Live Local Act Mega-Project Planned in South Florida

Florida’s new Live Local Act has spawned its first mega-project in South Florida.

A developer based in North Miami is planning to build six apartment towers ranging from 26 to 37 stories tall, encompassing a total of 3,233 units, at a West Little River site currently occupied by one-story buildings with residential, office and church uses.

The developer, 27th Ave Hollandpark Ecoresidences LCC, has submitted plans to Miami-Dade County for review under the Live Local Act, which allows for administrative approval of housing projects that exceed zoning restrictions if the developer reserves 40% of the units for workforce housing—with rents capped at 120% of the area’s median income.

The project, called Holland Park in the filing and The HueHub in the site plan, sits at 8400 NW 25th Avenue on a 12-acre site in proximity to one of the proposed stations for Miami-Dade’s North Corridor Metrorail extension.

27th Ave Hollandpark Ecoresidences, which paid $29.3M for the parcel in October, is leveraging the Live Local Act to propose a building taller than the current zoning for the site allows.

In addition to the six high-rise apartment towers, Holland Park will include two nine-level parking garages with space for 4,249 vehicles, as well as 57K SF of ground floor retail and a single-story amenities building.

The apartment buildings will surround an open central park with tennis courts and two pools. According to the plans, retail storefronts will surround the street-facing exterior of the project, which spans four city blocks.

An attorney representing the developer called the project, the largest so far to invoke the Live Local Act in South Florida, “a textbook example of how the Live Local Act addresses the housing affordability crunch caused by the shortage of workforce housing in Florida.”

Last month, Miami-based Bazbaz Development invoked the Live Local Act to propose a 48-story tower in Wynwood, where most buildings are less than a dozen stories.

Under the Live Local Act, enacted in July, Florida counties and municipalities must now allow multifamily or mixed-use residential developments to be built in commercial, industrial or mixed-use zones if the proposed rental development reserves as affordable at least 40% of the units for a period of at least 30 years.

Whitman Family Development, the owner of Bal Harbour Shops, a mall filled with luxury outlets in the oceanside village of Bal Harbour north of Miami Beach, has been trying for several decades to build a hotel next to mall.

Local officials and village residents have consistently blocked the project, which would be located on Collins Avenue, the main street of the village. The mall was built by Whitman in 1965.

Now, armed with the provisions of the Live Local Act, Whitman earlier this year filed an application to build a 20-story hotel and three residential towers encompassing 600 units, 240 of which would be priced low enough to qualify as workforce housing under the new law.