Lennar proposes a 277-townhouse development on Barry University land in Miami Shores, marking a significant downsizing of the homebuilder’s previously planned project.
Miami-based Lennar is under contract to buy about 24 acres of Barry-owned land immediately west of the university’s main campus at 11300 Northeast Second Avenue, according to a Barry spokesperson and a project brochure. The site is between Northwest Second and Sixth avenues, north of Northwest 112th Terrace. The price is not disclosed.
The project, called The Shores, would consist of two-story and three-story townhouses with two-car garages.
It has been in the works for at least two years and would mark one of the first major developments in the area in recent years. Miami Shores, a largely single-family home municipality, is bordered to the north by the La Paloma residential neighborhood in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
The Miami Shores Planning & Zoning Board will consider a designation of the site as a “community residential zoning district” at a workshop on Monday. The public also will be able to weigh in on the zoning designation at a public meeting on Thursday at the Doctors Charter School of Miami Shores at 11301 Northwest Fifth Avenue.
Following more than a dozen meetings among Lennar, Barry and Miami Shores residents since 2022, Lennar scaled down The Shores from the original proposal of more than 600 townhomes and multifamily units, according to the project’s brochure. It scrapped plans for multifamily units, as well as for gating The Shores, in favor of keeping it open, matching the rest of the residential development in Miami Shores.
Lennar would designate 1.5 acres of the development site for a public park with paths, dog park, pickleball courts and a tot lot, the project brochure shows. Also, a separate 1.3-acre portion of the site would be designated for Doctors Charter School.
The current school campus is on land the village of Miami Shores leased from Barry in 2003. Doctors Charter School and Barry collaborate on such matters as the use of facilities and science labs, dual enrollment and professional development training, according to a 2022 Barry presentation.
Led by co-CEOs Stuart Miller and Jon Jaffe, Lennar has been betting heavily on Miami-Dade with new project proposals. Last month, the homebuilder dropped $28 million for a 59-acre Homestead site at East Palm Drive and Southeast 12th Avenue approved for a 296-townhouse project.
In Aventura, Lennar partnered with the Toledano family’s BH Group on the $17.5 million purchase of the closed 104.2-acre Presidential Estates golf course at 19650 Presidential Way. The pair plans 103 single-family homes, which would be an addition to the existing adjacent Presidential Estates community, which has 136 homes.