The Roversi family of Miami-Dade County wants to build a 248-unit workforce housing project in the Brownsville neighborhood.
Guillermo Roversi filed an application for an eight-story building at 2301 Northwest 54th Street with 10,400 square feet of ground-floor retail in an unincorporated area, according to filings submitted to Miami-Dade this week. The 1.3-acre site is home to the county’s closed Emergency Housing Center-North, and near the Joseph Caleb Center and the Model City Branch Library.
The proposal is part of the Roversi family’s bigger plan to build affordable and workforce housing on properties throughout Miami-Dade on formerly county-owned sites. Under a county program, Miami-Dade conveys properties it deems as “surplus” to developers for nominal prices, in exchange for construction of below-market rate housing on the sites, county records show.
Miami-Dade has transferred 34 lots to the Roversi family’s House Park company, according to a May 2022 report from the county’s Office of the Commission Auditor that tabulated county site conveyances to various developers. Last year, the county transferred the 2301 Northwest 54th Street lot to House Park, property records show.
Designed by Orestes Lopez-Recio, the Brownsville project would consist of 160 studios, 76 one-bedroom units and 12 two-bedroom units, according to the application.
The Roversis are seemingly trying to keep a low profile. When reached by The Real Deal on Friday, Guillermo Roversi said they aren’t interested in publicity of their work. It hasn’t been decided yet if the Brownsville units would be apartments or condos, he said.
Founded in 2015, House Park has invested $6.5 million in Miami-Dade residential real estate and vacant lots, with plans to develop affordable housing on the land, according to a letter from the firm to the county attached to a 2021 commission agenda item on the transfer of some of the properties. The letter says the firm was founded by three brothers, though it doesn’t name them. State records list Guillermo Roversi, as well as Manuel and Vicente Roversi, as House Park leaders.
The family’s wager on affordable and workforce projects comes as South Florida experienced skyrocketing apartment rents and housing prices following an influx of residents over the past two years. While the rate growth has eased, rents aren’t expected to drop to pre-pandemic levels.
Brownsville isn’t one of Miami-Dade’s major real estate development and investment hubs. This month, Walton Street Capital bought the warehouses at 3455 Northwest 54th Street, 5530 Northwest 32nd Court and 5400 Northwest 32nd Court in Brownsville for $51.5 million.