near the men’s Macy’s, Fraga said.
People in the mall will have access to a “community annex” — a smaller, casual section with snacks, seating and charging stations for mobile devices.
“It’s absolutely unusual for South Florida, and particularly Coral Springs, which is primarily a middle-class, family-oriented demographic,” said Lisa Ferrazza, a retail specialist in Broward and Palm Beach counties and vice president at CBRE, a commercial real estate services firm.
Some are skeptical it will work in Coral Springs.
“I think it’s an interesting concept, but I don’t get it at all for that location,” said Barry M. Wolfe, vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap, a real estate firm in Fort Lauderdale.
The concept is trendy and different, a seemingly natural fit for South Beach or SoHo in New York, Wolfe said. But Coral Springs is more of a family neighborhood and not necessarily a destination city, he said.
“Unless they can make people drive from outside Coral Springs, I just don’t see it,” he said.
ROC’s pricing and accessibility are what make it right for Coral Springs, said Hotz, ROC’s marketing director.
The developer also said Coral Square Mall presents an opportunity for ROC to establish a relationship with Simon, the mall’s parent company, which has retail properties throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
“They’re coming to a good, strong community,” said Fraga, who works at Coral Square Mall. “It could become a destination.”
mvalverde@tribune.com, 954-356-4526, Twitter @MiriamValverde
Jeff
This business hasn’t got a chance.
Delray Beach has to be a disaster.
Something doesn’t add up here.
These guys must enjoy losing money.
This Coral Springs store will be a mess.
The Delray Beach store has to be a mess already.
Can’t we just go to The Hard Rock?
This is strictly a blue collar mall.
This business will bomb big time.
Jeff,
You are right the ROC in Delray Beach does no business.
One of the dumbest ideas that I have ever heard of.
Something smells here.
How can guys not see that a business will be dead on arrival?
Based on Delray Beach store it’s as if the guys want to open stores that will definitely fail.
Jeff,
What does your Brooklyn sense of smell tell you?
Maytag!
Jeff
Anyone who knows anything about Coral Square Mall knows that this ROC is DOA.
Absolutely the wrong location and demographics for this business.
Jeff,
ROC you got to be kidding!
The Coral Springs Mall is a low end mall that just gets by.
The ROC concept absolutely positively definitely will fail in this mall.
Wolfe in the article sees what Jeff does, namely a disaster coming.
I dont get it but then i am not the demographic he is going after so who knows. Heck i never thought hiphop music would last and my mom did not think rock and roll would make it.
You are dead wrong about the Delray Marketplace. This mall was built for the future. There are Thousands of new homes being built or are in the planning stage with prices starting at $500,000 and going way over a million. Just wait in 3 to 5 years this area will explode and this mall will be the only game in town.
delray marketlace is killing its small non national retailers. there is no way that they can stay in business for 3-5 years waiting for this big upturn that you are expecting.
just walk around the mall on any day and you will see that there literally no people.
get real.
or better yet why dont you open a business there and see how you do.
Jon G:
I have been in the s Florida commercial real estate business for over 35 years
Based on all those years, my experience tells me that the physical layout of Delray Marketplace is horrendous.
I also can tell you that the tenant mix is also horrendous.
The last thing that all of those expected new homeowners need is a center filled with national tenants like the center currently has.
Believe me those folks don’t need another Jos. Banks store.
What the center should have his mom & pop restauarnts, dry cleaner, chinese takeout, real neighborhood stores.
The center doesnt offer every day items.
This center will always be a failure because the rents are too high and the tenants are the wrong ones.
On ROC.
There is no way that it is doing well in Delray and this Coral Springs is so stupid of an idea that it isnt even funny.
That’s the American way, survival of the fittest! Some stores will be around in 3 to 5 years and most won’t but that doesn’t mean that the mall won’t be there. It will and it will serve the many and affluent surrounding neighborhoods. And even when the area is all built out some of the stores will survive and some will wish they never opened and it will go around and around. Again that’s the American way!!
Happy 4th!!
Jeff,
I think that this guy Garcia isn’t to losing money.
Never checked the Delray books but can’t even conceive that any money is made there.
As for the new Coral Springs store, you have a better chance of curing cancer than for this store to work. Amazingly stupid idea for Coral Springs, the demographics just aren’t there.
DOA
Not a chance in hell ROC works in Coral Springs.
I can’t believe that someone would be dumb enough to open something like this is a Coral Springs.
The mall is an absolute disaster and hasn’t got a snowball in hell chance of drawing the crowd needed for this type of business.
I agree with most on this ROC concept, but there could be something behind the scenes that could make it work. My buddy owns and operates a small chain one of which he opened in the boynton beach mall. That mall is terrible too but the lease terms he got make it profitable. Now I’m not saying ROC will work, but they could be getting ridiculous lease terms in the hopes of bringing in other tenants.
Would you open a pork store in a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood?
Same thing here, the demographics are so wrong for this concept that you have to question the sanity of ROC’s owner.
No matter what the rent deal is for this spot, failure is guaranteed.
Just look at the concept, Night life? They’ll have no one there and if they do, the Coral Springs’s police will be very busy.
No way this will ever work.
ROC in Delray out of business.
No way Coral Springs won’t have same outcome.