The Mad Hatter!!
October 29th, 2004, 11:29 PM
$500,000 grant announced for Overtown hotel
according to miami herald
Efforts to return Overtown to its former glory -- when Sammy Davis, Jr. and Sam Cooke entertained tourists in the downtown neighborhood -- moved closer to fruition Friday with the announcement of a $500,000 grant to draw a site plan for a hotel there.
Supporters hope the hotel, which would be the first commercial project in Overtown in a decade, would be a spark in revitalization of the historic area.
The Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida received the grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is earmarked for a 149-room, 85,000-square-foot hotel.
The $15.7 million project could generate more than 70 jobs.
The rest of the money is expected to come from a mixture of public and private sources, said John Hall, co-developer for the Black Archives.
For 20 years, Dorothy Jenkins Fields, a historian who heads the Black Archives, has sought to preserve and salvage the Overtown area, including the Lyric Theater and the D.A. Dorsey House, both owned by the Archives.
The donation stems from the collaboration of the Archives, the Living Cities Miami Pilot Cities Initiative, and the Knight Foundation.
''I think Overtown is much further along the way because of projects like this,'' Hodding Carter III, the Knight Foundation's president and CEO, said.
could you imagine that first the miami river,then edgewater,next d.district,then little havana and now overtown will be getting a makeover
according to miami herald
Efforts to return Overtown to its former glory -- when Sammy Davis, Jr. and Sam Cooke entertained tourists in the downtown neighborhood -- moved closer to fruition Friday with the announcement of a $500,000 grant to draw a site plan for a hotel there.
Supporters hope the hotel, which would be the first commercial project in Overtown in a decade, would be a spark in revitalization of the historic area.
The Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida received the grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is earmarked for a 149-room, 85,000-square-foot hotel.
The $15.7 million project could generate more than 70 jobs.
The rest of the money is expected to come from a mixture of public and private sources, said John Hall, co-developer for the Black Archives.
For 20 years, Dorothy Jenkins Fields, a historian who heads the Black Archives, has sought to preserve and salvage the Overtown area, including the Lyric Theater and the D.A. Dorsey House, both owned by the Archives.
The donation stems from the collaboration of the Archives, the Living Cities Miami Pilot Cities Initiative, and the Knight Foundation.
''I think Overtown is much further along the way because of projects like this,'' Hodding Carter III, the Knight Foundation's president and CEO, said.
could you imagine that first the miami river,then edgewater,next d.district,then little havana and now overtown will be getting a makeover