Magellan Housing and Miami Heat star Udonis Haslem to build Wynwood apartment project on city-owned land

Development to include 104 units of mixed-income apartments and 6,711 sf of ground-floor retail

Wynwood Works rendering and Udonis Haslem (Credit: Bobby Metelus/Getty Images)
Wynwood Works rendering and Udonis Haslem (Credit: Bobby Metelus/Getty Images)

Coral Gables-based Magellan Housing and its celebrity partner, Miami Heat star Udonis Haslem, scored a slam dunk with Miami’s Omni Community Redevelopment Agency.

Miami city commissioners — acting as the agency’s board of directors — on Thursday approved a proposal submitted by the partnership to build a 12-story, mixed-use apartment project in the southern edge of Wynwood.

The development, known as Wynwood Works, will receive city-owned land worth $6.5 million at 2035 North Miami Avenue to build the project, plus a $9 million cash grant from the Omni CRA that will go toward its construction.

The project will have 104 units of mixed-income apartments and 6,711 square feet of retail.

When completed, Wynwood Works will have a total value of $35.9 million, Omni CRA executive director Jason Walker told city commissioners. In addition to being a mixed-income apartment building, Wynwood Works will also share 45 percent of the annual rent payments derived from the ground-floor retail spaces, Walker added.

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“We are giving them a grant to spur development, and once they start making money, they have to start sharing money with the city,” said Omni CRA Chairman and commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. “That is important.”

Magellan Housing principal Nick Inamdar did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the proposal submitted to the city, Wynwood Works would provide affordable housing in Miami’s hottest neighborhood. “It will be a truly unique, mixed income community, serving residents transitioning out of homelessness to [residents making] 140% of the area’s median income,” the proposal states.

In October of last year, an Omni CRA evaluation committee ranked the Magellan/Haslem partnership first among three bidders to redevelop the nearly half-acre property along the southeast corner of Wynwood near the FEC railroad tracks. Wynwood Works’ mix of units will consist of 42 studios, 43 one-bedroom, 12 two-bedroom, and seven three-bedroom apartments, according to the proposal.

Haslem, a three-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat and the longest tenured member of the team, jumped into real estate development last year. He formed Haslem Housing Ventures, which is focused on building attainable housing for low-income and working class residents of Miami-Dade County.

In addition to submitting the Wynwood Works proposal, the Magellan/Haslem joint venture last year secured approval from North Miami’s city council to build a mixed-use project with 134 apartments and a 10,000-square-foot commercial building on city-owned land at 13780 Northeast Fifth Avenue. The partnership agreed to pay $1.5 million for the land and would spend another $1.75 million to remediate soil pollution at the city-owned site, a government-designated brownfield with high levels of arsenic, ammonia and pesticides.