A development firm proposes a 230-unit affordable housing complex in Princeton, as project applications continue to flow in south Miami-Dade County.
Miami-based Paxton Development Group wants to build the Legacy Park project, consisting of a pair of seven-story buildings with 115 units each at 13850 Southwest 248th Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade, according to a filing submitted to the county last week. One of the buildings will include ground-floor retail and the other will be designated for residents who are 55 and older.
Designed by Corwil Architects, Legacy Park will have one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments restricted for renters who earn up to 140 percent of the area median income. Miami-Dade’s annual AMI is $87,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
Paxton, led by Nik Echeverria and Mario Sariol, paid $1 million for the 5.1-acre site consisting of two vacant lots in 2017, records show. It has wanted to develop the site ever since then, tweaking its proposed project multiple times over the past eight years.
In 2017, Paxton sought a rezoning that would allow for an up to four-story multifamily project with 156 units designated for households earning up to 140 percent of the AMI, records show. Paxton then proposed five three-story buildings with up to 144 apartments in 2018.
After several more tweaks over the years, Paxton in November filed for a pre-application site plan review for an up to seven-story, 259-unit multifamily complex under the Live Local Act. The state law allows developers to build bigger buildings as long as at least 40 percent of the apartments are for households earning no more than 120 percent of the AMI.
Records show that in February, Paxton again tweaked its application, settling on the latest proposal for 230 apartments in two seven-story buildings. The latest filing makes no mention of the Live Local Act, and instead says Legacy Place is now designed in accordance with the Miami-Dade County Workforce Housing Development Program and the Princeton Community Urban Center guidelines. The two programs collectively allow for two bonus stories and 25 percent more density.
Miami-Dade created the Princeton Community Urban Center over 10 years ago by upzoning an area of the Princeton neighborhood near the busway to incentivize more development. The county also designated similar community urban centers in south Miami-Dade’s Naranja, Goulds and other neighborhoods. Despite the upzonings, the districts remained largely undeveloped for years.
Over the past five years, developers have seized on south Miami-Dade, including the community urban centers, with project proposals. South Miami-Dade, home to the municipalities of Homestead and Florida City, as well as Naranja, Princeton, Goulds, Leisure City and other unincorporated neighborhoods, has a hefty supply of buildable land that sells for less than properties in Miami’s urban core.
In Naranja, Alcazar Development Group plans a 211-unit multifamily complex with 27 units at workforce rents on the southeast corner of Southwest 280th Street/Waldin Drive and Southwest 152nd Avenue.
In Princeton, Beacon Hill Property Group plans a 112-unit Live Local Act complex with two three-story buildings at 23815 South Dixie Highway. And Pinnacle proposes a 110-unit affordable apartment building for renters who are at least 55 years old on the southeast corner of South Dixie Highway and Southwest 250th Street.