An affordable housing project and a separate villas and condos development are on tap in south Miami-Dade County, while Miami Freedom Park wants to create a taxing district to finance infrastructure improvements for the project.
County commissioners on Tuesday approved items setting the stage for the two developments and a Community Development District for the soccer stadium-anchored mixed-use project. The real estate items passed without much discussion from commissioners.
Here are the details:
Miami Freedom Park CDD
The Miami Freedom Park developers scored preliminary approval for the creation of a taxing district to bankroll $129.5 million for roads, water management systems, landscaping and other infrastructure at the massive project.
Community Development Districts are a common financing mechanism for infrastructure at large developments. They are quasi-governmental agencies overseen by a board that generally issue bonds to pay for the improvements and then repays the bonds through special assessments.
South Florida scions Jorge and José Mas, who are brothers, and retired British soccer star David Beckham are partnering on Miami Freedom Park. It will consist of a 25,000-seat stadium, which will be home to the developers’ Inter Miami CF professional soccer team headlined by Lionel Messi.
The stadium is expected to be completed this year, followed by an additional 1 million square feet of retail, offices and dining space, as well as 750 hotel keys and a 58-acre park with community athletic fields.
The developers are leasing a 73-acre portion of the closed Melreese golf course at 1400 Northwest 37th Avenue in Miami for the project.
Commissioners approved an ordinance on first reading for the soccer stadium CDD. The public hearing and second vote are scheduled for April 21.
Atlantic Pacific bets on RAD
Atlantic Pacific Companies, through an affiliate, plans 101 affordable and workforce apartments in West Perrine through the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. This makes the Miami-based firm part of a cohort of developers jumping on the Miami-Dade RAD projects bandwagon.
Atlantic Pacific wants to redevelop the 3.2-acre public housing site at 10060 West Evergreen Street in an unincorporated area of south Miami-Dade with 101 apartments. The site is in the West Perrine neighborhood.
This would be the third phase of Atlantic Pacific’s redevelopment of the Perrine Gardens and Perrine Village public housing complexes. A previous phase had about 270 units.
Commissioners approved leasing the site to the developer under a 99-year term in return for a $17 million payment to the county, consisting of a $1 million ground lease payment, 10 percent of cash flows, 30 percent of the developer fee and other payments, according to Miami-Dade meeting records.
The federal RAD program allows counties to have their aging, underfunded stock of public housing properties modernized or redeveloped by bringing in private developers.
In Miami-Dade, developers lease and primarily opt to raze and redevelop the properties, often adding density. They must replace all existing public housing units and offer them to existing tenants at the same low rents they now pay. To finance the additional affordable and workforce units, developers turn to the government for low income housing tax credits, state loans at 1 percent interest, and other subsidies.
Of the 101 West Perrine units, 50 will be public housing replacement apartments, records show. As a whole, the unit breakdown will consist of five apartments for households earning 30 percent of the area median income, 44 units for those earning up to 50 percent of the AMI, and 51 apartments for households at 60 percent to 70 percent of the AMI. One apartment will be for households at 140 percent of the AMI.
The project also will have a computer lab, gym, game room, art in the common areas and open spaces.
Atlantic Pacific, a prolific affordable housing developer, is led by Howard Cohen.
In Boca Raton, the firm plans the Residences at Martin Manor, scoring approval in November to increase its size by 105 apartments for a total of 200.
Lennar in south Miami-Dade
Homebuilding giant Lennar plans an over 200-unit residential project in south Miami-Dade, as part of the firm’s hefty development in the area where cheap land is plentiful.
Commissioners approved a plat for the site, a procedural step formalizing the 18.5-acre parcel’s boundaries, streets and individual home lots. Agenda records show the site is planned for 160 condos and 97 villas on the northwest corner of Southwest 109th Avenue and Southwest 232nd Street in the unincorporated area of Princeton.
Sales for the project, called Breezewood, have started, with asking prices from $485,000 to $528,000, according to Lennar’s website.
New York-based TPG Angelo Gordon, a private equity firm that also is a land bank for Lennar, owns the site, having paid $30.2 million for it last summer, according to records. Lennar outsources land ownership to land banks such as TPG until it’s ready to build. This strategy allows it to reserve large swaths of land for development in advance and hold them off its balance sheet, freeing up its cash flows to continue building.
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Miami-Dade approves three affordable housing redevelopment projects for south Dade
