Pinnacle nabs $89M in construction financing for Princeton affordable rentals

UPDATED, April 18, 9:25 a.m.

Pinnacle scored $88.6 million in construction financing for an affordable apartment complex in south Miami-Dade County’s Princeton neighborhood. 

The development firm has started building the 215-unit garden-style community on 6.5 acres at 25155 Southwest 136th Avenue in an unincorporated area of the county, according to a Pinnacle news release. 

Dubbed Pinnacle at Tropical Pointe, the six-building project will offer one- to four-bedroom apartments reserved for households earning no more than 60 percent of the area’s median income. 

Miami-Dade’s AMI is $68,300, meaning a single renter can’t earn more than $40,980 annually to qualify for an apartment, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. The annual income limit is $46,800 for a household of two people; $52,680 for a household of three; and $58,500 for a household of four. 

The project is expected to be completed late next year, when leasing also will commence, the release says. 

Pinnacle’s financing package consists of a $37 million construction loan from Bank of America, and a $20 million permanent loan from Citibank. The developer also obtained $30.6 million in tax-credit equity, and $1 million from Miami-Dade’s Development Inflation Adjustment Fund, created to ease the expensive construction costs that ensued from a supply chain bottleneck caused by the pandemic. 

The financing package will be $72.3 million when interim construction debt is retired after the project is completed, according to Pinnacle.

Pinnacle bought the development site for $6.9 million in 2021, records show. 

The Miami-based firm, which also has a construction division, has a portfolio of more than 10,000 multifamily units in Florida, Texas and Mississippi, according to its website. Founded in 1997, Pinnacle is led by partners Louis Wolfson III, David Deutch, Timothy Wheat and Coraly Rodriguez.

The Pinnacle at Tropical Pointe project marks continued development appetite for south Miami-Dade. Aside from Princeton, the area consists of the municipalities of Homestead and Florida City, as well as the Naranja, Leisure City and Goulds neighborhoods. 

In Princeton, AMC Development Group wants to build four eight-story residential buildings with a combined 512 units at 12501 Southwest 236th Street. 

Pinnacle is betting on affordable housing at a time when it’s sorely needed in South Florida. The region was cost burdened before the pandemic, and the influx of out-of-staters exacerbated the issue over the past two years. Newcomers drove up apartment demand and rents. 

Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Live Local Act that will pump $711 million into affordable housing financing programs and incentives for developers. The funding is meant to prompt low-income and moderate-income housing development across the state.