In the heart of Miami's historic Wynwood neighborhood is an unlikely business district. "This has become one of the city's diamonds in the rough," says Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado.
Woo Lee says even though its been around for over 2 decades, "not many people know about the area. It's a little secret."
The secret spans 5 blocks on NW 5th Avenue from 24th to 29th Streets. Wholesale fashion stores line the street.
"This area is very unique because about 95% of business owners are Korean-American," Lee says.
On a typical weekday, this fashion district is bustling with activity with dozens of shoppers looking for deals, but the majority of customers are clothes and shoe retailer from the Carribean and Latin America.
For years, Los Angeles and New York have been the destination for wholesale fashion merchandise for retailers, but Lee says he and his fellow merchants are trying to bring them to Miami, and they are succeeding.
50 stores on NW 5th Avenue are owned by Korean-Americans, and all together, they bring in $100-200 million dollars in annual revenue, creating a large tax base for the city.
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In fact, the city of Miami credits the merchants for revitalizing the blighted area.
"The people are pioneers. That was sort of a forgotten area that could only be visited during the day ...They serve all areas. They don't target and special group," Mayor Regalado said.
Lee has been the man behind the district since emigrating from South Korea in 1985. Wynwood then was a virtual wasteland with empty stores and a high crime rate.
But land was cheap. From the beginning, Lee planned to create a Korean business district similar to larger ones in New York and Los Angeles. In 1990, Lee bought his first store, "Fashion Village," and by word of mouth, more Koreans started moving in.
Lee's best customers currently are Cuban-Americans who can travel back and forth from the communist island to sell the goods purchased from Miami. In 2009, the Obama administration lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans who want to travel and send money to their homeland, and half of the wholesale stores on NW 5th Ave are willing to sell to the public at wholesale prices.
Business is good, and Lee hopes to keep expanding vertically by adding more floors of stores to the one story block. Mayor Regalado says he is willing to work with the merchants to modify a current zoning law that does not allow for that kind of expansion.
It's all part of Lee's dream, and he hopes one day NW 5th Avenue will be better than New York's 5th Avenue, at least when it comes to the wholesale market.
