MMG Equity Partners advanced its plan to develop an eight-story apartment building adjacent to Plantation Square, a shopping center that the firm acquired four years ago.
The Plantation City Council voted Wednesday to approve a land use change and rezoning of the 12.9-acre shopping center property on the southwest corner of West Sunrise Boulevard and North University Drive.
Pinecrest-based MMG plans to develop a 308-unit apartment building just west of the shopping center, on 5.5 acres of the 12.9-acre site. The apartment building would include 77 affordable housing units with below-market rents.
The exact height and density of the multifamily development is pending approval of a site plan, Dan Holmes, the city government’s planning and zoning director, told the city council at its meeting Wednesday night.
MMG, led by managing partners Gabriel Navarro, Marcel Navarro, and Martin Pico, also plans to replace the property’s two-story Bank of America building and five drive-through lanes along North University Drive with a one-story building and two drive-through lanes along West Sunrise Boulevard.
In 4-1 votes on second readings, the city council changed the property’s land use from “commercial” to “commercial and irregular residential,” and its zoning from “central business district” (B-2P) to “planned commercial development district” (B-7Q).
Residential development is prohibited in the B-2P zone. MMGs’ property is in the northernmost portion of the B-7Q zone, where Plantation allows multifamily development. The B-7Q zone extends from I-595 to Sunrise Boulevard in an area between Pine Island Road and University Drive.
MMG has no plans to reconfigure the 69,000-square-foot Plantation Square shopping center on the 12.9-acre site. MMG is now finishing a $4 million renovation of the shopping center, the firm said in a statement. Tenants include Conviva Care Center, Japan Inn, Al Natour Mediterranean, The Vitamin Shoppe, and a Denny’s outparcel.
MMG Plantation Square LLC, a company controlled by MMG, acquired the shopping center property in May 2021 for $12 million, according to Broward County property records.
Plantation Square is directly across West Sunrise Boulevard from the Plantation Pointe office park. Its tenants include pet supplies retailer Chewy.com, telecommunications company Motorola Solutions, and augmented reality device maker Magic Leap, according to commercial brokerage CBRE.