Overtown runs from Northwest Fifth Street to 20th Street and is bounded on the west by the Miami River and State Road 836 and on the east by the Florida East Coast Railway tracks on Northwest First Avenue. In addition to Simkins, a handful of other buyers have proven to be increasingly bullish on apartment buildings and vacant parcels between Northwest Eighth and 12th streets and Northwest First and Third avenues.

The properties that have been snapped up are in close proximity to three grand-scale, mixed-use developments: All Aboard Florida’s MiamiCentral, Miami Worldcenter, and Simkin’s proposed Miami Innovation Tower, the signature piece to a technology district he wants to develop in Park West, the neighborhood directly abutting Overtown.

“The area we are focused on was the main commercial corridor for historic Overtown,” Simkins said. “The Overtown of the 1940s was a thriving place. The neighborhood has soul and character.”