Peebles’ team is top-ranked for Overtown project

From left, historic Lyric Theater was restored in 2000; Don Peebles and Barron Channer
From left, historic Lyric Theater was restored in 2000; Don Peebles and Barron Channer

UPDATED, 1:30 p.m., Aug. 20: A team led by South Florida-based developers Don Peebles and Barron Channer won a Community Redevelopment Agency bid to build a jazz and blues-inspired multi-use district on vacant land south of the Lyric Theater in Miami’s historically-black Overtown neighborhood, South Florida Business Journal reported.

Vetted by a selection committee, the Peebles Corporation/BACH Real Estate team’s proposal bested the second-ranking competitor, All Aboard Florida, the Journal said.

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The winning Overtown Gateway project includes affordable housing, jazz and blues-themed retail, a 150-room hotel, office space and public parking, with at least one tenant Florida Memorial University to provide classes for students and training for local residents, Channer told the Journal. The Lyric, completed restored in 2000, was the venue for jazz and blue greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Patti LaBelle Sam Cooke, and was part of a strip of theaters once known as Little Broadway.

“With Overtown, we are right at the edge of a very historic win that would mark a watershed moment for African Americans in South Florida real estate,” Channer said, adding that his team is entirely comprised of African Americans. [SFBJ]Emily Schmall