Miami’s Coconut Grove ‘Cinderella’ Story

,

What was once a village that attracted bohemians during the 1950s and ‘60s, Miami’s Coconut Grove, is now attracting a different class with their new and improved condos.

A rendering of Park Grove

A rendering of Park Grove

According to The Wall Street Journal author Stefanos Chen, prices for some units in Park Grove’s under-construction towers are expected to top $1,900 a square foot—a city of Miami record.

Coconut Grove’s priciest home, a historic estate listed for $47.5 million, is likely to be torn down as the value really lies in its 6.9 acres, agents say.

Listing agent Mercedes Hernandez with Avatar Real Estate Services says homes on valuable waterfront lots, [like Sandy Dufay, a retired health care company founder] are dwindling because developers are tearing them down to build larger modern spreads that maximize their return. Down the block, a home on a similar lot was demolished to create a 9,800-square-foot spec house listed for almost $8 million—more than double the price of Ms. Dufay’s home. “There’s hardly a street that hasn’t had something knocked down” for redevelopment, says Ms. Dufay, who hopes her future buyer will keep her home intact.

Per The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Pérez, the billionaire developer and founder of Related Group, lives down the road in a 10,000-square-foot Venetian-style palazzo. Nearby is Jonathan Lewis, an investor and son of the late Progressive Insurance chairman, Peter Lewis, according to records, as well as Carlos Migoya, the CEO of Jackson Health System (and occasional tennis partner to Mr. Pérez, the developer says).

With celebrities like Golden Globe winner Christian Slater and many more, Coconut Grove’s housing market has noticed a significant change.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that The housing market has risen rapidly in the last few years, says Michael Light of Miami Luxury Homes. For publicly listed condos and homes, the median sales price in the Grove was $675,000 in 2015, up 17.5% from 2014. Last year, NBA star LeBron James sold his roughly 12,000-square-foot home in the Grove for $13.4 million, according to public records—one of the most expensive home sales in the village.

 

Source: Housingwire

/by

City Considers Burying Biscayne Blvd. And I-395 Downtown

Downtown Miami has changed immensely in the past 20 years, shifting from a sleepy business district to a bustling bayfront of condo high-rises, museums, and arenas. But one thing has remained constant: the traffic-clogged artery of Biscayne Boulevard dividing most of downtown from the waterfront.

Next week, city commissioners will consider a study on one way to change that: burying the road and I-395 underground, potentially creating an uninterrupted green space.

“It’s really gaining some steam,” says County Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who has long backed similar ideas.

The Florida Department of Transportation study for city commissioners — which the Next Miami obtained and posted online — warns of some significant drawbacks to the idea, though.

Biscayne Blvd. Traffic

Biscayne Blvd. Traffic

Burying both Biscayne and I-395 would cost $1.3 billion more than a plan to build a new “signature” 395 bridge instead. The agency also warns the change could also snarl hurricane evacuations because the tunnels would have to be closed due to a flooding risk.

I-395 Signature bridge rendering

I-395 Signature bridge rendering

But Suarez says there are significant benefits to consider as well — especially if the Biscayne portion of the project is considered separately from 395. (FDOT‘s study looks at burying only the piece of Biscayne near the 395 interchange; Suarez in the past has proposed sinking Biscayne along the full stretch of the bayfront downtown.)

Burying the portion of Biscayne that runs downtown would ease traffic woes and create a pedestrian-friendly signature space for the city, he argues.

“It’s clear that to grow, we have to build vertically in this city, with the density we have now. And to be pedestrian-friendly in that environment, you need to have these green spaces and these plazas,” Suarez says.

Suarez says that the Transportation Planning Council, which advises the county on long-range plans, is bullish on the idea and that Biscayne-centered plans are still under serious consideration. If the 395 portion of the project were abandoned, the cost would drop dramatically and hurricane evacuation risks would be less severe, he says.

“There are a lot of alternate routes than that stretch of downtown Biscayne,” Suarez says.

For now, city commissions will consider FDOT‘s study next week, the Next Miami reports. They’ll have other complicating factors to consider, including the need to reroute Metromover and the possibility of contaminated soil from a former oil depot.

Suarez says he believes the potential positives of an underground Biscayne Boulevard still far outweigh any negatives, though.

