Miami commissioners greenlit the Allapattah CRA in April, after years of talks about creating the agency. Now, the Miami Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board on Wednesday will vote whether to adopt a redevelopment plan created by Miami-based consultancy BusinessFlare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Allapattah-Northwest-17th-Avenue-enhancements-vision.png\")
(City of Miami, BusinessFlare)![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Allapattah-GSA-site-redevelopment-concept.png\")
(City of Miami, BusinessFlare)<\/p>\n
The Allapattah CRA spans from the Miami River north to the Airport Expressway, and from Northwest 19th Avenue east to I-95 and Northwest Seventh Avenue. The area, home to about 45,000 people, spans 4.7 square miles and over 1,600 acres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under Florida law, CRAs reinvest property taxes collected from increases in taxable values back into the areas, a mechanism known as tax increment financing. The Allapattah CRA\u2019s total taxable value for this year is $3.1 billion. This means that any taxes collected from the growth of values over that amount can be reinvested in the area and also leveraged for government grants and bond financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over its 30-year lifespan, the Allapattah CRA is expected to generate about $800 million in tax increment financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BusinessFlare\u2019s plan, created after a slew of community meetings, identifies infrastructure improvements as one of the top priorities with an estimated cost of about $90 million. Aside from Northwest 17th Avenue, which is envisioned to become a Main Street, the plan also targets Northwest Northwest 36th and 20th streets, and Northwest Seventh and 27th avenues, as well as improvements to the Allapattah and Santa Clara Metrorail Stations. It calls for storefront restoration, street lights and security measures such as cameras.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allapattah<\/a>, which means alligator is Seminole, was a farming settlement in the mid-1800s. In the 1960s, residents from Miami\u2019s historically Black Overtown moved to Allapattah after being displaced from the construction of Interstate 95. In subsequent years, it became home to Nicaraguan, Haitian and Cuban immigrants and eventually earned the moniker \u201cLittle Santo Domingo\u201d due to its significant Dominican population.\u00a0<\/p>\n The CRA plan aims to prompt more development and investment. The neighborhood\u2019s median household income in 2024 was about $31,300, significantly lower than that of Miami and Miami-Dade County as a whole. About 80 percent of households are renters.\u00a0<\/p>\n BusinessFlare\u2019s plan outlines a proposal to foster affordable housing development and local hiring, including for senior residents, as a way to curb gentrification and allow longtime residents to stay in Allapattah.\u00a0<\/p>\n The proposal prioritizes housing development on the GSA site at 1970 Northwest 13th Avenue and 1950 Northwest 12th Avenue, though in recent years several efforts have failed. In April, Miami officials restarted a solicitation to developers to build out the site after previous unsolicited proposals failed<\/a>, Miami Today reported. A potential project may add 2,500 units to the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, redevelopment is expected to be slow. Work during the first three years will focus on streetscapes, small business grant funds and smaller projects such as market pop-ups on vacant sites. The Northwest 17th Avenue and smaller affordable housing projects would come to fruition in the subsequent four years, with the full buildout of the GSA site expected to take a decade, according to BusinessFlare\u2019s report.\u00a0<\/p>\n The proposal calls for tapping an Opportunity Zone in the north section of the CRA and points out that a majority of the area is a brownfield. These sites require environmental remediation due to previous industrial uses, though the upside of this is that it allows the CRA to tap government grants allotted for such cleanups.\u00a0<\/p>\n Allapattah \u2014 which has a mix of uses, including single-family homes, retail and industrial buildings \u2014 has hardly been devoid of development proposals and investment in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lissette Calderon\u2019s Neology Group has a steady pipeline of projects. This month, it paid $24 million<\/a> for the 1.5-acre industrial property at 1090 Northwest 23rd Street from the Rubell real estate and art family. The site will be home for the second and third phase of a three-part residential project planned by Neology, the Rubells and Lion Development. The first phase, consisting of a 21-story, 330-unit apartment building<\/a>, will be at 1000 Northwest 23rd Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n Others who set their sights on Allapattah early on include developer Robert Wennett, known for completing Miami Beach\u2019s 1111 Lincoln mixed-use garage. In 2018, he revealed plans for a Bjarke Ingels Group-designed, 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use project, though the development has had little movement<\/a> since then. Plans call for 1,200 residential units, 227 hotel keys, 230,900 square feet of offices, 97,000 square feet of commercial space, 54,200 square feet for educational uses, 1,078 parking spaces and 57,000 square feet of civic space.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Allapattah-CRA-Boundary-Map.png\")
(City of Miami, BusinessFlare)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Magic-City-Innovation-District-feature-250x179.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n