Just a few short years ago, the historic heart of Overtown, Miami’s original Black neighborhood, lay desolate and lifeless just steps from Biscayne Boulevard and downtown. There were few if any shops, few homes, not a single grocery store, but lots of vacant lots, the result of decades of demolition, disinvestment and abandonment.
Today, the change along the six blocks of Northwest Second Avenue and its immediate vicinity is nothing short of dramatic. The streets are busy with pedestrians, thanks to a few thousand new and renovated apartments, both market-rate and affordable, within a few square blocks. There’s not only a new Publix, but also an Aldi, a Ross, a Target with a CVS and a Starbucks in a towering complex that also includes 578 stylish apartments for low-income seniors, many of them longtime Overtown residents.
The Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency, an arm of Miami city government, has won commission approval for a new, roughly $175 million bond program that’s supported by the property-tax revenue flow from new development in the district, which stretches from the west side of Biscayne Boulevard to west of Interstate 95. Over the next several years, the program is expected to help finance some 2,500 new affordable and workforce homes and apartments in greater Overtown, new and improved parks and cultural facilities, and significant assistance to local business owners.
