The Urban League of Broward County expects to break ground next year on Village at Oakland Park, a 469-unit affordable housing development that will include for-sale townhouses west of I-95 in Oakland Park.
The Oakland Park City Commission on Wednesday rezoned the 19.7-acre development site, on the northwest corner of Northwest 21st Street and Northwest 26th Avenue, to allow for the development of 355 apartments in mid-rise buildings and 114 townhouses. The commission also unanimously approved a related land use plan amendment and a plat proposal.
“This is a milestone in Oakland Park’s and the Urban League’s history,” said Oakland Park Mayor Mitch Rosenwald at the commission meeting. “This is a catalyst.”
Eligibility to rent apartments or buy townhouses in the Village at Oakland Park will extend over a broad range of renters and buyers earning from 30 percent to 140 percent of area median income. Median household income in Broward County is $70,331 a year, according to the county’s Urban Planning Division.
“We hope this type of development will be catalytic not only to residential development, but also business, economic and community development in the area,” Germaine Smith-Baugh, president and CEO of the Urban League of Broward County, told The Real Deal. “The west side [of Oakland Park] is an area that has not seen any significant development, infrastructure or otherwise, since the 1970s.”
The 19-acre site in west Oakland Park includes 5.6 vacant acres owned by the Urban League of Broward County. The nonprofit bought the land for $448,000 in October 2003, according to property records.
The development site also includes 4.5 acres owned by Harris Chapel, which operates a Methodist church there, and a 9.6-acre property called the Rock Island Professional Development Center. The Urban League of Broward County has a contract to acquire the Rock Island Professional Development Center from the Broward County School Board for $5.6 million, Smith-Baugh said.
The owner of Harris Chapel Church agreed to apply together with the Urban League for a rezoning of its property and the rest of the development site, which increased the allowable number of apartments and townhouses planned for Village at Oakland Park, Smith-Baugh said.
No residential construction will be on the 4.5-acre property owned by Harris Chapel, she said, but her team is planning to reconfigure an existing community meeting center on church property after its early learning program moves to a new building of its own, next door.
Other amenities planned for Village at Oakland Park include a new 0.45-acre linear park, community garden and playground, as well as an existing grove of mango trees on the west side of the site. Open space will total 7.3 acres at the Village at Oakland Park, or 37.6 percent of the development, above the local minimum of 35 percent.
The estimated total cost of the affordable housing development is $170 million, Smith-Baugh said, and the Urban League of Broward County plans to cover the cost with a mix of low-interest loans and “philanthropic equity.”
After the Urban League recruits a co-developer to build the project, they will set the development’s below-market rents and townhouse asking prices, Smith-Baugh said.
“We have brought it as far as we believe we can as an organization, given our capacity,” she said, “and we’re looking for like-minded entities to consider.”