“What’s really exciting is that depressing Biscayne Boulevard is really now almost a recommendation for all the agencies I hear from,”  Suarez says.

 

Source: Miami New Times

/by

After Two Years Of Delay, Retooling Of Downtown Miami’s Flagler Street Finally Begins

,

The shovels are finally hitting the pavement on Flagler in downtown Miami, nearly two years after city officials agreed to undertake a total reconstruction that’s meant to restore the tatty but storied byway to its rightful place as the city’s glittering Main Street.

Work has just begun on what’s expected to be a two-year, $13 million streetscape project, starting at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse and proceeding in 13 stages all the way to Biscayne Boulevard.

template_cs5

By the time the job is done, Flagler’s cracked, stained, slanted and narrow sidewalks, its scrawny-to-nonexistent greenery and its notoriously backup-prone gutters will be history, replaced by 150 shady oaks, new lighting and stormwater drains, and sidewalks twice as wide to accommodate the cafe tables and shoppers that the project’s backers expect the new street to attract.

Flagler Street Rendering

Flagler Street Rendering

On Thursday, the Miami City Commission approved the last bit of funding for the project, $920,000 for an upgraded drainage system and removal of old abandoned pipes that have been sitting beneath Flagler Street’s pavement for decades.

Flagler Street Rendering

Flagler Street Rendering

The street project’s timing seems especially fortuitous. It comes as New York entrepreneur and developer Moishe Mana has amassed what the website The Real Deal has tallied at nearly $200 million worth of properties on or abutting Flagler, with the idea of turning the street, which has long functioned as a down-market, discount-shop strip, into a restaurant, cultural and retail destination, all while preserving its historic low scale.

That combination of public improvements and private enterprise is what worked magic in places like Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road Mall, where the Flagler Street project’s backers note street and sidewalk improvements set the stage for a dramatic revitalization. That’s what they hope to replicate in downtown Miami.

“It’s really exciting,” said Brian Alonso, whose family owns the upscale La Epoca department store in the historic Walgreens building and the newer Lost Boy Dry Goods clothing shop in the also-historic DuPont building, both on Flagler. “Streetscape projects can transform an area. On Ocean, when you had Tony Goldman assembling property and the streetscape improvements at the same time, you had something transformative. You have something similar happening here. Mana can single-handedly change the area.”

Mana, who recently submitted plans for a massive, ambitious and controversial multi-use redevelopment in Wynwood, has been publicly coy about his precise plans for Flagler. But a video his company released in the fall shows refurbished buildings along Flagler, some occupied by rooftop lounges and restaurants. In the video, Mana calls Flagler Street a “Cinderella” that merely needs a new dress to reveal her beauty.

“Downtown is the future of Miami,” Mana says.

 

Source: Miami Herald

/by

Miami Considers Development At Museum Park, Report Says

, ,
museum park rendering

Miami is considering a move to redevelop a park along Biscayne Bay downtown, according to a news report.

The Miami City Commission will consider giving a conservancy control of Museum Park, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

The park is home to the Perez Art Museum and the Frost Science Museum, which is under construction. The 22.5-acre park is in a prime location for the city and for years there’s been debate about how to improve it for residents and visitors.

A city-commissioned plan in 2008 by Cooper, Robinson & Partners highlighted a future Museum Park with more shade trees, water features and a restaurant, but the city hasn’t acted on it – until now. The park is currently managed by the Bayfront Trust, a quasi-city agency.

The commission was scheduled to vote on Jan. 14 on turning over management, events and development of the park to a new non-profit called the Museum Park Conservancy. Yet, the item was deferred to a later date by the city. The framework of the potential deal was included on the city agenda.

The conservancy could charge for events and naming rights at the park and allow the sale of alcoholic beverages at the park during special events. The conservancy would actively solicit donations to support the park and its development, which is currently not allowed under the Bayfront Trust structure.

The conservancy promised to show the city proof within 90 days that it’s raised at least $7.5 million for the park. The group says it already has this money. However, the conservancy could not start managing the operations of Museum Park until after the first phase of the development breaks ground. That could occur in about 18 months, according to the proposed agreement.

The proposed deal between the city and conservatory refers to the Cooper, Robinson study as the “master plan.” The conservancy would have to submit its annual audited financial statements to the city. The city commission would have the right to abolish the conservancy at any time and retake control of the park with 180 days notice.

