Redwood pays $30M for townhouses near Opa-locka, plans conversion to workforce rentals

Redwood Dev Co paid $30 million for 75 nearly completed townhouses near Opa-locka, with plans to convert them to workforce rentals. 

Redwood bought the townhomes on the northeast corner of Northwest 119th Street and West Golf Drive from the developer, Lennar, according to the buyer’s news release. Redwood took out a $23 million loan for the purchase from City National Bank. 

The three-bedroom and four-bedroom townhomes will be completed in a month, and will range from 1,400 square feet to 1,800 square feet. 

The townhouses are part of Lennar’s much larger residential project on the former Westview Country Club golf course at 2601 Northwest 119th Street. 

The Miami-based homebuilder is building out the entire project, which is called Westview, on roughly 90 acres. The entire community will have single-family homes and townhouses, with completed homes selling for $451,990 to $647,990, according to Lennar’s website. 

Redwood’s townhouses will be rented out to households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, according to a company representative. Miami-Dade’s AMI is $68,300 annually. 

Redwood has been making a hefty wager on the multifamily market for the middle class in north Miami-Dade. Its portfolio of workforce housing in the area is valued at $140 million. 

The firm is fresh off scoring a $24 million construction loan for the five-story, 98-unit Mosaic Apartments at 13800 Northwest 22nd Avenue in Opa-locka. The project, which is under construction, doesn’t have deed restrictions mandating affordable or workforce housing rents, but Mosaic will accept rent subsidies from housing authorities. Other units will target South Florida teachers, post office workers, nurses, firefighters and the like. 

In 2021, Redwood completed The Mirage at Sailboat Cove townhouse rental complex at 14301 Northwest 17 Path in Opa-locka. The firm built 112 units in 23 buildings, adding to 59 townhouses built by other developers. The firm also owns 26 previously developed homes, giving it a total of 138 townhouses at The Mirage. 

The Mirage isn’t officially designated affordable or workforce housing, but accepts rent vouchers. This month, Redwood scored a $45.2 million refinancing from Regions Bank on The Mirage, according to a company news release. 

Redwood Dev Co is a joint venture between Miami-based real estate private equity firm BAS Holdings Investments and Aventura-based lender and real estate investor Winston Capital Partners, according to the release. Redwood is led by Brian Sidman, founder of BAS, and by 

David Burstyn, founder of Winston Capital. 

South Florida is in a dire need of workforce and affordable housing, as the tri-county region already struggled with rising rents and incomes that couldn’t keep up even before the pandemic. The influx of out-of-state residents that started in late 2020 supercharged the issue by driving up demand and rents. 

The skyrocketing rent growth slowed mid-last year, but rents aren’t expected to drop back to pre-pandemic times. Last year, Miami-Dade still ranked as the “most competitive” apartment market nationwide, according to RentCafe. An average of 32 hopefuls vied for the same unit, much more than the national average of 14 prospective tenants per apartment.