Beacon Hill plans 112-unit Live Local Act project in Princeton

Beacon Hill Property Group will start construction of a 112-unit Live Local Act complex in Princeton, marking one of the first Miami-Dade County projects under the state’s workforce housing law to advance.

The Coral Gables-based firm plans the project to be entirely workforce housing, to include two three-story buildings and 145 surface parking spaces on the 2.7-acre site at 23815 South Dixie Highway in unincorporated Miami-Dade, according to the developer’s news release and Beacon Hill founder Matthew Martinez.

Construction is expected to start in July, and completion is slated for the fourth quarter of next year, the release says.

The project, called Beacon Hill at Princeton, will consist of 41 one-bedroom apartments and 71 two-bedroom apartments, Martinez said.

Beacon Hill bought the development site for $2.6 million last year, records show.

The Live Local Act, a state law approved in 2023 and tweaked in the subsequent two years, incentivizes developers to include below-market rate rentals in their projects through density and height bonuses, parking reductions and property tax exemptions. In exchange, developers have to designate at least 40 percent of units for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income.

Miami-Dade’s annual AMI is $87,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. This means a one-person household can’t earn more than $104,160 and a two-person household can’t earn more than $118,920 to qualify for a Live Local unit.

Beacon Hill is exceeding the Live Local Act’s minimum requirement for workforce units by designating all 112 apartments for households earning no more than 120 percent of the AMI.

The firm also isn’t using the height and density bonuses Live Local awards, but it will be awarded property tax exemptions under the act, Martinez said. Also, approvals for water, sewer and impact fees were expedited under the Miami-Dade workforce housing program that streamlines administrative processing for below-market rate projects.

Beacon Hill –– led by Martinez and managing director David Rothenstein –– is working to secure a construction loan from a Canadian debt fund for 58 percent (or about $10.5 million) of the about $18 million construction cost, Martinez said. The remaining 42 percent will be financed with equity from Beacon Hill and its capital partners.

Rents are preliminarily set at $1,700 to $1,900 for one-bedroom units, and at $2,100 to $2,300 for two-bedroom units, Rothenstein said.

“Those rents are forward-looking of course,” Martinez said, adding that pre-leasing will start after the project is completed.

South Florida developers have seized on the Live Local Act’s incentives.

In Miami Gardens, Cymbal DLT originally planned the 341-unit Laguna Gardens apartment complex as market-rate rentals. After the state legislature approved Live Local, the firm retroactively applied the law and designated all units as workforce. Laguna Gardens is at 20775 Northwest 17th Avenue.

In August, developer Daniel Abreu scored a $16.5 million construction loan for a six-story, 80-unit Live Local Act apartment building at 13650 Northeast Second Court in unincorporated Miami-Dade. The site is near North Miami.

Many other Live Local Act projects remain proposals pending in front of local governments, and developers haven’t started construction or secured financing.

The Pérez family’s Related Group has several planned Live Local projects. One of its biggest proposals is for a 1,038-unit complex on the Little Havana site at 800 Northwest 13th Avenue, 780 Northwest 13th Court and 1389 Northwest Seventh Street in Miami that’s partly home to the 1,379-unit Haley Sofge public housing complex.

In Miami-Dade’s Fontainebleau neighborhood, Keystone Holdings Group wants to build an 18-story, 477-unit Live Local Act project at 190 Northwest 79th Avenue.

Residential

South Florida

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