Going High-Rent in Humble Hialeah
Going High-Rent in Humble Hialeah
The mostly Spanish-speaking, working class city west of Miami is getting a residential makeover
With a majority Spanish-speaking population west of Miami that’s approaching a quarter million, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida — and the least diverse because it’s so overwhelmingly Latino.
The working-class city, just a few miles north of Miami International Airport, is in the geographic center of Miami-Dade County, where access to major roads and highways sustains a sizable trucking and warehousing industry in the city.
“Hialeah has been known as a location where Cubans can go and live and feel like they’re still in Cuba,” said Miami-based Matthew Rotolante, the South Florida president of brokerage firm Lee & Associates. “You’re going to hear predominantly Spanish, not English. You go to the grocery, it’s predominantly Spanish food brands and food types.”
In recent years, it’s become a magnet for multifamily developers in addition to the steady stream of migrants that have made Hialeah home. As Miami real estate values soared, and the circle of development widened, branching out from Wynwood to once-forgotten neighborhoods like Edgewater and Little River, it was only natural that developers would set their sights on Hialeah.
But the neighborhood’s unique makeup sets it apart from other Miami suburbs. More than 90 percent of the population speaks Spanish as a first language, about 70 percent were born in a foreign country, and many of them work in the local industrial economy.
“There’s a lot of employers,” Rotolante said. “Hialeah has got a nice mixture of retail, residential and industrial real estate. Not too much office. Hialeah has become a very important industrial market.”
Hialeah has 30 million square feet of warehouses and manufacturing plants (and more on the way) with a vacancy rate of 1.7 percent, the lowest of Miami-area submarkets, according to research from JLL. However, it also had the lowest asking rates, averaging $12.03 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to the countywide average of $15.11 in Miami-Dade.
“It’s definitely not a premier neighborhood,” Rotolante said of the industrial side of Hialeah. “It’s not as glossy or manicured as other markets. But it has a lot of utility for the people that are operating there. And it has a great employment base; you can get workers who live in and around there.”
The gritty local economy, in turn, has long supported rock-bottom vacancy rates at rental apartment buildings in Hialeah.
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About Lee & Associates South Florida
Lee & Associates South Florida is a fully vertical commercial real estate brokerage firm focused on industrial, office, retail, multifamily, investment and land sectors. Our dedicated team of professionals is led by Matthew Rotolante, CCIM, SIOR a 4th generation South Florida native in a family that has owned and operated commercial property here since 1928. Lee & Associates is the largest agent owned brokerage in the nation with Senior Agent’s ability to earn profit share resulting in the highest splits while still receiving full resources, support and leads from our national network. Our collaborative and cheerful culture allows for open communications throughout the company, fostering the sharing of information and best practices to better enable client decision making. The Lee & Associates’ robust national network that sold and leased over $32 Billion in 2022 offers clients a cross-market platform of expertise and deal opportunities across all asset specialties and representation roles. For the latest news from Lee & Associates South Florida, visit leesouthflorida.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, our company local news.
About Lee & Associates
Lee & Associates is a commercial real estate brokerage sales, leasing and management firm. Established in 1979, Lee & Associates has grown its service platform to include over 75 offices in the United States and Canada. Lee & Associates is the largest agent owned commercial real estate brokerage where agents get the greatest return for their efforts and hence are more committed and better enabled to provide superior results for their customers. For the latest news from Lee & Associates, visit lee-associates.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Link, our company blog.
