Related Group boosts size of affordable housing project under Live Local Act
By Brian Bandell for South Florida Business Journal
The affordable housing division of the Related Group has boosted the size of its redevelopment plans for a public housing site in the West Little River neighborhood of Miami-Dade County.
Residences at Palm Court LLC, part of Miami-based Related Urban Development Group, filed a zoning application with county officials concerning the Palm Court/Palm Towers affordable housing site at 860, 930 and 950 N.W. 95th Street. The County Commission approved a 99-year ground lease with the developer for the 3.64-acre site in April 2023.
Located just east of North Shore Medical Center, the property currently has 191 public housing units in buildings of 11 and six stories. They were built in 1972 and 1975.
The original proposal for the site by Related Group in 2023 called for demolishing the 88-unit Palm Court and building 185 affordable apartments in 11 stories. The 103-unit Palm Tower would have been renovated.
In the new zoning application, the Related Group reveals it wants to demolish both Palm Court and Palm Tower. It would also utilize the state’s Live Local Act to slightly boost the allowable density on the property from 309 apartments to 316 apartments.
The Live Local Act allows developers to build affordable or workforce housing up to the maximum density allowed in the municipality, and the greatest height within a one-mile radius, without changing the zoning. It also allows developers to bypass a public hearing, which can avoid a County Commission vote in this case.
The new proposal calls for a 12-story building with 316 affordable apartments, 5,000 square feet of clinics for the Jessie Trice Community Health System along Northwest 95th Street and 247 surface parking spaces. Amenities would include a fitness center, a game room, a dog park and a garden.
The apartments would range from 576 square feet with one bedroom to 928 square feet with two bedrooms.
In the application, the developer said current residents of Palm Court and Palm Tower would not be displaced. They would have the right to move back into the Residences at Palm Court once completed, it said.
“We are proud to unveil our latest mixed-income community: a dynamic development comprising 316 units, with 191 designated as RAD units, created in partnership with Miami-Dade County PHCD,” Related Urban President Albert Milo Jr. stated. “This transformative project signifies Related Urban’s dedication to addressing the region’s affordability challenges while elevating housing solutions across all of South Florida. As part of that promise, we are working with PHCD to ensure every public housing resident currently living on-site will have the option to move into the new residences once the property is completed by June 2026.”
Miami-based Modis Architects designed the project. Local attorney Javier F. Avino represents the developer in the application.
“The redevelopment of these Miami-Dade County public housing sites will provide a substantial improvement in appearance to the community as well as providing new living facilities for the qualifying affordable and elderly tenants, including those individuals that may decide to move from the existing Palm Court and Palm Towers into the new residential building,” the developer stated in the application.
In recent years, county officials have moved to redevelop many of the older public housing sites to increase density by combining newly constructed public housing with workforce housing and market-rate housing. Related Group has successfully executed several of these deals.
External Source: Related Group boosts size of Miami-Dade affordable housing project under Live Local Act – South Florida Business Journal (bizjournals.com)