"We saw an absence of art in the community." That's how C&I Studios described the stretch of warehouses off NW 1st Avenue when the production company moved its headquarters there from Washington, D.C. more than a decade ago. What the studio and its neighbors built on that block over the next ten years, a monthly gathering of open studios, galleries and pop-up vendors, became the event that gave the entire district its name: FATVillage. Food, Arts, Technology. On the last Saturday of every month except December, the block filled with easels, food trucks and a crowd that didn't exist anywhere else in Broward County.
That block is gone. It was demolished in 2023 to make way for a redevelopment that carries the FAT Village name forward on the same ground. C&I Studios isn't on NW 1st Avenue anymore. Neither is Brew Urban Cafe, the coffee shop that anchored the same row of warehouses. The Art Walk continues three blocks away, while the redevelopment carries the FAT Village name.
Where the Walk Actually Happens Now
The event still runs on schedule: last Saturday of every month except December, roughly 7 to 11 p.m., rain or shine, pet friendly. What changed is the address. The Art Walk is anchored in the MASS District along NE 4th Avenue now, not the original NW 1st Avenue block that used to carry the FATVillage name. Sun Trolley runs a free shuttle from the Sears Town parking lot through the neighborhood from 6 to 11 p.m. on Art Walk nights, and most of the parking frustration on those Saturdays comes from people who don't know that shuttle exists. Park at Sears Town, ride in, walk home if you already live in the district. It makes Art Walk night easier for first-timers and regulars alike.
Murals Beyond the Redevelopment Site
The monthly event was never the only way to see art here, and that's become more true as the old block has turned into a construction site. The Mockingbird Trail is a two mile self-guided route through the neighborhood that you can walk on a Tuesday afternoon, no calendar required. A short walk west across the railroad tracks, in neighboring Progresso Village, the Thrive Art District at 710 NW 5th Avenue is an open-air gallery of more than a hundred murals with free parking. During construction on the old block, murals continued to accumulate on walls elsewhere in the neighborhood.
What's Actually Rising Where the Old Block Stood
The $500 million redevelopment carrying the FAT Village name covers 5.6 acres at North Andrews Avenue and NW 1st Street, led by Hines and Urban Street Development. Two residential towers are part of the plan, the first topped out in March 2025 and the second in May. The building drawing the most attention is T3 FAT Village, a six story, 180,000 square foot office building and Florida's first mass timber office project, designed by DLR Group and targeting LEED Gold and WELL certification. It topped out in October 2025, with construction wrapping this year and the full master plan expected by 2027, according to Hines.
In September 2026, T3 signed its first tenants. GXO Logistics, a Connecticut-based contract logistics provider, leased 35,000 square feet for a regional office supporting its Americas and Asia-Pacific operations. CBI Workplace Solutions signed 6,000 square feet, relocating its office from Las Olas Boulevard, according to Axios Fort Lauderdale. The lease announcements fill in the building's office component. The ground floor restaurant and retail tenants that are supposed to complete the picture haven't been announced yet.
Two Populations Arriving on the Same Half Mile
The office leases aren't the only new arrival on NE 4th Avenue this year. A few blocks south, at Viceroy Residences, the h.wood Group, the Los Angeles hospitality company behind Delilah and the Nice Guy, is opening a restaurant and a private members club in partnership with developer Naftali Group. Viceroy is the only hospitality-branded residential building in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and a members club there adds a nightly, ticketed crowd arriving after dinner rather than passing through on the way to Las Olas.
Put those two facts next to each other. GXO and CBI bring a daytime office population that didn't exist on this block a year ago. A private members club brings a late-night population that also didn't exist a year ago. Both are arriving within the same twelve month window, on roughly the same stretch of NE 4th Avenue.
What's Actually Around the Corner
The independent rooms that gave the district its texture before any of this were never on the block that got demolished, and most of them are still exactly where they were. Invasive Species Brewing sits at 726 NE 2nd Avenue, inside Flagler Village proper. Uncommon Path Brewing and Orchestrated Minds Brewing are a short walk west across the tracks in Progresso Village. For bars, Rhythm + Vine, Glitch Bar and Laser Wolf cover a Tuesday night without needing a festival to justify the trip.
On the restaurant side, The Foxy Brown predates most of the towers going up around it. Heritage on Sistrunk consistently tops neighborhood shortlists. Livia Bar & Grill has been recognized as a Best New Restaurant for its modern Italian menu. Laudy Bar & Craft Kitchen and Sparrow Rooftop, on top of The Dalmar with both an indoor lounge and an outdoor bar looking toward the ocean, round out the options for someone with a visitor to impress. Through the Vine runs a roughly 70-seat wine and tapas menu of flatbreads and shareables. Smoke BBQ has picked up a Sun Sentinel Editor's Choice and Readers' Choice award along with a Fort Lauderdale Magazine nod, for the nights that call for something low-effort.
None of these depend on the redevelopment finishing, and none of them are waiting on a leasing announcement. The official FAT Village events calendar still promotes the monthly Art Walk as the district's signature draw, and the walk still happens, just three blocks from the address that used to host it.
Walk to NW 1st Street and North Andrews Avenue today and you'll find a construction site turning into a mass timber office building leased to a logistics company, not a gallery. The Mockingbird Trail and the Thrive Art District offer other places to see murals, and neither one needed a redevelopment schedule to open.
For a closer look at these neighborhood changes, The CBG Luxury Team tracks them block by block across Fort Lauderdale. Who you work with matters. Schedule a private consultation.
