The Alchemist Café closed Tuesday as its leafy Wilton Manors garden is slated to make way for a six-story, 190-unit apartment complex. Owner Lucia Nunez says the loss of the site, home to seven rainbow eucalyptus trees, a rooster named Freddie Mercury, and a cat named Cow, has left her and her team devastated.
“We're heartbroken,” Nunez told Axios, describing the garden café as the team's “slice of heaven.” The outlet reports the other businesses that once shared the property had already relocated before The Alchemist's own closure this week, and that Nunez called the space a peaceful botanical garden tucked away from the noise of daily life. Located just a few miles from downtown Fort Lauderdale, the café had become a fixture for both locals and visiting tourists since Nunez opened it with her sister, Maria Elaine, back in 2014.
From Instagram Darling to Redevelopment Casualty
The Alchemist rode the Instagram and avocado-toast wave that defined café culture in 2014, building a following through word of mouth rather than advertising, per the same Axios account. Its signature iced coffee, made with condensed milk, brown sugar, and coffee ice cubes, became a calling card alongside its menu of slicers and loaded toasts. Staff famously greeted every customer who walked in with “welcome home,” according to Nunez.
The garden itself was part of a larger bohemian plaza once known as Eucalyptus Gardens and more recently branded as The Yard at Wilton Manors. According to WLRN, the plaza also housed La Mexicana Taco Bar and other businesses, meaning the neighborhood's loss extends well beyond a single business.
A Development Deal Years in the Making
Developer Kaplan Residential acquired The Alchemist's property in 2023, part of a larger land assembly that, per Fort Lauderdale Magazine, ultimately totaled five contiguous parcels and 3.6 acres, including addresses on NE 13th Avenue and NE 24th Street. Wilton Manors approved Kaplan's plan for the apartment building in 2024, per Axios, with the project — originally dubbed Generation at Wilton Manors — set to include 190 units and 8,500 square feet of commercial space, along with 300 parking spaces, according to Fort Lauderdale Magazine's reporting.
In April 2024, The Alchemist had initially said it planned to temporarily relocate to a small house behind its existing space during construction and eventually move into retail space inside the finished complex, OutSFL reported at the time. That plan didn't hold. Nunez and her team instead delayed searching for a new location, hoping the project might stall, Axios reports — but she received a letter about the development roughly a month before the café's closure, confirming the complex was moving forward.
Site Changed Hands at a Loss Before Demolition
The project's path to construction wasn't straightforward. In April 2026, Kaplan Residential sold the assembled site at 2449 NE 13th Ave. to Boca Raton-based Waypoint Residential for $11 million, according to South Florida Business Journal — a loss for Kaplan, which had assembled the property for $12.2 million.
As part of the city's review process, developers committed to recreating a prominent Parkland memorial mural on a wall of the new complex, OutSFL reported, a civic condition meant to preserve at least some piece of the site's community identity. Wilton Manors had updated its zoning ordinances in 2022 specifically to allow denser mixed-use projects like this one, aiming to grow its tax base after a decade in which the city's population stayed flat between roughly 11,400 and 12,500 residents, per WLRN.
Weighing Growth Against a Cultural Anchor
That zoning shift reflects a trade-off city officials felt bound to accept, even as community members and small business owners mourned losing a plaza known for its hippie vibe. The city has held a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index for ten consecutive years, Mayor Scott Newton noted in 2024, according to Fort Lauderdale Magazine.
Nunez isn't done with The Alchemist, even without its original garden. She told Axios she's planning a new location that will carry the same feel and magic as the original, while warning that without intervention, local institutions like hers could gradually disappear amid redevelopment. “We're not going anywhere,” she said, according to the outlet. Axios notes that South Florida continues to grow and redevelop rapidly, with Miami in particular losing longtime neighborhood staples as wealthier arrivals and ultra-luxury development reshape its streets.
