Long Ignored, Miami’s Allapattah is Being Rediscovered

August 17, 2016

Photo by Phillip Pessar.

Between Wynwood and the airport, long term real estate investoros and businesses from a variety of commercial and creative industries, including many shifting out of Wynwood and into fresher pastures, are discovering the richness and potential of Allapattah. Yes, Allapattah, one of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods, which for as long as this Miami native can remember lots of people have avoided or just kind of ignored, at least partially because of its extremely sketchy reputation.

Those are rapidly outdating prejudices, however, as the strengths of Allapattah, including its strategic and central location, access to the Metrorail, traditional and even historic character, large Dominican community (It was nicknamed “Little Santo Domingo”) mixture of uses, and lower price points than neighboring areas like Wynwood, and the river, become more widely known.

Real estate investors like Roland DiGasbarro, who owns about a dozen properties in the area, and artist William Betts, who owns an entire block. “The buildings in the area are amazing and, in my opinion, some should be preserved,” Francisco De La Tour, who relocated his Butter Gallery to Allapattah told Miami Today. “They tell the story of Miami and the glory of State Road 441.” Allapattah is getting its first permanent open-air market, started by the owner of Wood Tavern in Wynwood, this fall. And news stories like “Allapattah auto repair site, slated for a boutique, sells for $1.4M” have started appearing more and more frequently in place of stories like “One killed, three injured in Allapattah shooting,” which would be where that old local prejudice came from in the first place.