Families and kids enjoy the new playgrounds during the grand opening for the Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest in South Miami’s section of The Underline on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026.
Pedro Portal
pportal@miamiherald.com
New sections of The Underline are popping out regularly like hot bread from the oven as work on the last remaining unfinished pieces of the 10-mile linear park and trail enters the final stretch.
On Saturday, Friends of the Underline and Miami-Dade County ceremonially opened the newest finished piece, running 1.17 miles from Dadeland to South Miami at the edge of Coral Gables at Red Road.
Kids frolicked in the new Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest, one of the segment’s highlights, while a band played and vendors hawked food by South Miami City Hall as advocates and officials spoke at the dedication.
The formal opening means that seven of The Underline’s 10 miles are now finished and open. Still to come is the middle section, through Coral Gables and along the University of Miami, which will contain some of the trail’s most elaborate features. That’s expected to be ready at the end of the year.
Once that happens, Underline founder Meg Daly promises “a 10-mile-long party” to celebrate the unlikely realization of what she says many regarded as a “crazy idea” when she first proposed it.
“There is still a lot more to come, but it’s really exciting to go from dream to reality,” Daly said.
The big Nikki Spoelstra forest, which as the name suggests is a sylvan version of a playground, will allow kids to connect with nature — a big Underline theme throughout the lushly planted trail — as they explore and have fun. There is an outdoor reading room, a set of musical instruments and covered seating for the parents.
Spoelstra, a former Miami Heat dancer and a local influencer, donated $500,000 to sponsor the play forest.
A group of elected officials and community members, including The Underline’s CEO Eulois Cleckley, joined South Miami resident Nikki Spoelstra during the grand opening of the Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest in South Miami’s section of The Underline on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
“It’s such a feel-good project,” Spoelstra recently told the Miami Herald. “Nature, exploration and creativity are all things I’m passionate about. I also wanted to create something that would have lasting impact that my kids would be able to experience, too.”
The new section, which people have been checking out since construction fences came down earlier this summer, also features a butterfly garden, a village of birdhouses and a micro-forest — a compact, fast-growing cluster of trees and shrubs that mimics a natural forest.
Isabel Silva, a community coordinator with The Underline, helps Maria José Collazos and her 2-year-old daughter, Celeste Fernandez, to plant a tree in a micro forest next to the Underline on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
In addition, work on this newest segment included replacement of a bridge over a canal just north of Southwest 80th Street that dated back to the days when the trail corridor, which runs under the elevated Metrorail line along U.S. 1, was industrialist Henry Flagler’s rail line.
The section also connects directly to a South Miami Hospital meditation garden, built several years ago, that had been locked, awaiting completion of the Underline section next to it, Daly said.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, whose district includes a long section of the Underline and who lives near it, said before Saturday’s opening that many of her neighbors are talking about it and meeting to walk the trail.
“People in Miami-Dade are so used to broken promises that they are excited to see it come to life,” Regalado said. “It really is building community.”
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and his children joined his ex-wife Nikki Spoelstra as she speaks during the grand opening of the Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com 
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra joined his ex-wife Nikki Spoelstra during the grand opening of the Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com 
Lourdes Rosales and her daughter Valentina Delgado play on the new playgrounds in South Miami’s section of The Underline on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com 
A biker rides on the Underline pathway in South Miami on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com 
A group of elected officials and community members joined South Miami resident Nikki Spoelstra (center) and her children during the grand opening of the Nikki Spoelstra Play Forest on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com 
Families and kids walk around the pathways in South Miami’s section of The Underline on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com 
Kate Macia and her son AJ Macia biked from Pinecrest on the Underline pathway on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
Miami Herald
Andres Viglucci covers urban affairs for the Miami Herald. He joined the Herald in 1983.