Developer bets on Wynwood Norte, plans 200-plus apartments

Two years after Alexis Bogomolni launched his real estate firm, he’s poised to start construction on 217 apartments in Miami’s Wynwood Norte district by year-end, The Real Deal has learned. 

ABH Developer Group completed a 4.1-acre non-contiguous assemblage throughout the district, with plans to develop the properties into 13 multifamily projects with 24 to 150 units each, Bogomolni told TRD. In total, the Miami-based firm has paid more than $35 million for Wynwood Norte development sites since 2021. 

For the first chapter of his development pipeline, Bogomolni said he hopes ABH will start building six projects this year, ranging from three to six stories and from 24 to 51 units each. 

The developments will include a four-story, 25-unit building with retail at 3422 Northwest Fifth Avenue; a six-story, 44-unit building with six micro-retail units at 3332 Northwest Fifth Avenue; a three-story, 24-unit building at 355 Northwest 31st Street; a five-story, 28-unit building at 319 Northwest 35th Street; a four-story, 51-unit building at 3333 Northwest First Avenue; and a four-story, 45-unit building at 401 Northwest 34th Street, according to Bogomolni. 

Most of the properties consist of single-family homes or vacant lots, property records show. 

All of the projects will include rooftop amenities. Also, 20 percent of the units at each development will be workforce housing for households earning between 80 percent and 100 percent of the area median income. 

Miami-Dade County’s AMI is $68,300. That means that to qualify for an ABH workforce unit, a one-person household can’t earn more than $54,640 annually, a two-person household can’t earn more than $62,400, and a three-person household can’t earn more than $70,240, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s guidelines. 

Down the line, ABH also has a preliminary plan for a four-story, 150-unit multifamily project with workforce housing on a 1-acre assemblage of contiguous sites at 3129 and 3131 Northwest First Avenue; 75, 79, 85 and 93 Northwest 31st Street; and 84-86 and 90-92 Northwest 32nd Street, according to Bogomolni. ABH paid a combined $10.1 million for these properties, most recently completing the assemblage with a $2.4 million purchase of duplexes along Northwest 32nd Street. 

“Since that [project] is a bit larger, we are going to work on that a bit longer,” Bogomolni said. 

The 23-year-old developer started ABH in 2021 to carve out his own path in real estate, separate from his father, Gustavo Bogomolni, who is managing partner of development at Aventura-based MG3 Group. At the time, the hot South Florida real estate market made it tough for the younger Bogomolni to enter the development game. “The prices were rising very rapidly, and the numbers were starting to not make sense everywhere,” he said. “Luckily, we were able to find opportunities in Wynwood Norte.”

The city of Miami officially blessed the Wynwood Norte district with a zoning overhaul in 2021 meant to incentivize affordable and workforce housing development in the area. The district, as its name suggests, is north of the Wynwood Arts District and spans from I-195 south to Northwest 29th Street and from I-95 east to North Miami Avenue. 

ABH’s planned projects for this year come as other South Florida developers are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for expensive construction financing and high labor and materials costs to subside. 

While ABH’s financing capital stack is yet to be finalized, the firm’s endeavors are partly backed by foreign investors, Bogomolni said, though he declined to identify the investors. Also, the scale of his development pipeline in Wynwood Norte is giving lenders confidence, he added. 

“I am leveraging my connections … in the finance industry from my father, as well as my time in New York,” said Bogomolni, a New York University Stern School of Business graduate. “And leveraging the fact that it’s 13 projects and not just one.”

ABH joins several other developers zeroing in on Wynwood Norte. North Carolina-based Evolve Companies plans an 11-story, 105-unit apartment building at 475 Northwest 36th Street, and an eight-story, 141-unit building on the northeast corner of Northwest 35th Street and the I-95 northbound exit ramp. 

David and Leila Centner, the controversial owners of Centner Academy in Miami, have assembled land in the district, paying $4.7 million for 3442 and 3490 Northwest Second Avenue in March. They also own the property at 3465 Northwest Second Avenue.