MIAMI — The midday sun was beating down on a forlorn, nine-acre section of the Overtown neighborhood last month, and there wasn’t a soul in the streets. Boarded-up shops faced the lots on one side, and public housing on two others. High-rise apartments and office towers in downtown Miami, markers of the city’s rapid resurgence, glistened not far off.
The nearly empty land will get a makeover of its own in the coming months if Major League Soccer awards an expansion team to an investment group led by David Beckham, perhaps the world’s most glamorous former soccer player.