Pinnacle Housing Group and its partners advanced its plan to build a 196-unit Live Local Act affordable housing complex with separate buildings for seniors and workforce tenants in Fort Lauderdale’s Cypress Creek area.
The Fort Lauderdale City Commission last week approved a $640,000 loan commitment to help the Miami-based developer finance construction of 96 rent-controlled, workforce housing units for the second phase of its Pinnacle at Cypress project.
The city’s loan is contingent on Pinnacle qualifying for an allocation of 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the Florida Housing Finance Corp. which the company would provide to institutional investors in phase two of the Pinnacle at Cypress development.
Last year, the city commission approved a contingent $640,000 loan for phase one of Pinnacle at Cypress, which will be 100 apartments for seniors. But Pinnacle subsequently failed to qualify for a 2024 allocation of 9 percent tax credits. Last week, the commission reassigned the $640,000 loan commitment to phase two of the affordable housing development.
Though Pinnacle did not obtain 9 percent low-income housing tax credits last year, the developer landed other types of financing for phase one of Pinnacle at Cypress, including a State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL). In addition, “We’ve gotten a bond inducement from the Broward County Housing Finance Authority, and we’re in the process of applying now for some additional Broward County gap financing,” Timothy Wheat, a partner of Pinnacle, told The Real Deal.
The developer will break ground in the first quarter of 2026 for construction of 100 affordable apartments for seniors in phase one, Wheat said. Pinnacle will complete construction of the two-phased development in June 2028, according to a conceptual timeline the developer submitted to the city.
The total cost of the development is nearly $90 million, he said.
Eligibility to become a tenant of Pinnacle at Cypress is based on area median income. On average, tenants of the senior and workforce housing units will earn 60 percent of AMI. AMI is $81,900, according to the Broward Housing Council.
Pinnacle is led by partners Louis Wolfson III, David Deutch, Wheat and Coraly Rodriguez and Hugo Pacanins.
The 1.8-acre site of Pinnacle at Cypress at 6250 North Andrews Avenue is owned by Poliakoff Becker & Strietfeld LLP, led by Fort Lauderdale attorney Keith M. Poliakoff. He said that he and other owners of the site entered a partnership with Pinnacle to develop the affordable housing complex.
Poliakoff also said the development at Cypress Creek will qualify for streamlined city approval by city staff under the state’s Live Local Act, which encourages commercial-industrial multifamily developments with an affordable housing component in areas not zoned for residential property.
“This development will move much quicker than other affordable deals, because it generally does not require board approvals,” Poliakoff said.
The MS Foundation, which occupies an office building on the phase-two portion of the development site, will relocate to ground-floor office space in the 100-unit apartment building for seniors.