Revitalization of Central Urban Corridor Seen As Next Big South Florida Real Estate Trend
Miami builders are running out of land. As a result, they are finally breaking ground in some of the long-neglected urban corridors where redevelopment has been discussed for years, according to the Miami Herald.
Take State Road 7 for example. Drive down it today and you will see an endless strip of parking lots, car dealerships and boring strip malls of dollar stores, psychic parlors and offices.
But J. Gary Rogers, redevelopment director in Lauderdale Lakes, where $600 million in projects are proposed, foresees a golden future.
“I tell developers if you want dirt to build on, look under the asphalt,” he said.
The neglected, undervalued middle corridor could be the key to the South Florida housing crunch. Cities there remain among the least expensive places to buy a home, according to a Herald analysis of sales data from the past five years. Politicians, urban planners and developers are betting that people priced out of trendier neighborhoods will flock to town homes and condos built along and near the middle.
The Urban Land Institute concluded in a 2004 study that State Road 7, also known as U.S. Highway 441, could satisfy the region’s insatiable hunger for housing with tens of thousands of new homes. That demand has finally started the bulldozers’ engines. In Miami-Dade County, communities such as Miami Gardens, North Miami Beach and Opa-locka have piqued developers’ interests. Same for Plantation and Oakland Park in Broward County.
“We’ve been undervalued and overlooked,” said Rogers, of Lauderdale Lakes. “Now redevelopment is the name of the game. And now, to my joy and pleasure, we’re the central spine.”
It has already begun. Bella Vista, a development on U.S. 441 near Oakland Park Boulevard on the site of an old driving range, will feature shops, a library, a park, tree-lined streets and 541 condos and town homes expected to sell for $200,000 to $300,000.
CHANGING DEMAND
When everyone wants a piece of the housing market, perceptions of what’s hot can change as quickly as the direction of a South Florida breeze.
For decades, developers concentrated on the eastern waterfront of both counties and then the western fringes, where new subdivisions rapidly arose from the marshland on the edge of the Everglades. The middle, which was farther from the water and had no fresh ground for new homes, was passed over. No longer.
“People don’t seem to care about where the neighborhood is. They figure… things will eventually improve as redevelopment happens,” Lisa Maxwell, director of redevelopment for Lennar, said.
Lennar has two town-home developments planned in Oakland Park, a long-overlooked community just east of 441. As berserk South Florida real estate prices have effectively driven people out of the housing market in neighboring cities such as Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park is becoming another hot spot. Developers have $600 million in projects on the table, with hip urban buyers the target.
“We knew build-out was coming and we tried to get ready so we’d be able to take advantage of the interest when the developers came knocking,” City Manager John Stunson said. “We changed our zoning laws, made improvements and now things are taking off.”
ALL ALONG U.S. 1
Broward County planners predict other new hot areas will be along U.S. 1 through cities such as Hallandale Beach, Pompano Beach and Hollywood.
In Miami-Dade, the Biscayne Boulevard corridor already has rebounded as many find themselves priced out of the condos rising above Biscayne Bay.
Signs of rebirth are even emerging in Opa-locka, long regarded as an area too rough for serious redevelopment.
A recent posting on craigslist advertises condos for rent in Opa-locka in what may be a clear sign of the downtrodden area’s future:
“The neighborhood is rapidly improving due to the many developers building new town homes and condos in the area.”
Other homeowners in Opa-locka report receiving calls and letters enticing them to sell their properties. Experts predict it’s only a matter of time.
“Opa-locka has to be a success because it is so centrally located. All it will take is for people to look with fresh eyes and new thinking. They will either look through the windshield at the future, or out of their rearview mirrors after Opa-locka has passed them by,” said Gene Berman, of the real estate investment company Marcus & Millichap.
Ken Knight, a transplant from Pennsylvania, lived in Miami Beach before moving to Opa-locka, where he paid a modest $170,000 for a three-bedroom town house in the year-old Superior Gardens III complex.
“This was a pretty good deal,” said Knight, who runs his own housing company and participates in a homeowners group.
Opa-locka was the least expensive city in Miami-Dade County to buy a home in 2005, with the median price at $160,000.
Yet some housing advocates are concerned that current homeowners will be displaced by a pricier, more upscale middle corridor as property taxes invariably rise with valuation. Most of the projects are proposed for commercial land thus far, however.
THE FUTURE IS NOW?
For a revitalized area to come to fruition, people must first alter their perceptions. If residents can accept the fact that, someday, State Road 7 will be a hot place to live, then it can actually happen. People will must change, at least in South Florida, their idea of the American Dream. There simply isn’t enough land for single-family homes in Broward and Miami-Dade. Development will be vertical.
“That single-family-home dream may still be available in other places. Here we simply don’t have the land,” said Henry Sniezak, Broward’s director of planning.
Prospective buyers in these two counties should take notice that a major opportunity is being handed to them. Some of the area’s lesser-known and under-appreciated locations are about to be given a full-scale makeover, and with Florida home loans still available at low rates, how might be the time to take the plunge.
