Atlantic Pacific proposes 71-unit affordable housing project on Liberty City’s Carver Theater site

Atlantic Pacific Companies plans to redevelop the long-closed Carver Theater in Liberty City with a 71-unit affordable housing project.

The Miami-based company plans the 11-story Lofts at Carver Theater building on the half-acre site at 6016 Northwest Seventh Avenue in Miami, according to an application filed to Miami-Dade County this month. Liberty City-based nonprofit Martin Luther King Economic Development Corporation is partnering on the project, a spokesperson for Atlantic Pacific said.

All apartments will be for households earning up to 80 percent of the annual area median income, which in Miami-Dade is $87,200. This means that to qualify for a Lofts at Carver Theater unit, a one-person household can earn up to $69,440; a two-person household can earn up to $79,280; and a three-person household can earn up to $89,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

Designed by Corwil Architect, the building will consist of six studios averaging 421 square feet, 40 one-bedroom apartments averaging 555 square feet and 25 two-bedroom apartments averaging 800 square feet, the application shows.

The Carver Theater opened in 1940 as a cultural hub for Miami’s historically Black Liberty City neighborhood, running shows until 1960 and then becoming a church, MLK EDC’s website says. The building has been closed for years.

In 2018, the city of Miami paid $1.4 million for the 15,300-square-foot building, records show.

Led by Howard Cohen, Atlantic Pacific is a prolific developer of affordable and workforce housing across South Florida.

In Miami’s Overtown, the firm plans an eight-story, 375-unit building with below market rate apartments at 800 Northwest Fifth Avenue. In south Miami-Dade’s Perrine neighborhood, Atlantic Pacific is developing the multi-phase Quail Roost Transit Village project on a 9-acre site on the southwest corner of Southwest 184th Street and the busway. The affordable and workforce-priced development will have more than 500 units.

On the site of Shorty’s BBQ and a nearby auto body shop in Kendall, Atlantic Pacific and Florida Value Partners proposed in 2022 a 20-story tower with 324 apartments and a 25-story tower with 176 apartments. The properties are at 9200 and 9180 South Dixie Highway. Records show the developers have filed no notices of construction commencement.

Developers have continued to plan affordable and workforce projects, which are more resilient to economic headwinds like higher interest rates and retrenching banks than market rate apartments. Developers of below-market rentals can tap into public funding, helping to close construction financing gaps. In South Florida, where many residents are housing cost burdened, demand for affordable rentals is high, ensuring quick lease-ups.

Lofts at Carver Theater has secured at least $14.2 million in funding from the city of Miami and Miami-Dade, according to weekly business publication Miami Today.

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