East Coast Railway Vision Plan

An exhaustive study of over 1400 acres of the Florida East Coast Railroad corridor in the City of Miami uncovered a number of economic development and design opportunities for a collection of disinvested neighborhoods in this industrial corridor. The plan recommended both neighborhood improvements and regional improvements through transit and roadway enhancements to connect this disjointed corridor to Downtown Miami and the central business district.

Several very important initiatives and projects evolved from this plan including: (1) Midtown Miami, a 56-acre commercial mixed-use infill development project on a formerly vacant site used to store shipping containers for the port of Miami, has reconnected disinvested neighborhoods to create a new neighborhood activity center with major retailers, housing, and open space amenities; (2) Major infrastructure improvements for Midtown Miami which included new streets to reconnect the site to the surrounding street grid; (3) Creation of a CRA to fund improvements to Midtown; (4) CRA update for the Omni CRA; (5) Little Haiti Cultural Campus: a cultural and park facility for a large Haitian community; (6) Omni Entertainment and Music District and the Miami Performing Arts Center, an ever-emerging music and entertainment district which has grown from its physical connections to the new PAC; (7) A tri-county study by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority to utilize the existing FEC rail line for passenger rail.