Developer Avra Jain is “not afraid to go west.”
The Vagabond Group founder spoke with The Real Deal’s Amir Korangy on the latest episode of Coffee Talk, sharing insights about what it means to be a developer and what’s next for Miami’s hottest neighborhoods.
An early investor in now-trendy Wynwood, Jain is out amidst a zoning overhaul in the area. “When they change the zoning, they change the neighborhood,” she noted. “Now the big boys are in there, and they’re gonna, you know, do a little city, I guess.”
This, Jain said, is why she focuses on adapting neighborhoods rather than building individual developments. “The zoning can’t change,” she said. “So I have insurance. Nobody can go next door and knock down a building and build an ugly 10-story building.”
She prefers to be the force behind the change. When she started redeveloping the Vagabond Motel on Biscayne Boulevard, it was “an area where it was $20 an hour, $30 a night.” Now one of her buildings in the area houses a Starbucks — and formerly, TRD’s first Miami bureau office.
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