Northside Shopping Center

The Northside Shopping Center is the most important commercial center for the target area, as well as serving a much larger market area. Its successful redevelopment is essential to the success of this sustainable development strategy. The Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. is negotiating to purchase the shopping center with the intention of redeveloping it.

Today, the Northside Shopping Center is set back from 79th Street with a massive parking lot that is used for parking by tractor trailers. It has poor pedestrian access from the community. The MetroRail stops two blocks to the west on 79th Street, but there is no sense of connection between the station and the shopping center. In addition, the shopping center has little visual or functional connection to the intersection of 79th Street and 27th Avenue.

The challenge is to envision the Northside Shopping Center as the "town square" for the surrounding neighborhood and as an anchor of a sustainable development strategy. The conversion of first generation shopping centers surrounded by a massive parking lot into an urban town center is happening elsewhere around the country, including University Park, IL. This strategy converts the obsolete shopping center from a destination for shopping alone to a place where many things happen: shopping, education, public administration, entertainment, etc.

The shopping center needs to be the heart of the community economy, capturing a substantial portion of the neighborhood's dollars. This can be enhanced by giving residents financial incentives to shop there. A "community smart card" should be explored which combines a transit pass with "affinity discounts" at stores in the center. The center needs to explore ways to encourage small scale entrepreneurship through "push carts" and other mechanisms that can provide an entry point for local residents into business ownership.

In addition, the land surrounding the shopping center offers opportunities for creative, mixed uses, from stormwater retention to new townhouse development. The center should become a model of resource efficiency as a way to keep operating costs low and expand profit margins for merchants.

The Urban League is likely to explore the possibility of a Magic Johnson Multiplex Theater, additional national anchors, etc. That program could be strengthened by the location of federal offices on the site or by other office uses which would provide a steady flow of people to the town center.

Action 19: Develop a Sustainable Redevelopment Plan for the Shopping Center.

The project will seek to convene a planning charette of "green developers" identified through US EPA's Smart Growth Network as a way to expand the range of options for the site and identify creative financing strategies. This charette will define a "specification" for the shopping center redevelopment that will be incorporated into the Sustainable Development Plan.

Amtrak Multi-Modal Site

MetroRail, Tri-Rail and Amtrak come together - or nearly come together - at 79th Street, making 79th Street the most important transit hub in the region. The 79th Street Tri-Rail stop, for example, has the highest ridership in the system, with an average of 36,000 rides per month (average of January-March, 1998), or 35.2% of Tri-Rail's total. Many of these riders arrive at the station via MetroRail.

Just north and east of the MetroRail and Tri-Rail stations is the Hialeah Amtrak Station, also now serving as the Miami Amtrak Station. At some time in the future, the Miami station may move to the Intermodal Center near the Miami International Airport.

The Amtrak site includes a 60's era station, a turn around, and a large, underutilized parking lot. In total, the site covers 28 acres. Amtrak has expressed interest in the redevelopment of this site.

The Amtrak site requires a focus and identity that is complementary to the redeveloped Northside Shopping Center. The site might become a Multi-Modal Center with mixed uses, including convenience retail at the transit stops (drug store, cleaners, day care, food mart), a cultural center, new residential, including townhouses and a mid-rise residential building, light industrial, including possibly an Amtrak parcel service, back office facilities linked to proposed fiber optic capacity, and innovative stormwater and sewage treatment facilities.

Amtrak's Great American Station Foundation, for example, has made a modest grant to the Center for Neighborhood Technology, one of the four Strategic Partners, to work on this redevelopment strategy.

Action 20: Secure an Option for the Amtrak Site.

One of the first tasks in this priority development will be to negotiate an option for the Amtrak site. This agreement will also specify the nature and conditions of Amtrak's possible equity participation in the overall development.

Action 21: Complete a Sustainable Development Plan for the Amtrak Site.

The Winter, 1998 Strategic Visioning Workshop will develop a preliminary schematic development plan for the Amtrak site that will specify the desired mix of uses. Once an option on the property has been secured, the project will seek to convene a sustainable development design charette with "green developers" similar to the one proposed for the Northside Shopping Center. The results of this charette will then guide the development.

Mobile Home Parks

One of the most blighted parts of the target community is a mobile home park on the south side of 79th Street between 27th and 35th Avenues. The site has approximately 300 aging mobile homes with numerous housing code violations. It calls for affordable replacement housing. The challenge that a site of this type poses is that replacement housing has to be located for current residents before new housing can be constructed.

The site might be an ideal opportunity for modular housing, especially if the factory were to be located in the community and provide jobs for community residents.

Action 22: Secure an Option for the Mobile Home Park.

The project needs to negotiate an option on the mobile home park from its current owners, the Florida East Coast Railway. There are indications that FEC is interested in divesting itself of this property. This negotiation would determine whether FEC might be willing to donate the property as part of a community revitalization strategy remain an equity partner in the new development.

Action 23: Complete a Sustainable Redevelopment Strategy for Mobile Home Park.

The initial challenge of this project will be to identify replacement housing for current residents so that the land can be made available for development. The trailers would then be replaced with permanent, affordable, quality housing that embodies a sustainability ethic. This planning effort will explore the possibility of bringing a manufactured housing plant to the community that is willing and able to produce environmentally friendly housing units.