Message from the President2021-12-06T18:05:31+00:00

Message from the President

Buenos Dias Coral Gables!

As we begin our new Chamber year, a global pandemic remains top-of-mind, weighs heavily on our hearts, invades our psyche, yet creates cautious optimism for a full economic recovery in short order.

The relentlessness of COVID-19 continues to impact businesses, workforce, communities and livelihoods across our community, as well as around the globe, and all of us still feel its challenges right here at home in The City Beautiful.

Our local business community has been devastated, but yet, we remain undeterred.

President & CEO

Mark A. Trowbridge

That is our role as a Chamber and as a champion for local businesses. We must look to the future and our collective recovery. We are the voice for local businesses and what we have to say has never been more important.

Over the past few years, we have reveled in a time of incredible transformation in our City Beautiful: the reimagined Miracle Mile and Giralda Plaza, awe-inspiring public art featuring welcoming murals in the downtown, ribbon cuttings galore that herald a strikingly positive business climate, as well as endless #selfies on Instagram and Facebook.

Now, our Chamber joins these transformative ranks and celebrates our first-year anniversary in our retail space on Alhambra Circle. Our home is an extraordinary headquarters, located at Main & Main of the business district and designed as a place to convene, collaborative and create. Come visit us and help us celebrate this innovative epicenter for business.

Pre-pandemic, a multitude of new and exciting businesses opened across the City that continued to raise our profile in the South Florida business community! The same can be said for 2021 as we welcome headquarters for PNC Bank, ACI Worldwide and Friesland Campina.

With our centennial just four short years away, the time is perfect to think about our future as a Chamber and City. Since our founding by the visionary George E. Merrick in 1925, the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce has been dedicated to making our community an epicenter for business, both domestically and globally, while diligently serving our resident, employee and visitor populations. With a focus on balanced growth and robust job creation, together with a superior lifestyle designed for live, work, learn and play, the Chamber leads the way in our business community.

To all of our visitors, we welcome you and hope you enjoy The City Beautiful – and please, come check out our Welcome Center at 201 Alhambra Circle. Soon, we will open on Saturdays and launch two tours out of the Center – one a foodie extravaganza tour and the other a historic architecture tour.

Of course, we invite you to return again and again as you aid in our recovery and a robust return to a pre-COVID world filled with travel and discovery.

To our residents, we thank you for your support, which you so graciously offer year-round. To businesses seeking a new market to expand into, we say join the crowd that has fallen in love with our City Beautiful as we help you make Coral Gables your home!

And to our business community, we salute you and value your enduring commitment to making Coral Gables the very best in all of South Florida. The past 18-months have been tough and painful; but together, we will strive and thrive.

We encourage you to take advantage of the renowned restaurants, world-class shopping, historic venues, unparalleled culture, incredible hotel product, outstanding education and health care institutions and international flair that make Coral Gables magnificent!

As we like to say to our members, we are your exclusive concierge as you discover (or re-discover) the sophistication and charm of our Coral Gables!

We are on the road to recovery, and you are an essential ingredient to our success.

Now, let’s Re-Unite in our Downtown City Beautiful – because it simply feels so good!