Prominent developer R. Donahue Peebles and Peebles Corp. executive Barron Channer are leading a team poised to win two city blocks in the historic but rundown section of Overtown to build apartments, a hotel, shops, restaurants and music venues.
Miami commissioners will likely sign off on the bid during a meeting today. City officials have described the plan as potentially “transformational” for the impoverished, mostly black Overtown, where many previous redevelopment efforts have failed, according to the Miami Herald.
The Overtown Gateway project would be erected just south of the Lyric Theater, which was completed restored in 2000 and which had been the venue for jazz and blue greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Patti LaBelle Sam Cooke as part of a strip of theaters once known as Little Broadway.
“With Overtown, we are right at the edge of a very historic win that would mark a watershed moment for African Americans in South Florida real estate,” Channer told the South Florida Business Journal, adding that his team is entirely comprised of African Americans. [Miami Herald] — Emily Schmall