Postwar block houses and small multifamily
Allapattah is house country. In ZIP 33142, 38% of homes are detached houses and another 13% are in buildings of two to four units, according to Census figures. The median year built is 1966, and 42% of homes went up before 1960. On the eastern edge, in 33127, the median is 1960.
Miami New Times has described residents living in mostly single-family homes "dating as far back as the 1920s." Most of the stock, though, is the concrete-block house that followed World War II.
Only 29% of homes in 33142 are owner-occupied, so plenty of remodels here are for rentals.
The houses share the neighborhood with industry. Architectural Record describes Allapattah as a food-distribution and garment-manufacturing center, and the Rubell Museum, which opened in December 2019, reused six industrial buildings on a full city block.
House rules, plus the duplex question
The city issues permits here, filed online in iBuild. Because so many homes here are houses and duplexes, owner-builder permits, which the city allows on owner-occupied one- and two-family homes, apply to a lot of owners.
Like-for-like plumbing jobs, such as a new water heater, a toilet or a re-pipe, can go through the city's Easy Permit program with a licensed contractor. A full remodel can't.
Some listings here advertise duplex zoning or approved plans to turn a block house into a duplex. That's a change of use, not a remodel, so zoning comes before the building permit. Look up your lot on the city's GIS Zoning Tool before you buy or design around it.
Allapattah doesn't appear on the city's list of historic districts, so most remodels here don't go through preservation review.
AE in the middle and west, X to the east
FEMA's map tells a different story from the high-ground talk. Points sampled at NW 20th Street and NW 17th Avenue, NW 36th Street and NW 25th Avenue, and NW 20th Street and NW 27th Avenue all came back AE with a base flood elevation of 9 feet. Two points on the eastern side, near NW 12th and NW 14th Avenues, came back as zone X. Every lot is different, so look up your address.
For houses in AE, the City of Miami counts the 50% against the building's value only. You'll need a signed contract with a detailed cost breakdown and an affidavit from the architect of record saying the price covers the whole scope. If your plan is a kitchen, two baths and new floors all at once, have that conversation before you sign.
What makes Allapattah its own place
- Whole-house jobs are common. With this many postwar houses, a remodel often means the kitchen, baths and floors together, not one room.
- Duplex conversions keep coming up. Investors are marketing conversion plans, which puts zoning and change-of-use questions in front of a lot of buyers.
- Homes beside warehouses. Garment, food-distribution and auto-repair buildings sit next to residential blocks, and old industrial buildings are being turned into galleries.
- Recognition without review. The National Trust put Little Santo Domingo, the Dominican business corridor on NW 17th Avenue, on its 2023 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, and the state named Allapattah a Florida Main Street community in 2020. Neither adds a permit step.
Across the river, Spring Garden is a historic district with different rules. If you also own in Little Havana, the housing there is about as old.
Help for a block house, room by room
- Kitchen remodeling: updating the original kitchen in a 1950s or 1960s block house.
- Bathroom remodeling: replacing a bath where the original pipes are still in the wall.
- Home remodeling: the whole house at once, with the flood-zone math checked first.
- Countertops: new tops when the old cabinets are staying.
- Kitchen cabinets: replacing boxes in a kitchen that hasn't changed in decades.
- Flooring: tile over the concrete slab, sometimes with old terrazzo found underneath.
Questions people ask
Is Allapattah in a flood zone or not?
Parts of it are. FEMA's map shows much of the central and western neighborhood as AE, and some eastern blocks as X. A big job deserves a lookup of your own address first.
Can I turn my house into a duplex?
Maybe. It depends on your lot's zoning, and it's a change of use, so it goes through zoning first and then the building department. Look up the lot on the city's GIS Zoning Tool.
Do I need historic approval for new windows?
Probably not. Allapattah isn't on the city's historic district list. You'll still need the regular building permit, and windows have to carry Miami-Dade product approval.
What should I expect when they open the walls of a 1950s house?
Ask the remodeler to set aside money in the price for old plumbing or wiring they can't see until demo. Get how that allowance gets used written into the contract.
Plan the whole house, with the flood zone checked first
Call (786) 627-5048 and we'll connect you with a remodeler who works in Miami. Press 1, then choose kitchen or bathroom and enter your ZIP code. More than one room on the list? Choose the room where the work begins.