The national and local economies are in full swing, and that is having an effect across all our local Miami neighborhoods. Adjacent to booming Wynwood and prospering Little Havana, close to significant employment centers such as the hospitals and courts, containing one of the densest urban concentrations of active industrial property, housing a solid working class population, and still remarkably affordable, Allapattah presents a nuanced and interesting proposition for local investors.
Multi-Family
- Demographics are shifting, and people are migrating away from stale suburbs back into the vibrant urban cores of cities. Adjacent areas that have experienced appreciation are also squeezing residents into this still affordable working class neighborhood. Vacancies remain low, and rents are steadily rising.
- Skyrocketing prices in surrounding areas have made Allapattah an interesting place to find still reasonable deals and solid returns
Industrial
- Allapattah houses the last concentrated purely industrial neighborhood in the urban core of Miami. Wynwood and Little Haiti/Little River use to accompany it as centers of industry, but their conversions to more creative uses and the subsequent tripling or more of values have stimulated a mass migration to still affordable Allapattah.
- That said, more creative uses are also starting to find their way into Allapattah’s grittier grid.
Retail
- NW 20 st used to be a major wholesale mecca, but is currently undergoing a period of transition. The previous generation of owners is just starting to give way to a new wave. Many of Wynwood’s former retailers, priced out of Wynwood proper, are finding this area an attractive proposition.
- NW 36 st poses an interesting question. It has pervaded in a condition of stagnation, but it remains a major thoroughfare that runs the full east-west stretch of the country, including connecting the airport to the downtown and beaches.
- Some of the north-south corridors pose interesting conditions. NW 7 ave is starting to absorb some of the spillover from Wynwood, and some have even re-labeling it W.O.W., or West of Wynwood. 17ave has been re-labeled Little Santo Domingo due to its cultural vibrancy, and that along with government investment has added some new vitality. NW 27 ave covers long stretches that connect most of the county from Coconut Grove to North Miami.
Land
- As the recovery, or boom as some would already label it, progresses, land is becoming increasingly coveted.
- The shopping spree that has occurred in the areas of major focus this cycle (Brickell, Downtown, Wynwood, Edgewater), has left those areas with virtually no reasonably priced offerings. In search of more competitive pricing, developers are increasingly looking into secondary markets such as Allapattah. This is especially true for lower-income multi-family housing, where low vacancies and ever-rising rental rates are making those opportunities more realistic.
-Carlos Fausto Miranda
April 7, 2015
