The Haccoun family’s Monceau Real Estate proposes a 120-unit apartment project in Naranja and a 252-unit development in Goulds, as the firm ramps up its Live Local Act pipeline in south Miami-Dade County.
Bay Harbor Islands-based Monceau wants to build a four-story building on a 2.9-acre site at 26710 Southwest 144th Avenue and an adjacent lot in Naranja, an application filed last week shows. The project will have 180 parking spaces, mostly in a two-story garage and some surface parking.
Monceau also plans a seven-story building on a 5.3-acre site south of the Black Creek Canal, between Southwest 117th Avenue and the busway that runs along West Dixie Highway, in Goulds, according to an application filed to the county this month. The project will have a 336-space parking lot.
Monceau –– led by siblings Adrien, Julien and Sarah Haccoun –– is partnering with SixPine and the Zibi family on the Goulds project, according to records and Julien Haccoun.
SixPine is led by managing partners Haig and Alex Sarkissian, the company’s website shows.
SixPine and the Zibi family came into the project after Monceau in October settled a lawsuit by a former development partner. Jason Talbot, principal of Workforce Housing Partners, sued the Haccouns and Monceau in September, alleging that they reneged on an agreement to buy out his stake in the site and tried to dilute his ownership when he declined their capital calls. A judge dismissed the case in October after the parties settled, court filings show.
“Jason [Talbot] is not involved. We bought him out and now we have two new partners,” Julien Haccoun said.
The Goulds building will consist of 120 one-bedroom apartments and 132 two-bedroom apartments, and the Naranja project will have 60 one-bedroom units and 60 two-bedroom units, according to the applications.
Both will be developed under the Live Local Act and designate all units for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, Julien Haccoun said.
The state law, approved in 2023 and tweaked last year, incentivizes developers to include affordable and workforce apartments in their projects by allowing taller buildings with more units than permitted on a site’s zoning. Another perk of the legislation is property tax breaks for developers.
Monceau isn’t pursuing bigger projects under the Live Local Act, as both proposals are for fewer units than allowed on the sites, the applications show. Instead, the firm plans to use the law’s 75 percent tax exemption provision, Julien Haccoun said.
Taller projects with more units are more likely to require cranes and garages, which add to project costs, he said.
That makes below-market rentals difficult financially. Monceau’s goal is to “deliver as many workforce housing [units] in Miami-Dade” as possible, Haccoun said, citing the county’s high demand and lack of below-market rate rentals.
Also in Goulds, Monceau plans a four-story, 90-unit building at 11905 and 11915 Southwest 216th Street, 21500 Southwest 119th Avenue and 21501 Southwest 120th Avenue.
Developers have seized on south Miami-Dade with plans for residential projects. Goulds, Naranja, Princeton and Leisure City are in an unincorporated area of south Miami-Dade. The area also includes the municipalities of Homestead and Florida City. South Miami-Dade offers large swaths of buildable land that come at a discount compared with sites in Miami’s urban core.
In October, Bluenest Development paid $12.5 million for a 20-acre site on the southeast corner of Tower Road and Lucy Street, where it plans 219 townhouses. That came on the heels of Lennar’s $16.6 million purchase of a 38.2-acre site between Southwest 162nd Avenue and Southwest 276th Street in Homestead, with plans for 105 single-family homes.