La Epoca - founded 1885 in Havana, Cuba - began operations as a small fabric store on the streets of downtown Havana. In 1927, Diego Alonso and his brother Angel, both immigrants to the island from Spain, purchased the store with dreams of turning it into the premiere retail destination of Havana. La Epoca soon became incredibly successful and expanded rapidly from its original location. In 1954, after the completion of a new building on the corner of Galiano and Neptuno Streets, La Epoca became the third largest department store in Havana, employing over 400 persons and spanning five floors on half a city block.
In 1960, the newly formed Castro government forcibly confiscated the store as part of its campaign to end private enterprise in Cuba. Having lost what he worked for, Diego Alonso relocated his family to Miami to start over again. In 1965, La Epoca opened its doors again in downtown Miami at a small corner store in the Alfred I. DuPont Building. No stranger to ambition, Diego Alonso, along with his sons Tony and Pepe, once again set their sights on building one of the city's best retail businesses. The department store quickly expanded to nearly the entire ground floor of the building, including an upscale boutique for women and its own electronics store.
	In 1992, the Alonso family purchased the historic Walgreen's building with a vision to move La Epoca to a new and better location. The six-floor, 50,000 square foot building, built 1936 in Art Deco style, is notable for being the third Walgreen's pharmacy location outside of Chicago. On December 18, 2005, the Alonso family's dream was finally realized when La Epoca opened its doors for the first time a 200 East Flagler Street. This new store, covering three floors and nearly 24,000 square feet of the building, sets the tone for revitalization of Flagler Street in downtown Miami.