James McQueen, Executive Director, Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA

In an interview with Invest:, James McQueen, executive director of Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), discussed how the organization is using new bond funding to advance affordable housing, public infrastructure, and cultural investment across Overtown and downtown Miami. “We want Overtown to become a place that draws foot traffic and becomes a must-visit location for people who come to Miami — the kind of place visitors feel they have to see while they are here,” McQueen said.

Overtown secured a $175 million municipal bond program in the past year. What are the top priorities for the funding, and how will it shape the community?

It starts with providing affordable housing so that residents challenged by the high cost of renting and buying are not priced out of their communities. Over the years, we have used much of the revenue we have raised to address serious housing needs, not only in the community redevelopment area but also across the city, helping alleviate stress throughout the county.

During the existence of this CRA, we are now probably in excess of 3,000 completed units of affordable and market-rate housing in Overtown alone. If you add to that what amounts to almost 5,000 units or more of market-rate housing in the Park West area, we are really approaching almost 10,000 residential units in the redevelopment area.

With the money we have been able to garner from the bond, our first objective was to continue to address the challenge of housing in Miami-Dade County, and particularly in Overtown. We have helped with the financing for Block 45, which was developed by Atlantic Pacific. We have also helped support the redevelopment of Culmer, where what was formerly public housing is ultimately being replaced by new facilities, and the current residents will have the first right of refusal to return. In addition, we are funding Rainbow Village on 20th Street and 3rd Avenue and Courtside on 17th Street and 3rd Avenue. We have put a lot of money into projects that try to address the affordability crisis.

How are the affordable and workforce housing projects progressing, and who are they designed to serve?

They are progressing well, and one of the things we have required of all of the projects is that a significant portion of the units be earmarked for 60% of the area median income, or AMI. When you talk about 60% of AMI, you are talking about people who make in the $40,000 to $50,000 range.

What we hope to do is continue to attract people who work in the Health District, which is basically within walking distance of Overtown. We also want to be able to attract first responders — police officers and firefighters — and teachers. We are targeting those economic groups, along with people who are at 60% of the median income and lower, to create opportunities for them to live in housing that is affordable.

How is the agency advancing Overtown’s arts and entertainment vision while preserving heritage and community character?

It is important to understand that historically, this was a place that thrived in the arts and culture realm for the whole country. They used to call Overtown “Little Broadway.” Much of that went away when I-95 split the community in half, but now that we are re-energizing the space, one of my priorities has been to create a signature destination.

That is why we set aside almost $20 million to create a signature public space called the Crown of Overtown. It will be located where our current 9th Street Mall is, and we contracted with Hood Design Studio, one of the top landscape design firms in the country, to shape that space. We want Overtown to become a place that draws foot traffic and becomes a must-visit location for people who come to Miami — the kind of place visitors feel they have to see while they are here.

We are also investing more than $20 million at one of the main entrances to Overtown, at 14th Street and 3rd Avenue, to develop a modern art museum of the African diaspora. Rather than demolish what was once a women’s detention center, we decided to repurpose it. We are in the early planning stages of that transformation now.

Beyond those larger projects, we are using murals and local artists to help tell the story of Overtown. We have murals by MOCAD, which will also be housed in the museum, along with works by Reginald O’Neal, Anthony “Mojo” Reed, Stephon Smith, and Tiara Armstrong. We are taking blank spaces and using them to tell the story of the community.

Our biggest contribution to the arts right now may be Soul Basel. During Miami Art Week and Art Basel, we activate seven or eight spaces throughout the redevelopment area, including a space curated in the Brightline station. We feature local artists and artists from the African diaspora, including artists from the Caribbean and Africa.

What progress has been made on public space and infrastructure improvements?

We are now in the final stages of the design work for the 9th Street Mall so that we can begin permitting. We have a request for proposals going out soon to select the construction company that will do the actual building of that project. The community has been open-armed to it because they see the progress that is being made, and we have received great community support.

In addition, because we envision this area to be an art and entertainment district, we also recognize that people need places to park. For that reason, we are building a 400-space public parking garage in conjunction with the Miami Parking Authority. It is the kind of infrastructure that supports everything else we are trying to build.

How does the agency incorporate resident input into planning and redevelopment decisions?

We meet with the community quarterly. Four times a year, we gather at our center at Overtown Performing Arts Center and share with the community what we are doing. We want them to understand how important it is for them to be a part of all the things happening here, and we work collaboratively with them as we move projects forward.

What really changes the dynamics of a community is when people can live in decent housing and walk to work. When I walk into Target, Publix, or Aldi and see people who can literally walk to work from Overtown, that changes the adults, but more importantly, it changes the young people. They begin to understand that there are opportunities here for them.

We also just became the home to the largest shipping line in the world. Mediterranean Shipping Company is now located in Overtown with more than 400 employees in that building, and it is looking to partner with the Overtown Community Redevelopment Agency to create training programs in the shipping industry. When I look at all the things that are changing, it gives me great pride, but it also gives me great hope.

How do you define the full impact of the CRA beyond Overtown itself?

People often get the idea that everything is being done in Overtown and that all the money is directed there. That is not true. When I first came to work with the city of Miami, the whole east side of the city, from the railroad tracks to what was then the American Airlines Arena, was barren. There was nothing there but blighted lots being used for parking.

If you come to the Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency today, you will see what this CRA has done both on the west side of the tracks and on the east side of the tracks. On the east side, you can go to Lululemon, Earl’s, Serafina, Maple & Ash, the Museum of Ice Cream, and all of the construction and activity that is there because the CRA was able to assist those institutions with the infrastructure building of that community.

Most people look at it as if it is only the Overtown CRA, when in fact it is a CRA that is affecting all of Overtown and all of downtown Miami.