According to city documents, the conservancy would be governed by a board of 10 to 15 directors. They would be appointed by the mayor, the city commission, the city manager, a non-profit called Friends of Museum Park, and also appointed by the sitting conservancy board. The Miami Foundation is currently working to establish the conservancy.

 

Source: SunSentinel

/by

Long-Dormant Development Projects May Come To Life On Watson Island In 2016

,

For many years, a handful of initiatives to redevelop a broad swath of city-owned, semi-derelict Watson Island have lurched along the MacArthur Causeway like zombies, never quite dead or alive.

A plane begins departure toward Bimini, Bahamas from the Miami Seaplane Base in Watson Island.

A plane begins departure toward Bimini, Bahamas from the Miami Seaplane Base in Watson Island.

Now it seems 2016 could be the year when the undead — the old Chalk’s seaplane terminal, a long-abandoned heliport, and a megayacht marina and resort plan that’s been stalled for 14 years — spring back to at least some sort of half-life on the island just off downtown Miami, long known as a burial place for sketchy development schemes looking to exploit public land. But the long-term prognosis for each remains unsettled.

At the seaplane base, a new operator promises to undertake a temporary revamp of the quasi-dilapidated facility, establish an expanded flight schedule, and formally submit to the city plans for a new terminal building that include a restaurant and public observation areas so visitors can bask in the romance of travel by seaplane.

Next door, after years of controversial delays and extensions by the city, Flagstone Development is nearing completion of the piers for its megayacht marina, which its representatives insist will soon be operational. The firm has also begun to clear its upland leasehold for Island Gardens, the $600 million hotel and retail complex Flagstone is supposed to build under an agreement with the city — even though financing has not yet been identified, at least publicly, a year after Flagstone agents said they hoped to have it nailed down.

An abandoned heliport sits near the Miami Seaplane Base

An abandoned heliport sits near the Miami Seaplane Base

Meanwhile, a contractor who won a bid a decade ago to reopen the heliport across from the seaplane base and Island Gardens is up to date with rent payments after falling behind and also paid FPL, with help from a city agency, to bury power lines at the site that posed a flight hazard, said Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, who pledges the facility will be open and running this year. Right now, though, the heliport consists of a rusted metal shed, broken concrete and weeds.

Then there’s the perennially troubled Jungle Island animal and banquet-hall attraction, formerly Parrot Jungle, which has attracted a fraction of its projected attendance since opening in 2003. Its operators are now consistently making rent payments to the city, paying off a federal loan that was once in arrears, and raising money to make over the attraction with a new emphasis on water features and restaurants — and maybe a hotel as well.

Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso met in early December with Jungle Island representatives, who told him they’re bringing in a new investor, ESJ Capital Partners, based in Aventura. Alfonso said in an interview that the discussion didn’t delve deeply into details, but there was talk about ESJ, which invests in a number of charter schools, introducing a new education component.

He also said Jungle Island representatives alluded to the possibility of new development at the site, something that has come up from time to time, often in reference to building a hotel. But Alfonso said any consideration of a hotel would be complicated because of requirements for a voter referendum in approving major improvements at the waterfront site.

To Regalado, who stresses that all of the projects predate his assumption of the mayor’s job, getting them moving is a central accomplishment of his administration. He notes the other major facility on the island, the Miami Children’s Museum, is popular and on solid footing — even if it took city approval of two massive and controversial electronic advertising billboards on the building to help shore up its finances.

“I think it’s part of my legacy. It will not be my doing. It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “But I think I’ll be very proud of leaving office with things going on in Watson Island.”

Regalado and city officials have defended extending the life of stalled or troubled projects on Watson Island like Island Gardens even after they’ve missed contractual deadlines or rent payments, saying previous administrations locked them into binding agreements which they’re obligated to make work as well as possible. But to skeptics and critics, all that progress is anything but positive. They say the Watson Island projects cement a legacy of seat-of-the-pants planning and questionable deals, with most of the publicly owned island effectively privatized.

“It’s really sad to me to see the evisceration or the loss of any kind of public space there,” said Greg Bush, a co-founder of the Urban Environment League and history professor at the University of Miami. “You could have a real park out there, or at least buildings with a public use. Instead what I see is the long-term lack of good planning and public benefit going over several generations, kind of endlessly.”

