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Affordable housing nonprofit developing $53M apartment project in Goulds
113-unit complex partly financed through tax-exempt loans
A nonprofit developer of affordable housing is building a $52.7 million apartment complex in Miami-Dade County’s Goulds neighborhood.
The planned project marks a continued wager on south Miami-Dade and on affordable housing, at a time when many South Florida locals remain priced out of market-rate rentals.
Preservation of Affordable Housing, or POAH, is developing the 113-unit, two-building Meridian Point at Goulds Station on the corner of U.S. 1 and Southwest 216th Street, according to the developer’s news release. Meridian Point will consist of a seven-story, 80-unit building and a three-story, 33-unit building. Both will offer one-bedroom to three-bedroom apartments.
The nonprofit owns the 3-acre vacant site at 11850 Southwest 216th Street. It paid nearly $2 million for the property in two deals in 2019 and 2020, records show.
Construction started in March, and completion is expected in the third quarter of next year, according to a POAH spokesperson.
The financing package includes a $25.5 million tax-exempt construction loan from Capital One, provided through the Housing Finance Authority of Miami-Dade County; $23.1 million in a Hudson Capital and Capital One equity investment; $7.3 million of various types of loans from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation; and $2.6 million in surtax loans from the county, according to the release. Citi Community Capital also lent $11.6 million in a permanent senior mortgage.
The majority of the apartments, or 68, will be reserved for residents of Cutler Manor at 10875 Southwest 216th Street, under a project-based Section 8 contract. In 2008, POAH bought the 218-unit Cutler Manor and then implemented a $4 million renovation of the complex.
The remainder of the Meridian Point at Goulds Station units, or 45, will be for households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. To qualify for a unit at Miami-Dade’s current AMI of $74,700, a one-person household can earn up to $57,840, a two-person household up to $66,080 and a three-person household up to $74,320, according to Florida Housing Finance Corporation data.
Led by Aaron Gornstein, POAH develops, owns and manages roughly 13,000 affordable homes across the U.S., according to its website. The nonprofit has offices in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Last summer, the firm announced a shopping spree for apartment properties near the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. That included a plan to close on the purchase of a 318-unit complex called Jackson Park Terrace across the street from the center.
In Miami-Dade, POAH’s portfolio includes the 201-unit Campbell Arms Apartments at 800 Northeast 12th Avenue in Homestead; the 123-unit Southpoint Crossing at 897 West Lucy Street in Florida City; and the 225-unit Cutler Meadows Glen Apartments at 11100 Southwest 196th Street in unincorporated south Miami-Dade, according to the nonprofit’s website.
South Miami-Dade’s hefty supply of land comes at a discount compared with the price of development sites in the urban core. As a result, the area has attracted multifamily and affordable housing developers.
In Goulds, Ricadri Group, led by Adriana Guerrero, filed a proposal last month for a 93-unit apartment project at 21300 and 21320 Southwest 112th Avenue.
Atlantic Pacific Companies wants to develop a 116-unit affordable housing complex on the site of the Heritage Village II public housing complex on the northeast corner of Southwest 270th Street and Southwest 142nd Avenue in Naranja. The plan is part of Atlantic Pacific’s deal with Miami-Dade to redevelop four public housing complexes with a total of 605 income-restricted units.