An inside look at Wynwood’s boom: report

Wynwood is arguably one of the fastest changing Miami neighborhoods in recent years, and a new Florida International University report shows how the historically working class and industrial area has become an arts district dominated by the middle class.

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From 2000 to 2014, the neighborhood has seen a slew of changes: the number of owner-occupied units decreased by 36 percent, and more than half of the remaining units are worth more than $150,000 compared to just 5 percent in 2000, according to FIU’s Neighborhood Change series.

Wynwood has become a beacon of booming prices in this real estate cycle, with industrial properties that once traded for fewer than $1 million now getting snapped up by investors and developers for tens of millions. Those properties have either been converted to retail, restaurant and event space, or been knocked down in favor of new development.

Commercial rents have also increased substantially. In October, Tony Cho, head of Metro 1, said rents are now as high as $80 per square foot on Northwest Second Avenue in Wynwood — compared to $10 per square foot 10 years ago.

The number of Wynwood residents with at least a bachelor’s degree has increased a whopping 137 percent since 2000. With that, the number of households earning more than $50,000 has increased by 80 percent, according to the report. Despite those statistics, 74 percent of residents spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent.

Last fall, a slate of changes to zoning and land use designations allowing for denser residential developments on roughly 205 acres in Wynwood went into effect. Around the same time, 250 Wynwood, the area’s first new condo tower this cycle, was delivered. Developers launched sales for the six-story, 11-unit building in 2013, with non-penthouse units priced from $420 to $450 per square foot. – Katherine Kallergis