A developer scored approval for a 328-unit Live Local Act project in Miami’s Edgewater, amid a flurry of proposals under the state’s affordable and workforce housing law.
Gonzalo Espinosa, through an affiliate, plans the 36-story Sense 22 apartment tower on a 0.7-acre assemblage at 114, 124, 128 and 138 Northeast 22nd Street, according to an application filed early this month.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board approved the project at its meeting on Wednesday.
“I can tell you had fun designing it because you have a nice product,” board member Francisco Perez-Azua told the architect. “You guys have done a great job.”
Designed by the firm Anillo. Toledo. Lopez, Sense 22 will consist of one- and two-bedroom apartments. It will have at least 131 apartments at affordable or workforce rents. The Live Local Act mandates that at least 40 percent of units are for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income.
Miami-Dade County’s annual AMI is $87,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. This means a one-person household can earn up to $104,160, a two-person household can earn up to $118,920, and a three-person household can earn up to $133,800.
The Live Local Act, a state law approved in 2023 and tweaked in subsequent years, awards developers that include below-market units in their projects with height and density bonuses, as well as property tax exemptions.
It permits developers to build up to the maximum height allowed within a mile of their site. Espinosa can develop an 80-story tower, but opted not to maximize Sense 22’s height.
In 2023, he paid $8 million for the four-lot development site, according to records. It consists of a two-story single-family home and three two-story apartment buildings with 10 units, combined.
Developers have jumped on the Live Local Act with new project proposals across South Florida.
Also in Edgewater, developers Karl-Ulrich Ansorg, Yakov Elbaz, Ofir Gabriel and Amit Kort are using the Live Local Act to increase the size of their planned 44-story, 172-unit condo tower to 47 stories and 499 rental units. In February, the quartet, through their Tulip Development Group, listed the site at 3350 Biscayne Boulevard and 234-264 Northeast 34th Street on the market with an asking price of $32 million.
In south Miami-Dade, David Martin’s Terra turned its planned redevelopment of the South Dade Government Center into a Live Local Act project with 724 units. The site is at 10710, 10750 and 10800 Southwest 211th Street in Cutler Bay.
The Pérez family’s Related Group has several Live Local applications, including a proposal to supersize the Haley Sofge public housing complex in Miami’s Little Havana with a 1,038-unit project. The site is at 800 Northwest 13th Avenue, 780 Northwest 13th Court and 1389 Northwest Seventh Street.
In Miami-Dade’s Fontainebleau neighborhood, Keystone Holdings Group wants to build an 18-story, 477-unit Live Local project at 190 Northwest 79th Avenue.
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