The Collins Center held an Overtown Folklife Village Redevelopment Workshop to discuss the area's goals and objectives.  Redevelopment plans for the Folklife Village, a two-block area in Overtown, include transforming the area into an entertainment, restaurant and shopping neighborhood center and urban attraction. The Florida Secretary of State designated the Folklife Village a Florida Main Street program in 1999.

 

During this half-day meeting, Overtown Civic Partnership and Design Center director Phil Bacon and Collins Center president Rod Petrey reviewed the goals and objectives of the Folklife Village. Neighborhood stakeholders attending the meeting included property owners, government representatives, community redevelopment organization members and Crosswinds Communities, the private developer the Collins Center has selected as its partner for redevelopment efforts in Overtown.

A visioning exercise was led by Ray Gindroz, a co-founder and principal of award-winning Urban Design Associates. The exercise was conducted to establish “Goals, Principles & Elements of Revitalization of the Folklife Village Area.”

During the exercise, participants were given the opportunity, using a model of the Overtown community, to move models of different types of buildings around within the community as they discussed how the Folklife Village should be developed. A key concern of the participants was to find a way to redevelop the area while conserving the flavor and integrity of the community and its history.