A development firm plans a 75-unit Live Local Act apartment project in Brownsville, amid a surge in proposals under the state’s affordable housing legislation.
Miami-based Biscayne Companies, led by Kenneth Fantes and Alejandro Reyes, wants to develop a seven-story project on the northwest corner of Northwest 27th Avenue and Northwest 54th Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, according to Fantes.
The development firm scooped up the nearly half-acre vacant lot for $1.5 million, according to the broker. Records show Ivan Rabinovich Development, as trustee of the JG 2845 Land Trust, is the seller.
Fabio and Sebastian Faerman of FA Commercial represented the seller and buyer.
The Live Local Act, a Florida law approved last year, incentivizes developers to build affordable housing through tax incentives and wiggle room on site zonings. Developers have to designate at least 40 percent of the units at the residential projects for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income for at least 30 years. This allows them to build up to the tallest height permitted within a mile of the development site, and up to the highest density allowed in a municipality or county.
Biscayne Companies proposes a smaller project than what’s allowed on the site and plans to designate all of the units for households earning no more than 120 percent of the AMI. According to FA Commercial, the development site allows for an eight-story building with 77 units.
The project would consist of apartments with one bedroom, one bedroom plus den, and two bedrooms, Fantes said.
An application to the county is expected to be filed next month, he added.
Founded in 2017, Biscayne Companies started as a value-add multifamily investor in Florida, Georgia and Texas. In 2022, the firm sold its entire portfolio consisting of about 1,000 units, switching its focus to South Florida development, Fantes said.
In Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, Biscayne Companies has plans for a 12-story, 99-unit apartment building, as well as a seven-story, 63-unit building. Also, in Miami’s Little River, the firm wants to develop an eight-story, 112-unit apartment building, according to Fantes. All units at these projects would be at market-rate rents.
South Florida developers have seized on the Live Local Act, with many proposing much bigger projects than site zonings allow. In the biggest Miami-Dade proposal so far, Spanish developer Pablo Castro and South Florida developer Laura Tauber are partnering on plans for a 3,233-unit complex with six towers, ranging from 26 stories to 37 stories, at 8400 Northwest 25th Avenue in Miami-Dade’s West Little River neighborhood.
Raanan Katz, founder of RK Centers and a Miami Heat minority owner, proposes a 1,050-unit Live Local Act complex on the site of South Florida’s last Sears store at 3655 Southwest 22nd Street in Miami’s Coral Gate neighborhood.