The Pérez family’s Related Group proposes a 398-unit Live Local Act project to take the place of the Claude Pepper age-restricted public housing building in Miami’s Health District.
Related Urban Development Group, Related’s affordable housing arm, wants to build a 14-story building with all units at below-market rate rents at 750 Northwest 18th Terrace in Miami, according to an application the developer filed to Miami-Dade County last week. Designed by CFE Architects, the project will include a 4,400-square-foot community center and 410 parking spaces.
The 3-acre, county-owned property is now the site of the 12-story Claude Pepper building with 166 units designated for elderly low-income residents, according to Miami-Dade’s website. It was completed in 1970.
The application shows the proposed project also is called Claude Pepper.
Related Urban is asking the county for a pre-application meeting, which is generally requested so county staff members can provide feedback on a project before a developer files an official application. Related’s application is filed to the county, even though the site is in the city, because the project is proposed under a Miami-Dade Rapid Transit System-Development Zone, an area near transit systems where the county has zoning jurisdiction. The site is near several bus stops.
Coconut Grove-based Related has redeveloped county public housing buildings into new affordable and public housing apartment projects before. This is the first known such Related project under the Live Local Act.
The state legislation, approved by lawmakers in 2023 and tweaked last year, incentivizes developers to include affordable and workforce apartments in their projects in exchange for height and density bonuses, as well as tax breaks. To qualify, at least 40 percent of the units must be for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income. The units remain income-restricted for at least 30 years.
For buildings where all units are at below-market rents, such as the proposed Claude Pepper project, developers can get up to a 100 percent property tax exemption.
Related – led by Jorge Pérez and his sons, Jon Paul Pérez and Nicholas Pérez –– filed plans in August to replace the 11-story, 103-unit Palm Towers and the six-story, 88-unit Palm Court at 860, 930 and 950 Northwest 95th Street in Miami-Dade’s West Little River with a 12-story, 316-unit public housing building.
Others seizing on Live Local include Helm Equities, which plans a two-building project with 162 branded condos, 116 apartments, 80,000 square feet of office space and 45,000 square feet of retail space at 4201 Northeast Second Avenue in the Miami Design District. Also, Condra Property Group wants to build a 17-story Live Local project with 282 condos and apartments and about 35,000 square feet of commercial space at 2115 North Ocean Drive in Hollywood.
