A group of developers are proposing a 422-unit multifamily project on a former church site in Fort Lauderdale’s Progresso Village.
The plans come as redevelopment of religious sites has become gospel in South Florida real estate, with multiple projects targeting churches. While some developers replace churches with new buildings, others either retrofit the sanctuaries into offices and retail or build next to them.
Tal Levinson and Eric Malinasky are looking to build an eight-story building on the former site of the First Eben Ezer Missionary Christian Church on the southeast corner of Northwest Seventh Street and Northwest Fourth Avenue, according to the developers’ filings to the city. The 2.5-acre site is at 312 Northwest Seventh Street, 623 and 647 Northwest Third Avenue, and 616 and 624 Northwest Fourth Avenue.
The Fort Lauderdale Development Review Committee, which consists of city staff members, is reviewing the application, according to Levinson.
If the project scores site plan approval by the first quarter of next year, construction is expected to start in the second or third quarter of next year, he said. Completion is expected in the first half of 2028, Levinson added.
The project will consist of studios, as well as one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. About 43 apartments will be set at affordable rents, with half of these units designated for households earning no more than 80 percent of the area median income and the other half for households earning no more than 100 percent of the AMI.
Broward County’s annual AMI is $96,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
To qualify for an apartment restricted for earners of 80 percent of the AMI, a one-person household can’t make more than $64,560 annually and a two-person household can’t make more than $73,760, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation data shows. For the apartments designated for earners of up to 100 percent of the AMI, a one-person household can’t make more than $80,700 and a two-person household can’t make more than $92,200.
Designed by FSMY Architects and Planners, the project will include co-working spaces, a mini-market, courtyard and garden on the ground floor, Levinson said. The rooftop will have a pool, a 3,000-square-foot gym and a 3,000-square-foot clubhouse.
Levinson and Malinasky, along with their partners, have seized on redeveloping South Florida holy sites. The pair assembled the Progresso Village development site for $9.6 million in several deals in 2022 and 2023, according to records.
Investors Gilad and Avraham Ovaknin, Doron Malinasky and Eliyahu Levy are members of the entity that purchased the site.
The partners work with the congregations on the development sites to help them find a new home. The First Eben Ezer Missionary church on the Progresso Village site moved to an Oakland Park building at 3970 Northwest 21st Avenue, which Levinson and his team found on behalf of the church.
Elsewhere in Fort Lauderdale, Levinson, Malinasky and their partners want to build a 500-unit residential project with two six-story buildings on the southwest corner of Northwest Fourth Street and Seventh Avenue, which also includes a church site. The developers are considering using the Live Local Act for this project.
In Fort Lauderdale’s Dorsey-Riverbend neighborhood, the developers are proposing a 160-unit project at 500, 506, 510, 522, 530 and 534 Northwest Ninth Avenue. A portion of the site was home to Shaw Temple AME Zion Church, which moved to 2424 and 2525 Northwest 21st Street in Fort Lauderdale with the developers’ help.
Levinson and Malinasky work with the churches to find them a new home, then put the new sites under contract and transfer the contract to the congregations.
Others developers interested in church sites are Arnaud Karsenti’s 13th Floor Investments and the Ardid family’s Key International, which want to develop an 80-story condo tower behind First Miami Presbyterian Church at 609 Brickell Avenue in Miami’s Brickell. The church will remain intact and the tower would replace a school building and parking lot.
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