Don’t be fooled by its name or dodgy fame: Miami’s Little River has big potential and is currently benefiting from major buzz.
Little River is certainly one of the town’s oldest neighborhoods. On account of its location along the pint-sized waterway that flows into nearby Biscayne Bay, it was certainly one of the primary places in Florida settled by indigenous tribes. From a bird’s-eye view, it looks like a 1.25-square-mile industrial eyesore. But on the bottom? It’s beginning to seem like it may very well be the following Wynwood.
“With quick access to the town’s essential arteries, it’s a neighborhood that blends the most effective of Miami’s eclectic culture,” said Dan Schor, a partner at AJ Capital Partners, a Nashville-based real estate investment firm that’s the world’s primary developer. “Over the following several years, we plan to develop a wide range of multi-family apartment projects, all designed to bring a human scale to Little River while preserving the neighborhood’s character.”
Expect, he said, garden-style residences and townhouses, in addition to low- and mid-rise apartment buildings.
Currently, most Little River listings are fixer-uppers. They vary from a 500-square-foot condo — listed for $148,000 — cocooned in a chain-link fence with razor wire at the highest to a 6,534 square-foot riverfront vacant lot — asking $1.6 million — in desperate need of a date with a landscaper. Still, Ramona Bautista, an area realtor with the Keyes Company, recently sold two listings in Little River.
“The neighborhood is evolving quickly, providing each buyers and investors with the chance to be a part of its transformation,” she said.
Nickel M. Goeseke, an area agent representing a $12.9 million waterfront mansion in neighboring Belle Meade, is optimistic. “Little River is just getting began,” he said, “and can proceed to enhance as an increasing number of people move and visit the world.”
Thus far, Little River’s biggest draw is dinner.
“The toughest reservation in Miami to get is now Sunny’s Steakhouse,” Goeseke said.
Just across the railroad tracks, foodies find Michelin-rated Ogawa, a 10-seat sushi bar boasting the very best rankings of all one-star Michelin restaurants within the US. More destination eateries are on their way including a 9,000-square-foot Fooq’s.
“I assumed this was an actual opportunity to create a tremendous destination dining venue with an excellent nightlife component in a neighborhood that was desperately needing it,” Fooq’s owner David Foulquir said.
Still, even he isn’t quite sold on living in the world quite yet — he’s shopping in El Portal, Little River’s neighbor to the north. Steve Santana, chef and partner of Off Site nano-brewery and kitchen, agreed.
“I might actually be surprised if you happen to found someone who lives here since it’s still very up and coming,” Santana said. “Plenty of growth and development on the way in which, but currently, it’s still a bit rough around the perimeters, if you happen to know what I mean.”
