Developer and investor Vivian Dimond took over a land lease near Allapattah where she plans a nearly 900-unit workforce housing project, The Real Deal has learned.
Dimond, a principal at the Coconut Grove-based private equity firm Bayshore Grove Capital, said the project will cost an estimated $175 million to develop. It’s expected to include two 15-story buildings constructed next to the Earlington Metrorail Station at 2100 Northwest 41st Street in Miami’s Model City, on the northern border of Allapattah.
Dimond’s Earlington Metro LLC paid $9 million to acquire the 99-year land lease from EH Development, led by Alain Lantigua, in August, records show. EH Development signed the lease with Saint James Community Development Corp. in 2020. Miami-Dade County owns the 7-acre property.
Arquitectonica is designing the project, which will include 856 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, as well as about 35,000 square feet of retail space, according to a press release.
Dimond, who is also the broker at Brown Harris Stevens Miami, said it will take about a year and a half for the plans and permits to be ready to begin construction. Construction will be staggered so that one tower is completed ahead of the other. The workforce housing development will not restrict rents based on area median income, unlike affordable housing.
Model City and Allapattah are west of I-95, Wynwood and the Miami Design District.
Developer Lissette Calderon has a handful of apartment buildings in the pipeline in Allapattah. Last year she secured a $57.5 million construction loan from Churchill Real Estate for her latest development in the neighborhood. Fourteen Residences Allapattah, a two-building complex with 237 units, is under construction on the site at 1470 Northwest 36th Street.
Other investors in Allapattah include Moishe Mana, Jorge Pérez of Related Group and 1111 Lincoln Road developer Robert Wennett. In 2019, the city of Miami approved Wennett’s plan to build a 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use development that could include 2,400 co-living units and 637 traditional residential units, or 1,237 traditional apartments, on the site of the Miami Produce Center.
Dimond’s other projects include Le Parc at Lauderhill, a planned 330-unit apartment complex in Lauderhill. Last year, the Lauderhill City Commission approved a larger tax break for the project to offset the increased cost of construction.