Jorge Pérez’s Related Group scored an up to $5.7 million loan from the city of Miami for a 98-unit affordable housing project for senior residents in the Flagami neighborhood.
On Thursday, Miami commissioners voted to award the funds from the Miami Forever Bond program for pre-development and construction costs for the second phase of Flagler Villas at 5350 West Flagler Street.
The eight-story building will consist of 90 one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom apartments, according to city records. All units will be for households earning no more than 30 percent of the area median income.
Miami-Dade County’s annual AMI is $79,400, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. This means a one-person household can earn up to $23,850 annually, a two-person household can earn up to $27,240 and a three-person household can earn up to $30,630 to qualify for a Flagler Villas unit.
Coconut Grove-based Related, through its affordable housing arm, Related Urban Development Group, will lease the 0.7-acre property from the city under a 99-year term, city records show.
Related Urban is a prolific affordable housing developer in South Florida. It has seized on the state’s Live Local Act with a proposal for a 1,038-unit complex on the site of the Haley Sofge public housing complex at 800 Northwest 13th Avenue, 780 Northwest 13th Court and 1389 Northwest Seventh Street in Miami’s Little Havana. It also proposes a 398-unit Live Local Act project with a 14-story building at 750 Northwest 18th Terrace in Miami’s Health District.
The Live Local Act, approved in 2023 and tweaked last year, allows developers to build bigger projects than permitted by a site’s zoning and also grants them property tax exemptions if they designate at least 40 percent of units for households earning no more than 120 percent of the AMI. The apartments have to remain at below-market rate levels for at least 30 years.
Related also plans a 12-story, 316-unit public housing building at 860, 930 and 950 Northwest 95th Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade, near West Little River.
In February, Related scored approval to replace the 62-unit seniors affordable housing building, Gibson Plaza, with a 20-story tower with 345 units, which would be a mix of market-rate, affordable and workforce apartments. The site is at 3160 and 3170 Mundy Street in Miami’s Coconut Grove.