South Beach Rentals

South Beach Rentals

Why not get a rental in South Beach. It can be a super place for a vacation. Why do you not buy, rent, sell or hire a vacation area .

South Beach is the section of Miami Beach, Florida that encompasses the southernmost 23 blocks of an island separating the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. This area was the first section of Miami Beach to be developed, starting in the 1910s, thanks to the development efforts of Carl G. Fisher, the Lummus Brothers, John S. Collins, and others. The area has gone through numerous man made and natural changes over the years, including a booming regional economy, increased tourism, and the 1926 hurricane that destroyed much of the area.

South Beach (also known as SoBe, or simply The Beach the area from 1st street to about 25th street) is one of the more popular areas of Miami Beach. Topless sunbathing is tolerated on certain designated areas of the beach. Before the TV show Miami Vice helped make the area popular, SoBe was under urban blight, with vacant buildings and a high crime rate. Today, it is considered one of the richest commercial areas on the beach, yet poverty and crime still remain in some places near the area.

Miami Beach is a city in Miami - Dade County, Florida, United States. The city was incorporated on 26 March 1915. Miami Beach has been one of America's pre-eminent beach resorts for almost a century. The city is often referred to under the umbrella term of Miami, despite being a distinct municipality, making Miami and Miami Beach two separate cities.

Miami is a global city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami - Dade County, the most populous county in Florida.

South Beach is traversed by numerical streets which run east west, starting with First Street and the largely pedestrianized Lincoln Road (between 16th and 17th). It also has 13 principal Roads and Avenues running north south, which, from the Biscayne Bay side, are Bay Road, West Avenue, Alton Road, Lenox Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Meridian Avenue, Euclid Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Drexel Avenue, Washington Avenue, Collins Avenue (Route A1A), and Ocean Drive. There are three smaller avenues (that do not run the entire length of the beach) in the Collins Park area, named Park, Liberty, and James. Most locals agree that South Beach's northern boundary runs along Dade Boulevard from Lincoln Road on the bay side of the island, and heads east-north-east until it connects with 23rd Street, which forms the northern boundary on the ocean side.

Ocean Drive is the easternmost street in South Beach, and stems from south of First to 15th Street, running in a north south direction. Ocean Drive is responsible for the South Beach aesthetic that most out of town visitors expect. It is a popular Spring Break and tourist area, including the famous, yet predominantly local, Pearl and Nikki Beach night spots. It is also home to several prominent restaurants and is the site of Gianni Versace's former ocean front mansion.

Collins Avenue

Collins Avenue runs parallel to Ocean, one block west. It is also State Road A1A. Collins is home to many historic Art Deco hotels, and several nightclubs to the north.

Española Way

Española Way, which runs from Collins Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue, was conceived by N.B.T. Roney (of the Roney Plaza Hotel) in 1925 as The Historic Spanish Village, modeled after the romantic Mediterranean villages found in France and Spain. Today it consists of art galleries, restaurants, and quirky shops.

Alton Road

Alton Road is the main westside north-south street located 1-3 blocks from Biscayne Bay. On the part that traverses South Beach, the road is host to many local businesses, including dry cleaners, small furniture stores, small grocery markets, non chain restaurants and fast food restaurants. It is mainly residential once it crosses Michigan Avenue north of South Beach.

Washington Avenue

Washington Avenue is one of the best known streets in South Beach. Running parallel with Ocean and Collins, Washington is notorious for having some of the world's largest and most popular nightclubs, such as Crobar and Mansion. During "season" (October 15 to May 15th) the street is jammed with traffic until early in the morning (as late as 6 am) every night of the week. In the 1990s explosion of South Beach as a nighclub venue, its nightclub moguls included Ingrid Casares, whose investors included the singer Madonna Ciccone.

Lincoln Road

Lincoln Road is an open-air pedestrian mall, considered South Beach's premiere shopping area. It is home to many restaurants and several night clubs, such as Score and Funktion, as well as many retail outlets. While Lincoln Road was one time rather downtrodden, with its unique boutique shops and restaurants, since the 1960s it has had "an esoteric chic that maintains its trendy appeal." (ref. Ocean Drive Magazine) It is located in between 16th Street and 17th Street and spans the beach in an east-west direction. Among the late 1990s restaurants on Lincoln Road was one owned by actor Michael Caine, and managed by one of his daughters. The restaurant has since closed. Lincoln Road commerce is greatly facilitated by the 17th street parking garage.

Residential neighborhoods

There are several residential neighborhoods in South Beach. The old stereotype of South Beach as a run-down retirement mecca for seniors is exploited in the Hollywood movie The Crew which starred Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Reynolds. In its early existence, Jews were not allowed to live north of Fifth Street, thus the area became known as SoFi (South of Fifth.) Today much has changed. This same area (SoFi) boasts many of the most affluent and exclusive condominium buildings ever to be built on Miami Beach. In fact SoFi, this relatively small area, now accounts for nearly 18% of the residential tax base for all of Miami Beach due to its high property values. The glittering glass towers of the area include the large resort like condominium buildings such as Portofino Tower and sister buildings such as ICON (spearheaded by designer Philippe Starck), Murano at Portofino, Murano Grande at Portofino, The Apogee, and The Continuum buildings (I and II). Now the hotspot encompasses the area from the Atlantic ocean east to Biscayne Bay on the west, and from Fifth Street to the South Pointe Park[citation needed]. Although mostly residential, the area has some light commercial (mainly restaurants, a few hotels and the Miami Beach Marina complex). This area has several notable nightlife destinations.

Flamingo Park is the neighborhood directly north of Fifth and expands from Alton Road on the west to Washington Avenue on the east, with its northern boundary being Lincoln Road; it does not include Lenox. This area consists mainly of low rise apartment buildings, with commercial development largely limited to Alton Road, Washington Avenue, and Lincoln Road. Presently, there is little notable nightlife, with the exception of Tantra on 15th Street. It is also home to Flamingo Park, one of South Beach's public parks, which includes recreational facilities such as tennis, racketball and basketball courts.

Flamingo West is a neighborhood of single family homes that spans from north of the Park to Lincoln Road on Lennox and Michigan Avenues.

Collins Park is South Beach's most "up and coming" neighborhood, according to the Miami New Times. The newspaper cites the new Sanctuary Spa Resort, an updated public library, and several open projects as evidence for its claim. Collins Park is contained by 17th Street to the south, 23rd Street to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and Washington Avenue/Pinetree Drive to the west. It is directly across from the Miami Beach Convention Center. Collins Park consists mainly of low rise art deco buildings built in the 1930s and 1950s; it is also the location of the Bass Museum of Art. The area is currently undergoing gentrification, as many of the old apartments from the 1980s (many of which still have bars on their windows) are being purchased by major New York and South Florida real estate developers to be converted into condominiums.

Additionally, many high rise buildings are located along Bay Road and West Avenue, and there are multifamily residences located north of Lincoln Road and east of Collins Park. The Flamingo, the world's largest apartment complex, is located on Bay Road.

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