Brookstone, Cornerstone greenlighted for affordable rentals in Little Havana

A Miami projects review board greenlit two workforce and affordable apartment projects that will add nearly 730 units to the city. 

The urban development review board approved The Cornerstone Group and Brookstone Partners’ plan for 354 units in Little Havana, and Atlantic Pacific Companies’ 375 rentals in Overtown. 

The board only has the power to recommend approval, denial or design tweaks, with the ultimate authority resting with the Miami planning director. 

Here’s more about the planned developments: 

Cornerstone, Brookstone workforce rentals in Little Havana 

The Cornerstone Group and Brookstone Partners’ second attempt at project approval succeeded. 

The firms, based in Hollywood, plan an eight-story building with 354 apartments at workforce rents on a 2.4-acre site at 805 West Flagler Street in Little Havana. The project will have a roughly 5,000-square-foot retail space for a grocer or pharmacy. A rooftop pooldeck is planned, along with two courtyards spanning 8,000 square feet each, one of them with a dog park. 

The project failed its first shot at UDRB in November, prompting Corwil Architects to come back with a redesigned building. Revised renderings show curving balconies, among other changes, with board members largely hailing the tweaks as improvements. 

Vice Chair Gia Zapattini said the Flagler Street-facing façade still needs work.

“The goal is really for a pedestrian to not experience an almost 400-foot long façade,” she said.

Alberto Cordoves of Corwil Architects said breaking up the massing was the goal in the redesign, and architects can further work on it by adding more glazing. 

Board member Manuel Gustavo Gallardo argued 5,000 square feet is too small for a grocery store or pharmacy, but the developers’ attorney, Melissa Tapanes Llahues, said this will be a mini-market because demand doesn’t support a full grocery store due to recent additions nearby such as the Block 55 project. 

The board’s approval came with conditions to further break up the façade fronting Flagler Street, study other types of balcony railings, especially for the units on the ground floor and facing the courtyards, and provide more details of the landscaping. 

Atlantic Pacific Companies’ Culmer Place V in Overtown 

Atlantic Pacific Companies scored approval for the second phase of its Culmer Place affordable housing project in Miami’s Overtown, despite some board members’ concerns with the design.  

Miami-based Atlantic Pacific plans the seven-story Culmer Place V project with 375 apartments, including 94 units reserved for “extremely low income” residents and the majority for households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. 

Miami-Dade’s annual AMI is $87,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, though that will be updated in the spring. 

The development adds to the recently completed 239 affordable units on the site, at 801 Northwest Seventh Avenue. Atlantic Pacific received temporary certificates of occupancy for the first two buildings and the amenity building late last year, said Nicole Wolfe, an attorney for the developer. 

The firm is leasing the nearly 14-acre site, formerly home to a public housing complex, from Miami-Dade under a 99-year term. Culmer Place is constructed in phases in part to avoid displacement of existing residents. Redevelopments of Miami-Dade public housing generally give renters the right of first refusal for the new apartments. 

Culmer Place V also is designed by Corwil Architects. Board members brought up similar issues with the design of this project as they did with Cornerstone and Brookstone’s Little Havana building. 

“There’s another 376-foot long building, and I have a hard time seeing the separation. I know you changed the material, but I see a giant 400-foot long concrete block,” Zapattini said. “It’s very repetitive.” 

In his presentation, Sergio Rodriguez of Corwil said “special attention was given to the design of the façades … [adding] vertical and horizontal bands working in conjunction.” 

Board members brought up issues with the lack of natural lighting in portions of the building and long internal corridors and walkways from the garage, which could pose difficulties for elderly residents.  

The board approved the project with several conditions for tweaks, including to break up the façade, add glazing at the end of a hallway adjacent to the garage, including landscaping and benches, add double doors at some of the pedestrian building entrances, create more privacy for some of the ground-floor units and add signage to the site. 

Corwil Architects’ representative said designers are amenable to those changes.

Live Local Act projects can skip UDRB

Two Live Local Act projects on the agenda skipped the board hearing, after the developers and the city attorney’s office determined a review by such a committee isn’t necessary under state law. 

The Florida Legislature approved the Live Local Act in 2023, tweaking it in subsequent years. It allows developers to bypass public hearings and obtain administrative approvals if they designate 40 percent of units for households earning no more than 120 percent of the AMI. 

Crescent Heights plans 1,307 units with a 50-story tower housing 780 market-rate apartments and a 28-story building with the 527 workforce apartments. The project is proposed for the site at 3180 Biscayne Boulevard, a few blocks north of Crescent’s Forma apartment tower completed last year.  

Also, an entity with ties to Brickell-based Momentum Real Estate Partners wants to develop a 12-story Live Local project with 195 units and nearly 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.