Shadi Shomar, partners propose 278-unit workforce housing complex near Naranja

Shadi Shomar and his partners propose a 278-unit workforce housing complex near Naranja, marking their continued bet on south Miami-Dade County’s multifamily market. 

Shomar, Gonzalo De Ramon, brothers Ghassan and Roger Abboud, and Royal American Construction want to develop a pair of eight-story buildings on 4 vacant acres at 23435 Southwest 127th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade, Shomar and De Ramon said. The partners, through their Onyx Housing Group, bought the site for $6 million. 

Miami attorney and real estate investor Christopher Korge sold the land, records show. 

The project, called Naranja Grove, will target households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, Shomar said. Miami-Dade’s AMI is $74,700 annually, meaning that to qualify for a unit, the income limits are restricted to up to $86,760 for a one-person household; $99,120 for a two-person household; and $111,480 for a three-person household, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. 

Onyx Housing has submitted a site plan application to the county. If the project is approved, construction is expected to start in the second quarter of next year, and completion is slated sometime for late 2026 or early 2027, Shomar said.

The project marks at least the fourth development in the pipeline for Onyx Housing. Shomar, who is co-founder and principal of Miami-based luxury hotel firm Arte Hospitality, is pursuing his investment in Onyx separately from Arte. The Abboud brothers lead Miami-based tech and consumer products distributor Abboud Trading Corporation. Royal American Construction is a  Panama City, Florida-based construction firm led by Joey Chapman. 

Onyx’s pipeline of south Miami-Dade multifamily projects includes two other projects. In the Princeton neighborhood, Onyx plans the 337-unit Princeton Gardens with a nine-story building and a pair of three-story buildings at 24000 Southwest 127th Avenue. Construction is expected to start this year and completion is slated for 2026, Shomar said. 

Near Homestead, Onyx wants to build the 159-unit Regatta Point with two four-story buildings on the southwest corner of Southwest 296th Street and South Dixie Highway. The complex also would be set at workforce rents. 

Onyx has the 3.5-acre Regatta Point development site under contract for $4.3 million, and expects to close the purchase by next month, De Ramon said. Construction is expected to start mid-next year, and completion is slated for the third quarter of 2026. 

The firm also aims to expand beyond South Florida, with plans for a roughly 846-unit apartment development on 47 acres in Fort Pierce, De Ramon said. 

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Land of development opportunity: Builders bet on south Miami-Dade

South Miami-Dade, with an ample supply of developable land that comes at a discount compared with Miami’s urban core, has caught multifamily developers’ eyes. In Naranja, Jacksonville-based Vestcor wants to build a 570-plus-unit apartment complex between South Dixie Highway and the South Miami-Dade Busway, north of Southwest 280th Street. Also, Coral Gables-based MG Developer, led by Alirio Torrealba, proposes an 11-story, 258-unit building at 13480 Southwest 248 Street in Princeton. 

Homebuilder Lennar has seized on south Miami-Dade with multiple proposed projects. Most recently, the Miami-based firm filed an application for a complex with 105 single-family homes between Southwest 272nd and Southwest 276th streets, east of Southwest 159th Avenue.