Those leery of the Watson Island projects include Miami Beach officials concerned about traffic impacts on the frequently clogged MacArthur Causeway, which bisects the island, as well as the new city commissioner for the district, Ken Russell. During his campaign, which was run by a lobbyist for a group critical of Flagstone, he criticized extensions for Island Gardens, which his predecessor, Marc Sarnoff, supported.

Russell said he’s now studying the deals and the role in them of the city’s Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority, or MSEA, which Regalado chairs and which serves as landlord for Island Gardens, the Children’s Museum and the seaplane and heliport facilities. Under city ordinances, the agency can lease out waterfront properties without a referendum, a requirement for city-owned waterfront land not controlled by MSEA, which includes the Jungle Island site.

Russell said that so far he’s found MSEA’s role“bewildering,” although he’s not yet prepared to take a position on the Watson Island projects.

“It seems there’s a lot on Watson Island coming to the forefront, and these are all things I want to look into,” said Russell, whose chief of staff once ran MSEA for the city. “MSEA is supposed to be in charge with a basic master plan and providing guidance, but there is not full transparency necessarily. This is what I’m scratching my head about, honestly.”

Jungle Island’s president, John Dunlap, did not respond to an interview request, but issued a statement in which he said “it is our policy not to discuss private business negotiations.”

The statement does not mention the ESJ investment firm, but adds: “We are proud to share that companies like Spectra Food Services & Hospitality (formerly Ovations), SharpShooter Imaging and Wildlife Trading Company have already committed significant investment dollars towards the redevelopment of our park services and attractions.”

Some of the Watson Island projects have been dogged by litigation. An appeal is pending on a lawsuit by a group of Venetian Island residents who contend the city improperly extended the agreement for Island Gardens after the developer missed several key deadlines. A circuit court judge dismissed the case without getting to its merits after concluding the residents do not have standing to sue.

The seaplane base’s former operator and the city were ensnarled in lawsuits for years until the new operator, lawyer and aviation enthusiast Ignacio “Nacho” Vega, bought him out. Vega said he now has six seaplane operators making four to five flights a day between Watson Island and Key West, Bimini and Fort Lauderdale.

In December, in his first and so far only commission meeting, the newly inaugurated Russell persuaded commission colleagues to put off until January a decision on a rezoning and land-use change that could clear the way for the redevelopment of the seaplane facility so that he could analyze the measure more closely. The changes would reclassify the land the terminal has occupied since 1929 from parkland to allow transportation uses. That would in turn allow the current operator, Vega, to submit plans for a new terminal to the city.

In the meantime, Vega said, he would remove a pair of dilapidated, condemned trailers on the property that served as office space and replace them with a new trailer. Eventually Vega hopes to construct a three- or four-story building with a restaurant and observation deck to attract non-flying visitors, because fees paid by airlines won’t be enough to sustain his operation. “We charge a minimal amount. Seaplane bases by themselves do not cover their costs,” Vega said.

The Island Gardens marina, meanwhile, is awaiting a temporary certificate of occupancy, which Regalado said should come in January. The developer’s representatives have said the marina would be operational, though the only structure on the property is a small building.

 

 

Source: Miami Herald

/by

Massive Development Proposal Splits Wynwood

, , , ,

For two years the major players in Wynwood, Miami’s hippest, hottest emerging neighborhood, have been working on plans to jack the old industrial district up to the next level — only to now find themselves sharply at odds over exactly what that means, with the district’s future hanging in the balance.

Even as one group of property owners and developers publicly worked up a plan to control development to maintain Wynwood’s creative vibe and human scale while drawing in more housing, shops and businesses, the area’s biggest landowner, New York moving-company mogul, developer and arts patron Moishe Mana, privately sketched out a blueprint that embraces the same broad ideas — but on a dramatically different scale.

No sooner was the ink dry on the Miami City Commission’s approval of the Wynwood Neighborhood Revitalization District — special zoning rules that limit heights to eight to 12 stories and extract payments from developers to improve streets and create parking garages and public open space — than Mana applied for his own plan.

