Workforce housing project approved for South Beach’s Collins Park

A seven-story workforce housing project with dorm space for Miami City Ballet dancers will be built on a city-owned lot in South Beach.

The Miami Beach City Commission on Wednesday approved three ordinances that will enable Servitas, a Texas-company specializing in building student housing, to construct a 48,500-square-foot facility on a half-acre lot near Collins Park, South Shore Library, and Miami City Ballet’s headquarters at 224 23rd Street.

Once completed, the project will include a 32-bed dormitory for Miami City Ballet dancers, 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and 80 units of workforce housing.

Miami Beach has a goal to build 6,800 affordable and workforce housing units by 2030. In the case of the Collins Park Artist Workforce Housing Project, rents would range from $1,260 for a studio to $2,300 for a two-bedroom for households making between $51,200 and $89,600 a year. Artists, teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, and Miami Beach employees will be given first priority to rent within the project. Tier 2 prospective tenants will be employees working in hospitality and entertainment.

The retail space will be rented out for $28 a square foot, according to a city manager’s report to the commission.

The project is slated to be finished by 2023. “This is one of those vision items,” Mayor Dan Gelber told commissioners.

Although the project will be built on a surface lot with 21 spaces, the city manager’s report insists that the 513 spaces provided by the Collins Park Garage mitigates the loss of parking.

But attorney Tony Recio, who represents Palm Court office building owner Ronald Bloomberg, disagreed during the Miami Beach meeting. Recio insisted that parking spaces have been steadily disappearing around the Collins Park area. As a result, the Collins Park garage quickly fills up. Recio said it will only get worse if 58 spaces in the garage are reserved for the affordable workforce housing complex, as the city recommends.

“This is going to impact the neighborhood negatively,” Recio said, adding that the lack of parking will impact the ability of Palm Court, at 309 23rd Street, to operate. Recio begged the commission to defer the item for 60 days so this can be studied. But the commission approved the item unanimously.