Coconut Grove Convention Center

The Coconut Grove Convention Center (also known as the Coconut Grove Expo Center), formerly the Dinner Key Auditorium, was an indoor arena in Miami, Florida. It originally had been built as a hangar at International Pan American Airport in Dinner Key. The arena held 6,900 people.

History

One of Pan Am's hangars was used for many years as an exhibition hall and auditorium, the Dinner Key Auditorium (later renamed the Coconut Grove Convention Center). This was the site of the March 1, 1969 incident in which Jim Morrison of The Doors was arrested for allegedly exposing himself to the audience.

The Miami Floridians of the American Basketball Association played some of their home games at the auditorium in the 1969-70 season. (Because the building was not air-conditioned, management would throw open the doors, forcing players to adjust their shots by the ocean breezes that whistled onto the court.) The team finished with a 23-61 record.

More recently, Burn Notice, a USA Network drama series, used the Convention Center for production of the show. In 2012, however, Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff expressed a desire to raze the Center and build a bay-front park, noting a $1.8 million city cache in grant dollars for the project. For Burn Notice's seventh and final season in 2013, USA Network agreed to use the Center with an increase of its rent from $240,000 to $450,000 a year -- just enough to cover the city’s demolition costs, plus taxes, a studio spokeswoman confirmed. The Coconut Grove Convention Center was torn down in November 2013.