Developers propose 760-unit affordable housing complex near Homestead 

A group of four developers proposes a 760-unit affordable housing complex near Homestead, marking investors’ continued wager on below-market rate apartments in south Miami-Dade County. 

Jose Guillen, Luis Murillo, Jay Taub and Sarie Wasserman want to build Magnolia Point with nine buildings on 13 acres at 16401 Southwest 296th Street, according to Guillen and an application filed by the developers’ affiliate to Miami-Dade County last month. The four-lot tract is on the northwest corner of Southwest 296th Street and Old Dixie Highway in unincorporated Miami-Dade. 

Guillen is a founding member of Miami-based mortgage banking firm Absolut Financial Resources. Murillo, who is Guillen’s son-in-law, also works at the firm. The pair’s real estate ventures, including Magnolia Point, are separate from Absolut Financial. 

Taub, who leads various IT firms, also is developing the project separately from his businesses, according to Guillen. He and Wasserman are siblings. 

An affiliate of the foursome currently is leasing the development site and has it under contract from an entity that ties to Taub and Wasserman. Guillen declined to disclose the purchase price, saying the deal is expected to close early next year. 

The first phase of Magnolia Point would consist of five five-story buildings with 400 units and 369 parking spaces, the filing shows. The second portion would have four five-story buildings with 360 units and 419 parking spaces. 

Units would be for renters earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, which is $74,700 annually. This means that the maximum annual income allowed to qualify for a unit is $43,380 for a one-person household, $49,560 for a two-person household, $55,740 for a three-person household, and $61,920 for a four-person household, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. 

The developers are asking Miami-Dade to rezone a portion of the land from commercial and agricultural to a mixed-use corridor district in the rapid transit corridor. The land is within a quarter mile from the busway, which is part of Miami-Dade’s Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit Program. 

The Live Local Act, a state law approved this year that aims to incentivize development of affordable housing, also could come into play in the project, Guillen said. 

“Whether we use Senate bill 102, it’s going to be something that we decide later on,” he said, referring to the Live Local Act. 

While one of the law’s provisions allows for the development of multifamily projects in commercially zoned districts if affordable housing is included, the legislation didn’t include agricultural land in the clause. 

In past projects, Guillen partnered with other investors on apartments, single-family homes, assisted living facilities and offices in South Florida, he said, declining to provide details such as specific sites. He did identify the recently completed, 194-unit Madison Point affordable housing complex at 26210 Parker Avenue in Naranja as his most recent development. 

South Miami-Dade, an area with ample supply of vacant land at a discount from development sites in the urban core, has caught affordable housing developers’ eyes in recent years. 

Near Naranja, Lennar wants to build 80 single-family homes on the northwest corner of Southwest 236th Street and Southwest 133rd Avenue.