LITTLE RIVER – If you drive past the building that was once the home of Grupo Sur bakery in the Little River neighborhood of Miami , you’ll see it’s the shell of what it once was.
“The building is standing, our equipment is inside that building and if you get into that building now, you can even find the clothing of some of our employees,” said Jose Molina, Vice President of Grupo Sur.
Jose Molina and Raul Ortiz de la Renta started Grupo Sur bakery back in 2005.
They operated out of this building starting in 2008, making Cuban pastries with a team of more than 30 employees.
But a day in August 2022 brought this decades-long dream to a screeching halt.
“It’s disheartening, we put a lot of time into this. It’s not only the 18-19 years we operated, it’s the family expectations or the dreams that come with it,” said Raul Ortiz de la Renta, President of Grupo Sur.
Molina and Ortiz de la Renta say a landlord representative and city officials abruptly came to their business nearly two years ago and told them the building was deemed unsafe.