Lennar buys 40-acre Miami-Dade dev site, with plans for 231 homes

Lennar Homes bought a 40-acre development site in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, after abandoning a fight to lift a zoning requirement for workforce housing.

Records show Lennar bought 40 continuous acres between Southwest 336th Street and Southwest 340th Street for $7 million from Lime Grove Realty, headed by Sam and Roni Jacobson. 

Planning documents show the Miami-based homebuilder is aiming to build 231 “dwelling units” on the site. 

Lennar is led by Executive Chairman and co-CEO Stuart Miller and co-CEO and President Jon Jaffe. Former co-CEO Rick Beckwitt retired from Lennar effective the beginning of September. Securities and Exchange documents show he was given a $20.2 million separation agreement.

The Jacobsons, the sellers of the property, are Miami-area real estate investors and philanthropists. In 2021, they flipped a home on Star Island for $21 million, nine months after buying it for $12 million. Records show they bought a penthouse in Bal Harbour Tower for $6 million last year. 

They bought the 40-acre property, which is just west of Florida City, for $165,000 in 2009, after the land was seized in foreclosure, according to records. 

Lennar filed development plans last year for the Lime Grove property as well as 77 adjacent acres owned by Empower Holdings, a Florida entity managed by Juan Carlos Mas. The proposed development would span a total of 117 acres, and is zoned for 940 homes. 

The homebuilder had fought a zoning mandate that requires 20 percent of the homes in the development be reserved for workforce housing, according to filings related to the project. In its request to lift the requirement, Lennar argued, “The removal of this restriction would allow the developer to provide more market rate dwelling units to address the broader housing supply issue and improve overall market conditions.”

A letter filed by Lennar earlier this month shows it withdrew its application to change the zoning requirements. 

Miami-based Lennar is one of the most active homebuilders in South Florida and one of the largest residential developers nationwide. In August, the firm proposed a new development with 150 single-family homes near Homestead. Other projects in Miami-Dade include a 266-unit townhouse development near Princeton, and a single-family home project near Naranja with 80 units. 

In Palm Beach County, Lennar bought a development site for 166 houses for $48.9 million last month.