Overtown, Miami Looks to Partnership for Proper Growth not Gentrification...

Activist Fights Overtown Development Project, Wants More Benefits for Local Residents

By Trevor Bach Mon., Oct. 13 2014 at 8:00 AM

7 Comments

Categories: Business

A rendering of the Plaza at Lyric, part of the redevelopment project

For years , a Miami city agency has sought to secure $60 million for a massive project in chronically impoverished Overtown. But now that the project is finally close to breaking ground, a local activist is claiming the Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) illegally failed to hire any local contractors.

"If you're going to take these properties and make hundreds of millions of dollars, you've got to give something back to the community," says Edduard Prince, the activist.

The project will amount to a substantial overhaul for struggling Overtown: four new affordable-housing developments, three of which will also include retail spaces, as well as comprehensive refurbishment of existing housing units.

"These new developments will help to... drive the demand for goods and services," said CRA Executive Director Clarence Woods. "Small businesses and retailers will create an environment where more jobs will now be available in the community."

Woods's proclamation came after the agency closed on a $60 million loan with Wells Fargo on August 22. But that announcement came only after months of squabbling: In late 2013, county officials argued that an existing law capped its financial commitment to the city for the project, and for months the funding was delayed while the city and county sparred over commitments.

Prince filed a complaint against Woods and the CRA in July, alleging a breach of fiduciary duty because the agency contracted outside developers for the project. A magistrate recommended it be dismissed earlier this month, but Prince tells Riptide he plans on appealing. Prince isn't opposed to improvements, he says, but he thinks the new developments will lead to gentrification and higher rent prices. And he's concerned current Overtown residents will end up getting squeezed out.

"The face of Overtown is going to change, which is progress," he says. "But you have to give something back to these people that you're pushing out."

Prince doesn't expect any legal victories; his real motivation is to stir more conversation about how the project could better benefit current Overtown residents. "The purpose of these lawsuits," he says, "is for the community to have some type of benefit." Woods did not respond to a request for comment by Riptide.

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frankd412 days ago

...............CABRINI GREEN

many years ago we used to burn or freeze people OUT and a lot of old people got caught up in our slums so we invented the section 8 housing voucher that BLACK communities have lived by for decades now without getting any residual legacy value on the area ................so the land comes cheap and our construction project operations yield a significant profit and there you have it - G E N T R I F I C A T I O N - period

as long as BLACKs never have an equity stake in the neighborhood property itself,  things can get as bad crime-wise as they will, we don't really care, because sooner rather than later we will come in with our bulldozers and level the area

so what was once a slum can soon become luxury high rise residences with retail and restaurants and many other WHITE amenities and OVERtown will become a great success story of MIAMI despite ANY lawsuit - it's simply how it works

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Anthonyvop113 days ago

Lets skip over the fact that these people our fighting over money that was taken from others by force.

Can you tell me what retailers are going to be successful with "affordable Housing" overhead?

Well it is a Government project to develop housing and business so we all know it will fail miserably 

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SEFTA13 days ago

Corporations buy properties, either let them languish or demolish them. A few years later it is designated impoverished. Then like saviors, the same developers come in and are given carte blanche. We are told how lucky we are that they are interested in developing in this neighborhood, like it wasn't the plan all along. Developers have raped Miami with the help of OUR representatives. Then we are told some radical wants to halt progress. There was a deal that these developers were to hire a certain amount of local people and they didn't. WAKE UP MIAMI!

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James G. Camp from FacebookOct 13, 2014

Maybe the local contractors weren't competitive, not only that may not be the most reputable ?

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Jonny Erik Martinez from FacebookOct 13, 2014

What a great way to get a project cancelled!!!

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WhyNotNowOct 13, 2014

Mr. Prince sounds like the perfect person to take on Keon "Hardly Around" Hardemon in the next election.

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M Lenny Erdie from FacebookOct 13, 2014

Going after a CRA is a rabbit's hole of a lawsuit. Looking at the face of his argument from this article he doesn't even have standing to sue, and a just as tenuous good faith basis for his suit. Its good to incite some discussion, but it seems he's just wasting even more taxpayer money by forcing the CRA to defend this suit. The bigger problem is the largely renting population of Overtown will probably be pushed out as the ad valorem rate in the area increases. Miami needs to structure some sort of rent-control or rental property ad valorem taxation control for economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

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All Aboard Florida lied to Bond Inverstors about Collateral

All Aboard Florida

After Fortress Investment Group bought Florida East Coast Industries, it kept all real estate operations with Florida East Coast Industries and put all railroad operations with Florida East Coast Railway, said Bob Ledoux, senior vice president and general counsel of Florida East Coast Railway. In late 2007, he said, the parent company provided an easement to a subsidiary, later renamed All Aboard Florida, giving it exclusive rights to passenger traffic and the right to build a second track along the existing corridor.

Fortress has hired Holland and Knight to have the zoning of their real estate paralleling the tracks re-zoned to residential so houses can be built and sold off. Fortress's plan has been met with resistance from Homeowners from Homestead to County line in Dade County. Now Holland and Knight has to meet with Dade County officials and bully them into changing zoning.

