Coral Rock Plans Mixed-Income Florida City Rental Complex

Coral Rock Development Group plans a mixed-income apartment complex in Florida City, marking the firm’s continued bet on south Miami-Dade County.

The 342-unit Card Sound Key Apartments will consist of six four-story buildings on 13 acres at the southwest corner of Krome Avenue and South Dixie Highway, according to a Coral Rock news release.

The lot is one of the last parcels of land before Florida City gives way to the Everglades. Coral Rock said in the release that Card Sound Key is expected to draw residents from south Miami-Dade County and the Upper Keys.

Florida City commissioners approved the project this month. Construction is expected to start early next year and be completed in 2025, the release says.

The complex will offer one- to three-bedroom apartments, with 20 percent of the units reserved as workforce housing, and the remainder priced at market-rate rents.

The workforce units will target households earning 100 percent of the area median income, Coral Rock said via email. This means that a one-person household can’t earn more than Miami-Dade’s current $68,300 annual AMI, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

The Pascual, Perez, Kiliddjian, Starr & Associates-designed project will include a walking and exercise trail encircling the property, with workout stations, and a dog park, according to the release.

Rendering of Card Sound Key Apartments dogpark (Coral Rock Development Group, Getty)

Card Sound Key’s inclusion of workforce units comes as Miami-Dade residents have struggled for years as among the most cost-burdened in the nation. Population influx to South Florida since 2020 has only exacerbated the issue by creating unprecedented demand, leading to record rent hikes.

Although rent increases have abated since last summer, a RentCafe report still ranked Miami-Dade as the “most competitive” apartment market of 2022. An average of 32 renters vied for each available unit, far above the national average of 14 renters competing for an apartment, the report found.

This isn’t the first mixed-use project for Coral Gables-based Coral Rock. The firm is led by principals Stephen Blumenthal, David Brown, Victor Brown and Michael Wohl, according to its website.

In North Miami, the firm plans the 10-story Kayla at Library Place on the city-owned site of the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce at 13100 West Dixie Highway. The 138 units will break down to 55 affordable housing apartments and 83 workforce housing apartments.

Rendering of Card Sound Key Apartments clubhouse (Coral Rock Development Group, Getty)

Last year, the developer completed the mixed-use Pura Vida Hialeah with 260 apartments and over 50,000 square feet of commercial space.

Coral Rock’s plan to build the South Dade Logistics and Technology District on 378 acres outside the Urban Development Boundary has been at the heart of contention since last year.
The UDB is an invisible boundary meant to stop development encroachment onto farmland, wetlands, the Everglades and Biscayne Bay.

Despite strong pushback from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and environmentalists who argued the development site might be earmarked for Everglades restoration, county commissioners overrode Levine Cava’s veto in November.

South Dade Logistics, which will include industrial space and offices targeting tech firms, isn’t in the clear yet. After a resident asked the state to nix the project’s approval, Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity notified the county in a letter sent last month that Miami-Dade’s approval process may have been erroneous, the Miami Herald reported.