Bluenest Development bought a Homestead site with plans for 219 townhouses, as residential construction in south Miami-Dade County continues to surge.
The Miami-based firm scooped up the 20-acre vacant property on the southeast corner of Tower Road and Lucy Street in three deals for a combined $12.5 million, according to records.
In the biggest purchase, Bluenest bought a piece of the site for $5.5 million from an entity tied to Miami Lakes-based Florida Value Partners. Kathleen Moran of Q-Lab Corporation sold another chunk of the property for $3.5 million, and Q-Lab sold the third piece for $3.5 million, according to records.
London Financial provided a $3.5 million line of credit to Bluenest. The financing is for land development, such as water and sewer connections, said Bluenest CEO Salim Chraibi.
Bluenest will pay another $6.1 million once the sellers obtain final project approval from the city, Chraibi said.
The plan is for 219 townhouses across 28 two-story buildings, as well as a clubhouse and pool. Each home will have at least three bedrooms, with prices ranging from $430,000 to $470,000.
The project isn’t officially designated as workforce housing, but will target teachers, police officers, firefighters and similar professionals who are first-time homebuyers, Chraibi said. Construction is expected to start in the fall of next year.
Bluenest has a pipeline of more than 2,000 homes in south Miami-Dade. About a quarter of the homes are workforce housing, designated for households earning from 80 percent to 140 percent of the area median income, according to Chraibi.
Also in south Miami-Dade, the firm proposes 451 townhouses on 40 acres at Southwest 194th Avenue and Southwest 316th Street, with 100 workforce-priced. At Southwest 310th Street and 191st Avenue, the firm wants to build 72 townhouses, with 15 as workforce housing.
South Miami-Dade for years has caught developers’ eyes. The area offers buildable land that comes at a discount compared with prices in more centrally located markets such as Brickell and downtown Miami.
This month, Lennar dropped $16.6 million for a 38.2-acre site at Southwest 162nd Avenue and Southwest 276th Street in Homestead, where it proposes 105 single-family homes. Also, developer Lewis Swezy proposes a 132-unit, age-restricted affordable apartment project at 13841 Southwest 252nd Street in the Princeton neighborhood.