"We didn't spend a lot of time looking at it just because we saw it as an equity play," said Michael Sohr, a high-yield portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein. "If you are moving freight in and out of Florida, it's the only place you can go. If anything were to go wrong with the passenger rail, people believe Fortress will do whatever it takes to make it work, because it is so invested in the railroad."

Will bond investors have anything to collect if All Aboard Florida default?

All Aboard Florida Sells $880 Million in Junk Bonds!!!

Florida East Coast Railway

Jacksonville, Fla. (Jan. 19, 2011) – Florida East Coast Railway completed a successful refinancing through the sale of $475 million of six-year senior secured notes at an interest rate of 8.125 percent.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of our refinancing, which we believe will position Florida East Coast Railway to capitalize on exceptional opportunities for growth,” said James Hertwig, president and CEO. “The pricing of the senior secured notes we issued today was very attractive, with investor demand reflecting the strong underlying fundamentals of our company. We also extended the maturity of our long-term debt to 2017, which will provide significant capital flexibility going forward. We look forward to continuing to build our business from a very solid financial base, with a focus on what we believe are extremely attractive opportunities to grow our franchise through disciplined investments.”
Bank of America Merrill Lynch served as the bookrunning manager for the sale.

The Port of Miami is also restoring its railway connection to the FEC's Hialeah rail yard with money provided under a federal stimulus program.
With the canal's widening project under way, South Florida's ports want the big ships to stop here first and unload containers onto the FEC Railway for fast delivery all the way into the nation's heartland. (The FEC connects with some of the nation's biggest railways systems, such as Norfolk Southern and CSX.)
 

 All Aboard Florida

All Aboard Florida, a unit of Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG), issued $405 million of debt to help finance a high-speed railway along the state’s eastern coast over the opposition of some local residents.
AAF Holdings LLC sold 12 percent, five-year bonds with a payment-in-kind toggle option, which allows interest to be paid in additional notes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The PIKs, one of the riskiest forms of debt, yielded 10.25 percentage points more than similar-maturity Treasuries. AAF increased the offering from $390 million previously marketed.
The company applied for a $1.875 billion loan from the Federal Railroad Administration, according to Lauren Dunaj, a spokeswoman for All Aboard Florida who works for Finn Partners.

Fortress, the first publicly traded private-equity and hedge-fund manager in the U.S., acquired All Aboard Florida’s parent company, Florida East Coast Industries Inc.

Vincent Signorello

After being denied a requested $1.875 billion in federal loans to help build its high-speed passenger rail line.  All Aboard Florida has modified its financing plan for its proposed passenger rail service, the company's president said Monday. Now, All Aboard Florida instead will use what's known as private activity bonds to finance the project.
The U.S. Department of Transportation must approve this funding mechanism, enabling the bonds to be tax-free for investors. A unit of the state economic-development organization Enterprise Florida, called the Florida Development Finance Corp., will act as the issuer of the bonds, but assumes no financial liability.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
 

Is Louis Farrakhan about to let Whites into the Nation of Islam?????????????

Founding Fathers

At 9:02 am on April 19, 1995 a 7,000 pound truck bomb constructed of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and nitromethane racing fuel packed into 13 plastic barrels ripped through the heart of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This was the first act of the PATRIOT MOVEMENT. 109 acts of terror up into the June 8, 2014 attack by Jerad Miller and his wife Amanda signaled the end. Now we have entered into what is being called the CORONATION CHARTER MOVEMENT.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence states that "when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government". In short the people have the right to change a Government when it abuses their rights.

"By a Faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community".

------- James Madison

Louis Farrakhan

Louis Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr. born Louis Eugene Wolcott; May 11, 1933. In 1955 Emmett Louis Till an African American teenager was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after speaking to a white woman. The early 1900's was a dangerous time for African Americans much like today. A call went out for African Americans to stand strong and raise their level of consciousness. Louis Wolcott answered that call and would later go on to become Louis Farrakhan. Some say the call was initiated by a man with white skin, Master Fard Muhammad. 

That bring us to today.  Now that African Americans have raised their level of consciousness, stood strong, and excelled in different arenas of life, are African American men prepared to stand with other men of similar passions? What would it mean for Minister Farrakhan to accept fair skin soldiers? 

Is this what the founding fathers were thinking about when they envision a future for their children?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"                                     

          ---------- Thomas Jefferson 

All Aboard Florida upset Miami Police with 13 hour broken railway crossing.

Miami Police

The abandon rail line of All Aboard Florida that runs thru Overtown, Miami is so poorly maintain that it's railway crossing at 14th Street was stuck in the down position for 13 hours before it was notice by All Aboard Florida. This is the same Company that thinks it can run 32 high speed and 22 cargo trains (54 trains) per day on one line. All Aboard Florida and it's sister company Florida East Coast Railway, both owned by Randal Nardone will run on the same line, and are displaying poor management and poor judgment. Randal is going to kill someone if he isn't stopped.

 

Miami Police don't look happy

Video of the Miami Police being held up because of All Aboard Florida's broken railway crossing. These are the same concerns the residences of Martin County have.