Mana’s proposed Special Area Plan, which would supersede the new zoning rules on 24 acres of his property, calls for a massive nine million square feet of new development, including towers up to 24 stories, while exempting the developer from the public-benefit programs in the NRD plan, as well as payments to the local business improvement district. In lieu of that, Mana has proposed to build an expansive public plaza and a city fire station and bury obtrusive FPL electrical lines that run through his properties at his own expense.

WynwoodSplit

The Mana plan has provoked some serious balking from a good portion of his fellow Wynwood property owners, including Goldman Properties, the firm credited with launching the neighborhood’s transformation from derelict warehouse district to hipster mecca and a key backer of the NRD plan.

Those Wynwood owners and entrepreneurs say they’re concerned Mana’s mammoth project could overwhelm its modestly scaled neighbors while providing insufficient public benefits and little help in mitigating its impact on traffic, parking, policing and other public services — in effect, they contend, passing on the public burden of his upzoning to other local property owners who agreed to cap development.

“Everything we’ve done is to try to develop a comprehensive strategy to create a great place,” said Goldman Properties managing director Joe Furst, complaining the Mana blueprint is so vague in places there’s no gauging its precise effects on the rest of Wynwood. “There’s too many question marks.”

Mana’s representatives have noted it was no secret that he was working on a big plan for his Wynwood properties, centered around the former Wynwood Free Trade Zone complex, which he purchased in 2010, and that he never objected to the NRD plan. But Furst and others note Mana held details close to the vest and did not brief anyone else in the neighborhood until he filed his application with the city in November.

Everything we’ve done is to try to develop a comprehensive strategy to create a great place.

Mana’s planner and architect, Bernard Zyscovich, called his client’s promised public benefits “very, very significant,” saying their cost will run into the tens of millions of dollars. And he said Mana has also agreed to mesh the zoning along the edge of his property on Northwest Second Avenue, Wynwood’s main drag, with the NRD zoning, creating a consistent urban street front.

“We’ve done a tremendous amount to collaborate and make sure we’re integrated with the rest of Wynwood,” Zyscovich said. “We also have our own objectives, of course.”

How Mana’s proposal fares will play out over the next several weeks, and is likely to have defining implications for Wynwood’s redevelopment. The debate over his plan is the first sign of a serious split in the neighborhood since it began drawing outside developers, investors and speculators who’ve driven up rents and land prices and driven out many of the artists and galleries that characterized its early revival.

The NRD plan, supported by a majority of local property owners, was an effort to guide development before it happened, upzoning just enough to foster construction of reasonably priced housing and new commercial spaces while maintaining a consistent scale, and encouraging a building-design aesthetic that blends with Wynwood’s funky industrial look.

But some are clearly concerned that Mana’s plan, because it covers a substantial percentage of the neighborhood, could upend that carefully calibrated strategy before it has a chance to work.

Earlier this month, the board of the Wynwood Business Improvement District, an autonomous public agency chartered by the city that commissioned the controlled-development NRD plan, declined Mana’s request for an endorsement of his own plan after twice meeting to consider it. Instead, the BID board, which Furst chairs, asked the city’s planning and zoning board to defer a scheduled vote on the Mana plan while agency leaders could study his proposals further.

The planning board put its vote off until Jan. 20 after Mana’s representatives agreed to a postponement. The Mana plan and a companion development agreement with the city will ultimately need to be approved by the Miami commission.

Mana’s attorney, Iris Escarra of Greenberg Traurig, was out of the country through January and could not be reached for comment. At the BID’s Dec. 14 meeting, though, she hinted Mana might be willing to compromise. “It’s possible this is going to evolve,” she said. “Stay tuned.”

Escarra did say that the development agreement will legally require Mana to keep his promises, including building the fire station and every acre of the promised open space. She also noted that city planners have already insisted that Mana meet other elements of the Neighborhood Revitalization plan. Among those: That his new buildings be reviewed by a new Wynwood design review board created under the NRD, and that Mana’s development provide cut-through “paseos” to foster pedestrian flow and connectivity to the rest of the neighborhood.

BID board members, who represent the district’s property owners, say they would like to reach an understanding with Mana. But what they’ve seen so far, they say, doesn’t seem to justify the large increases in scale and density he’s seeking.

