Already reeling economically from the COVID-19 pandemic, rampant real estate speculation and looming gentrification, residents and business owners in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood are now confronting a new source of worry and uncertainty: The purchase by developers of a significant slice of properties along its main commercial street.
Some 20 properties, including the iconic Churchill’s Pub live music venue that’s been closed since March 2020 and commercial buildings housing neighborhood stalwarts like Sonny Sounds, changed hands in one fell swoop over the holidays. It was a massive foreclosure auction of longtime Little Haiti landlord Mallory Kauderer’s holdings along Northeast Second Avenue. Sale proceeds are not yet published in public records online, but pre-auction asking prices for one group of 17 properties came to $18.5 million.
Many in Little Haiti fear the sale opens the door more widely to big-money redevelopment and accelerated gentrification as the neighborhood’s Haitian-American population shrinks and characteristic businesses like botanicas and bodegas struggle or disappear. The buyers have not publicly disclosed plans or intentions for the auctioned properties. Even some tenants say they’re in the dark.
