by Arlington
Gilbert B Norman wrote:The big question is to what extent the FECI real estate holdings, such as Miami Central, benefit from AAF. In short, will Miami Central have whatever occupancy level the landlords deem sufficient with or without AAF. Will the Henry Flagler model of build the railroad and the people will come or the Field of Dreams model of if we will build it, they will come.Isn't the reality that the prime Miami Central site was going to languish under the shadow of Overtown--appreciating not much and producing no lease income--unless Fortress could find a way to attract new people to the site? With just a freight line, a brand new Federal Courthouse attracted nothing--a few bailbondsmen, and in-and-out car traffic from lawyers based elsewhere.
Now what will be interesting (off the rails) will be if Miami Central will revitalize the Overtown community. Such is to the immediate West of Miami Central and it is "not recommended" to be on the streets after dark. AAF has taken a step in that direction by locating their offices within that community. Will respectable law firms locate there or will the Bail Bondsmen displaced by Miami Central simply locate there along with the lawyers that feed them? The "flip side" is will Overtown scare potential tenants - particularly residential tenants - away?
What attracts "nice" people to live and work in a place? Easy access to other nice people who either commute in, live there, or work there--and amenities like easy transportation feed all that. Seems to me that Fortress deemed developing the Miami Central site too risky if all it had was a freight line cutting through (giving a "wrong side of the tracks" feel) and that a passenger line was just the ticket to both increase commuting ease, and to justify some monumental architecture to redefine the neighborhood's look (that happened to be a train station). Boston's seen something like in New Balance paying for both a commuter rail station and the Warrior Arena, a practice-only venue.
If you're Fortress, and you need a monumental building to plausibly redefine the neighborhood before you commit to a lot of new space, a passenger terminal makes sense. I don't think it fair to say Fortress would have built a station district "with or without AAF"...isn't it plain that they only built it WITH AAF and not without?
Last edited by Arlington on Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Trying to solve congestion by making roadways wider is like trying to solve obesity by buying bigger pants."--Charles Marohn