Miami Dade College is coming back to run the Tower Theater, the Art Deco cinema at 1508 SW Eighth St. that has anchored Little Havana's Calle Ocho corridor for a century. The college will formally take over operations again on November 1, 2026, closing the book on a contentious few years in which the City of Miami stripped MDC of its lease and struggled to find a workable replacement plan.
The handoff traces back to September 2022, when the college received a termination notice ending the arrangement it had held with the city since 2002, according to the Miami Herald. MDC had operated the theater under a five-year lease renewed in 2016 with an option for five more years, but the city's Department of Real Estate and Asset Management confirmed the contract would end on January 2, 2023. Then-Commissioner Joe Carollo led the push to remove the college, arguing, as the Herald reported, that MDC was an educational institution rather than a movie theater or arts provider.
Carollo instead wanted to convert the historic venue into a visitor welcome center and a space for film and live theater, but the plan drew immediate pushback. Residents told the Herald the neighborhood already had a visitor center and criticized the proposal to use the Tower for live performances. Communications between the city and the college broke down entirely during the dispute, and an earlier effort by Carollo to hand the venue to the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, Brigade 2506, collapsed after the veterans group publicly declined to take it over, according to WLRN.
A Political Reversal Clears the Way
The path back for MDC opened only after Miami's political map shifted. Rolando Escalona, a political newcomer, defeated Frank Carollo in the December 2025 District 3 runoff, ending years of Carollo family representation on the commission, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the runoff eligibility fight. Joe Carollo, who had also mounted an unsuccessful mayoral campaign, left Miami city government entirely, resigning as District 3 commissioner ahead of completing his term.
Escalona wasted little time. In January 2026, the Miami City Commission approved a resolution he co-sponsored with Mayor Eileen Higgins authorizing a 20-year lease for MDC to operate the Tower Theater, complete with automatic five-year renewals, according to Miami Today. It was Escalona who formally transferred the theater back to the college, a move Hoodline detailed earlier this year in reporting on the commissioner's early-term agenda. The city has now authorized MDC to reopen and revitalize the Tower Theater under that new long-term structure.
A Cinema Woven Into Little Havana's History
The Tower Theater opened in 1926, billed at the time as the finest state-of-the-art theater in the South, per the Herald's account. Architect Robert Law Weed remodeled the building in October 1931 into the Art Deco landmark familiar today, adding its 40-foot neon-lit steel tower, according to Calle Ocho News. The theater closed in 1984 before later reopening, and it entertained waves of Cuban refugees arriving in the early 1960s, introducing them to American culture through English-language films with Spanish subtitles before later showing Spanish-language films outright.
The venue's cultural reach extended well beyond the Cuban exile community it's best known for serving. During segregation, the Tower Theater was one of the few local cinemas that accommodated Black moviegoers, drawing audiences from as far south as Key Largo to see stars like Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge, according to the City of Miami Historic Preservation Board. The theater also has a curious link to American political history: in 1939, nine-year-old Jerry Parr watched Code of the Secret Service starring Ronald Reagan at the Tower, an experience that later inspired him to join the U.S. Secret Service, where he saved Reagan during the 1981 assassination attempt, according to The Reporter.
Rebuilding What Was Lost
MDC's first stint running the Tower, from 2002 to 2023, left a substantial financial footprint. The college invested more than $1 million in capital improvements and spent roughly $500,000 annually to maintain and operate the venue without drawing on city taxpayer funds, WLRN reported at the time. USA Today recognized the payoff in 2011, naming the Tower one of the country’s 10 great places to see a movie in splendor, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation later folded the theater into its 2017 designation of Little Havana as a National Treasure.
But when the city terminated the lease, MDC removed its own audio-visual equipment, leaving the theater without projectors or sound systems during the city-managed years, WLRN reported. That gap now sits at the top of the college's to-do list. MDC says it is working with the city on a smooth transition and will review the Tower Theater's condition, addressing needed improvements including roof conditions, air conditioning, and projection and screening technology before the doors reopen.
A new Tower Theater website is set to launch in October 2026, ahead of the November 1 handover and the building's 100th anniversary the following month. The Miami Film Festival, which used the Tower as its home for decades, announced the college's return to management and expressed gratitude to the City of Miami, Mayor Higgins, and the city commission. One festival commenter called it an incredible reminder not to give up hope for progress in Miami, and the Herald reported that residents and film lovers alike have reacted positively to the news.
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