A project to expand an apartment complex near Cutler Bay is getting a $40 million federal grant through Miami-Dade County.
Preservation of Affordable Housing, or POAH, owns Cutler Manor, a 218-unit apartment property at 10875 Southwest 216th Street. POAH, a non-profit developer, is proposing to use the grant to transform Cutler Manor into a 445-unit mixed-income community offering affordable housing, workforce housing and market rate apartments, according to a press release.
The grant is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
Cutler Manor was completed in 1971, records show. In 2008, POAH paid $6.9 million for Cutler Manor through a bankruptcy sale, according to federal court records. A year later, POAH spent $4 million renovating the two-story complex, including installing a new roof and putting in a new playground and landscaping, the company’s website states.
POAH, led by CEO Aaron Gornstein, owns and operates nearly 13,000 affordable housing units in 11 states and Washington D.C., the website states. The same year POAH acquired Cutler Manor, the firm also bought five other affordable housing projects in Miami-Dade for a combined $29 million from the same seller that filed for bankruptcy, federal court filings show.
Demand for affordable housing has become a critical problem in Miami-Dade. Last year, during a tour of Related Group’s Liberty Square redevelopment project in Liberty City, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, declared Miami “the epicenter of the housing crisis in this country.”
Meanwhile, population growth is fueling more multifamily development in Cutler Bay and surrounding neighborhoods. Cutler Manor is less than a mile from Southplace City Center, a $1 billion mixed-use project proposed by Electra America, a subsidiary of Tampa-based American Landmark, and Aventura-based BH Group. On a 105-acre site that includes Southland Mall, the joint venture is planning to add 4,395 apartments, a 150-room hotel, 60,000 square feet of medical office space, 150,000 square feet of retail out parcels and a community amphitheater.
In May, Electra and BH initiated the first phase, which entails an eight-story apartment building with 470 rental units, 14,000 square feet of retail and a parking garage.