And neither his zoning plan nor the development agreement appear to sufficiently hold Mana to building the promised public space in a timely fashion, nor guarantee a high design quality, they contend. Because the project would be built out over 30 years, some Wynwood stakeholders worry Mana might leave the public space for last.

“The vision for the Mana project is a good one,” said Jonathon Yormak, an investor and BID board member who’s planning a mixed-use building on a large vacant lot his firm owns off Wynwood’s main drag . “Everyone believes the underlying premise is a good one. We are all inclined to support it.  To Mana’s credit, he has engaged us. But for what he is really providing, versus what he’s asking for, does that seem like a fair outcome? The initial answer is no. What he’s presented is more to his benefit and to the detriment of the neighborhood,” Yormak added. “If they care to get our support, I believe they can get it. It will require a little bit of consideration and cooperation from them.”

Zyscovich said he and Mana’s team plan to meet with BID members in early January.

 

Source: Miami Herald

/by

Insurance Investors Pick Up Gables Office Tower For $83 Million

,

The real estate investing arm of Prudential Financial just paid a whopping $83 million for the 355 Alhambra office tower in downtown Coral Gables.

355 Alhambra office tower 3An affiliate of Prudential Real Estate Investors, which has an asset portfolio valued at $62.6 billion, purchased the 16-story tower through a deed filed Tuesday, according to Miami-Dade County records. The price breaks down to about $168 per square foot.

The seller is AEW Capital Management, an investment management firm that owned the building on behalf of institutional clients. Records show AEW paid $87.3 million for the building in 2008 — about $4.3 million more than its current price.

The tower, at 355 Alhambra Circle, was first built in 2001 and measures 492,820 square feet. A big portion of that square footage is located in the building’s multi-story parking garage, which affords three parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of rentable space, according to the building’s website. The remaining 224,241 square feet is divided into leasable offices. Tenants include Merrill Lynch, Moore & Co. and Spencer Stuart.

This is the second high-profile office purchase in the downtown Coral Gables area to close in December: two weeks ago, a Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management fund paid $119 million for the Alhambra office complex.

 

Source: The Real Deal

/by

PMG Will Build Miami’s Tallest Tower After Getting FAA Approval

, , ,

Developer PMG received approval today from the FAA to build a 1,049-foot tower at 300 Biscayne Boulevard, and they fully intend to build to that height.

PMG’s tower will be taller than the Empire World Towers once proposed for the same site:

PMG’s tower will be taller than the Empire World Towers once proposed for the same site

PMG principal Ryan Shear told TNM that the developer “has full intention to use every foot.” The tower would be the tallest in Miami.

The approved height is 1,041 feet above ground, or 1,049 feet above sea level. At that height, it will be taller than the 93-story Empire World Towers project that was once proposed for the same site.

Details of the project haven’t yet been revealed, but it is expected to include about 500 luxury condos.

 

Source: The Next Miami

/by

Little Haiti Residents, Businesses Say Developers Pricing Them Out Of Neighborhood

, , ,
Little Haiti

Longtime residents, business owners and civic leaders gathered in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood on Thursday to deliver a message about their rapidly changing community: “We want to stay.”

Little Haiti residents say investors and real estate developers are buying property and pushing out the people and small businesses that give the district is distinct Caribbean flavor. (Photo Credit: Daniel Chang, The Miami Herald)

Little Haiti residents say investors and real estate developers are buying property and pushing out the people and small businesses that give the district is distinct Caribbean flavor. (Photo Credit: Daniel Chang, The Miami Herald)

Residents and activists, many carrying hand-written signs declaring “Little Haiti is not for sale” and “Say no to gentrification,” said real estate developers and speculators are buying up land and pushing out the people and small businesses that give the neighborhood its distinct Caribbean character.

“They tried to push me out of this area,” said Wilfrid Joseph Daleus, a Haitian immigrant and owner of the Daleus Museum and Art Gallery on 59th Street and Northeast Second Avenue.

Daleus, 66, said he opened his art gallery in 1980 and loves the neighborhood. But his rent is rising, and he feels that local government could do more to help, such designating the area a historic or cultural district.

“The price goes up every month,” Daleus said, “and I don’t have the support to stay. … But I don’t want to go. I want to stay.”

The Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami — an area broadly defined as running from 38th Street to 79th Street between Interstate 95 and the Florida East Coast Railway — does not have an official boundary, though city commissioners have considered a formal designation in the past.

Little Haiti gained its name as Haitian migrants, fleeing the regime of Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, began to populate the neighborhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Longtime residents, business owners and civic activists gathered to protest what they see as the gentrification of Little Haiti. They produced a list of demands, including the creation of a cultural district and the establishment of a trust to preserve and acquire land in the district for housing and businesses (Photo Credit: Daniel Chang, The Miami Herald)

Longtime residents, business owners and civic activists gathered to protest what they see as the gentrification of Little Haiti. They produced a list of demands, including the creation of a cultural district and the establishment of a trust to preserve and acquire land in the district for housing and businesses (Photo Credit: Daniel Chang, The Miami Herald)

Lately, though, art galleries have moved north from Wynwood in search of more affordable rents in Little Haiti. And developers have taken increasing interest in the area, using harassment, intimidation and sometimes inducements to coerce longtime residents and businesses to move, said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, a community group.

Bastien told a group gathered in front of the offices of the Haitian American Community Development Corporation on Northeast 82nd Street that “a lot of investors and developers are “organizing to change the name of Little Haiti. They are buying left and right, cash. The Little Farm Mobile Court on Biscayne Boulevard, home to many Haitian immigrants, has been purchased through lawyers by a Chinese investor who doesn’t even live here.”

Joined by representatives from local civic groups and elected officials, including Michael Etienne, city clerk for North Miami, Bastien presented a list of demands for Miami leaders, including the creation of a historic or cultural district and the establishment of a community land trust to preserve existing land and acquire new property for housing and small businesses.

She called for fast action from Keon Hardemon, a Miami commissioner whose district includes the Little Haiti neighborhood. “If he doesn’t act,” she said, “soon Little Haiti will disappear.” Hardemon did not respond to an interview request from the Herald made through his chief of staff on Thursday.

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado said the city has never designated any area in honor of any immigrant group, including Little Havana. But, he said, that doesn’t mean Miami has overlooked the contributions of immigrant groups that have contributed to the city’s history.

“The Haitian heritage can never be erased from the history of Miami,” Regalado said. “It’s still there in Little Haiti, although some Haitians have moved, but still we have the Little Haiti Soccer Park. We have the Little Haiti Cultural Center. We have the Caribbean Marketpalce.”

 

Source: Miami Herald

/by

Miami’s Real Estate Stability Still Strong After Four Years

,

The real estate stability in Miami is still strong.

For four years, Miami’s economy in real estate has not met any downturn and consecutively even with the rising cost of real estate, it is evident that the city is one of the biggest players in this sector.

“South Florida offers world-class amenities, a top-tier arts and cultural epicenter, a diversified economy and more. The strong demand is leading to fewer days on the market for Miami single-family homes while buyer offers are near asking price,” according to World Property Journal.

Meanwhile, the increase in sales of properties was not only due to U.S. homebuyers. There was also a report stating that part of the buyers that are seeing potential and interest in the city is from the international market.

“Miami real estate continues to attract international buyers from all over the world as well as a growing number of domestic consumers,” said Miami-based Realtor Christopher Zoller

One promising note about the stability in the real estate of Miami is that the city offers a limited number of properties that can be loaned in mortgage. Out of the thousand properties that were available to sell to the public, only a small number can be allowed for mortgage loans. This makes it all the more visible how many are really eyeing settling in this city.

“Miami existing condominiums have been impacted by a lack of access to mortgage loans. Of the 8,523 condominium buildings in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, only 23 are approved for Federal Housing Administration loans, down from 29 earlier this year,” based from the article and the statistics from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and FHA.

In addition to this, there was a policy that was worked on this month to open up more opportunities for buyers to own a property in Miami. This could detail in more growth for the city’s real estate economy as people who are opting to own a residence in this city can apply instead via a mortgage loan.

“By increasing the number of local condo buildings approved for FHA loans, more consumers will be able to access FHA’s low down payment mortgages. Accepting Citizens insurance and co-insurance clauses is another significant development, which would help more than 85% of Florida’s condo projects in complying with FHA’s insurance requirements,” said MIAMI’s SVP Government Affairs & Housing Danielle Blake.

 

Source: Realty Today

/by