Mixed-use project planned in Miami-Dade emerging neighborhood

By Erik Bojnansky for South Florida Business Journal

A developer may soon be able to pursue plans to build another apartment complex near a future development site where more than 2,000 apartments can be built.

On Dec. 10, the El Portal Village Council is scheduled to vote on four resolutions related to The Launch at Little River, an eight-story, 152-unit apartment complex with a 2,500-square-foot restaurant space that Miami-based Barrington Brothers wants to build at 8300 N.E. 4 Place. The resolutions include approval of a site plan, a special exception, and two variances that will enable the project to move forward.

The Barrington Brothers’ The Launch at Little River LLC invested $5.17 million assembling the 1.02-acre site back in March 2022. The property is just north of the city of Miami, adjacent to the Little River waterway and next to The Kavista Apartments, an eight-story, 282-unit rental community completed by Barrington Brothers this past June.

The proposed Launch is also in close proximity to the former Little Farm Trailer Park, a 15.9-acre vacant property at 8500 Biscayne Boulevard that is headed toward a court-ordered auction on January 15. According to brokerage Avison Young, the zoning for the ex-Little Farm allows for the development of more than 2,300 apartment units. The Melo Group, a Miami-based apartment and condo developer, has a $35 million stalking horse bid for the site.

Most of El Portal consists of single-family homes and low-scale apartments. However, The Launch, Kavista, and the former Little Farm (now being marketed as Biscayne 85) are located within village’s Zone 5, a sector that allows multifamily and mixed-use structures as tall as eight stories. Ken Barrington, managing director of Miami-based Barrington Brothers, told the Business Journal that the half-square mile municipality, and Miami’s Biscayne corridor in the Upper Eastside, are among Miami-Dade County’s “best kept secrets” for future development potential.

Besides variances and a special exception, Barrington Brothers has also asked that the village designed The Launch site as a Green Reuse Area. Developers of such sites, under the state’s Brownfield Redevelopment Act, can obtain Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credits and other incentives. According to a staff report to Village Council members, there is evidence that The Launch site has high levels of arsenic in the soil and groundwater due to the property being previously used for agricultural use in the 1930s and 1940s.

External Source: Launch at Little River planned in Miami’s El Portal – South Florida Business Journal