12/01/08

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Wynwood: Projects grow in Miami art hub

Goldman Properties donated this warehouse as a Wynwood annex for the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Soho Effect migrates south, too.

Miami-Dade County's Wynwood section is in the midst of a transformation from a warehouse and light manufacturing district into a hip artists' haven, and more development is on the way.

Sandwiched between Miami's Design District and downtown's Miami Performing Arts Center, now named the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, shoddy buildings in disrepair abut cutting-edge art galleries in Wynwood, and boosters believe galleries are gaining the upper hand.

It is home to the notable Martin Margolis Collection and the Rubell Family Collection. More recent arrivals include Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts and Gary Nader Gallery. The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami opened an annex in Wynwood, the MOCA at Goldman Warehouse, an art space created and donated to the museum for four years by Goldman Properties, a developer.

Wynwood's artistic pioneer was the Bakehouse Art Complex, which opened in 1985 in an abandoned bakery. The space was converted to studios for artists and a gallery to show work.

Wynwood has the "biggest density Miami has ever had of artists and galleries," said Museum of Contemporary Art director Bonnie Clearwater. With Florida's growing population, developers have set their sights on the area, which is considered ripe for more residential and commercial projects.

One plan calls for the conversion of a former rail yard in Wynwood into Midtown Miami, a mixed-use development. Spanning more than 50 acres, the project will include thousands of residential units and big-box stores such as an already opened branch of Target, and Circuit City. Appealing to artists, other developers are creating loft-style apartments in Wynwood such as the 100-unit Cynergi and Wynwood Lofts.

Since the 36-unit Wynwood Lofts opened last November, prices per square foot have jumped to at least $300 from $200 when the building first opened, said Adam Weinbaum, director of sales for Lombardi Properties, the project's developer. At that time, he said, there were less than 20 art galleries and studios in Wynwood and today there are around 50.

"We came into Wynwood because we thought it was the closest industrial area to Miami Beach, the Design District and downtown Miami," Weinbaum said. "We found this burgeoning art scene that no one knew about. As a result of prices on Miami Beach, artists were moving into semi-dilapidated art spaces. And we recognized it. We believed in it. And we saw where this neighborhood could go."

Goldman Properties, which built the MOCA warehouse, owns about 20 buildings spanning around 20 city blocks in Wynwood. The development company is planning to make Wynwood an "urban pedestrian center," said Goldman's founder Tony Goldman.

Goldman, who was instrumental in the metamorphosis of Soho decades ago, said Miami needs an arts center. "It had been galleries and artistic activity sprinkled everywhere with no central concentration," Goldman said. "Wynwood is the first time a major critical mass has evolved."


A show serves as a beacon

Though Miami-Dade has blossomed artistically under the radar for a while, the Art Basel exhibition has been credited with putting the county on the national art map. The annual international art show is the six-year-old offshoot of the world-renowned Art Basel in Switzerland. This year's event, being held Dec. 7 through 10 in the Miami Beach Convention Center, will feature works from more than 1,500 artists.

Artists, dealers, collectors and critics from all over attend Art Basel and the smaller ancillary art fairs set up during the course of Art Basel.

"There was art before Art Basel in Miami," said MOCA'S Clearwater. "It was already a city that was ripe for being conducive for a major contemporary art fair." But Art Basel "gave validation to this art scene."

Dora Valdes-Fauli, director of the Americas Collection in Coral Gables, said much of the growth of the Miami art scene can be attributed to Art Basel Miami Beach. "The change in Miami's art scene since Art Basel is amazing," Valdes-Fauli said. The Americas Collection, which principally sells Latin-American art, has been in Coral Gables since 1991.

"Coral Gables is an established city and it offers different things. The galleries that are there are going to stay there," said Jay Ziv, a senior vice president at Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, under the Colliers International umbrella. Ziv also owns a Coral Gables gallery, Gallery Ziv, with his wife.


Shifting from Coral Gables

Manny Chamizo, commercial director at Fortune International Realty, said that galleries want to be in Coral Gables because of its affluence. He is in charge of renting the brokerage house's second floor. He is only seeking a gallery tenant because he likes "the synergies between the real estate and the arts." Chamizo is looking for $27 a square foot for the 7,500-square-foot property.

Ziv has New York City art galleries in mind as he markets three Wynwood warehouse spaces. He's seeking between $8 and $12 a square foot to rent a 37,000-square-foot space. He is also selling two warehouse spaces in Wynwood for between $120 and $220 a square foot.

"Rents are cheap" in Wynwood, Goldman, the developer, said. "That's one of the reasons why it's so attractive for galleries to come in." And, "the spaces are great."

Compared to Chelsea prices, where gallery owners would have to fork over $80 or $100 a square foot, Wynwood is a steal.

Despite Miami's burgeoning art community, many people do not think it holds New York's cachet.

"Many of the really important Latin-American artists see Miami as a stepping stone to showing their work in New York," Valdes-Fauli of the Americas Collection said.

Clearwater, from MOCA, did not concur. "They're completely different with their own systems," she said. "You can't say one's more important than the other. I think people that open here want to be here."