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.
 

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.

HARDEMON WITCH HUNT???????

Keon Hardemon

Is there a witch hunt out for the Hardemon family? As reported by the Miami Herald this summer, the Miami-Dade Police public corruption unit conducted a covert surveillance operation at Matheson Hammock Park. The mission: to catch Danette Hardemon, cousin of  Miami city commissioner Keon Hardemon suspected of skimming $30. “It's disheartening, But it's expected.” said Commissioner Hardemon

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article2220283.html#storylink=cpy

 Danette Hardemon

Public corruption officers had spent more than $200,000 during an investigation of Danette Hardemon that led to her arrest on charges of stealing $30 in entry fees to a public park. On July 9, detectives began watching her and questioning drivers who’d paid her their entry fee. The next day, after speaking with about 60 motorists, police found six without tickets and believed they had evidence Hardemon may have taken $30. They read Hardemon her Miranda rights and questioned her. THE OFFICERS HAD NO WARRANT FOR HER ARREST.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article2220283.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article2220283.html#storylink=cpy

 

  Miami-Dade Police Department Deputy Director Juan Perez

The Cuban Community is up in arms about brother Hardemon standing up for his community in trying to protect money earmarked for Overtown. Money that has been magically disappearing from Overtown and  magically reappearing in other Communities. And the explanation given to the Overtown community is “Sometimes it can lead to bigger cases,” said Deputy Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Pérez

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article2220283.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article2220283.html#storylink=cpy

Keon Hardemon and the Circle of Brotherhood

Brother Hardemon standing with Leroy Jones and the Circle of Brotherhood to ensure that the Communities of Liberty City and Overtown are protected. Watch how things unfold.

CHANNEL 7 NEWS MIAMI REPORT ON ALL ABOARD FLORIDA ARREST.

Channel 7 News Miami report on All Aboard Florida unfairly arresting poor Blacks in Overtown Miami. Randal Nardone, Wesley Edens, and All Aboard Florida has been caught criminalizing poor Blacks so they can be easily relocated. As we reported in an earlier post All Aboard Florida attempted to purchase block 56 in Overtown to build their headquarters. Their plan was to have the people in Overtown deemed criminals and removed, and replaced by a more approved class of people Once again the people of Overtown are standing up.

OVERTOWN HAS WON!!!!!!!!!

In March of 2013 the Residents of Overtown was told that All Aboard Florida (AAF) was about to take over the Community. All Aboard Florida plan was to 1. Displace the residents 2. Build AAF headquarters in Overtown 3. Get 1.5 billion loan from United States Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx.
The only problem was AAF underestimated the resolve of the Overtown Community. Historically the African American Community is an easy target for everyone to exploit. Our Community is subjected to poison, disease, inhumane conditions, poor schooling, mental abuse, physical abuse, lynching, and just out right killings from private citizens #Trayvon Martin, and the Police #Ferguson.
African Americans have never been able to influence any change up until now. Today is a new day, we have new leaders. Leaders with strong capabilities and clear vision. The man behind AAF is Randal Nardone. Randal Nardone is a billionaire Hedge fund manager in New York. Every step of Randal's plan has failed. 1. We had to petition the court to stop the displacement of the Residents. 2. We had to stop the purchase of block 56 from AAF. 3. After communicating the truths and realities of the AAF deal we have just learned that Anthony Foxx's office has rejected AAF loan application.
This is a change of destiny for all poor people around the world. One stone in the ripple of time. With this stone the example has been set. Watch what unfolds next.

Rafael Rodon, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development bullying local Politicians in Secret Meeting. The only problem is you can't be a corporate bully if you don't have the money.