A developer proposes a 166-unit Live Local Act project in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, marking a continuing flurry of project applications under the state’s affordable housing law.
An entity led by Khashayar Khazai and Shane Shapiro of Sunny Isles Beach wants to build a 23-story tower with 400 square feet of commercial space on a half-acre site at 521 and 531 Southwest Seventh Street, according to records included in a Miami board’s agenda.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board will vote on the proposal on Wednesday.
The project will consist of studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, the application shows. Under the state’s Live Local Act, at least 67 of the units, or 40 percent, will be for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income.
Miami-Dade’s annual AMI is $87,200, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
Khazai and Shapiro’s affiliate paid $4.6 million for the two-lot development site in two deals in 2023, records show. It’s now home to three two-story apartment buildings with 12 units, combined.
The Live Local Act, approved in 2023 and tweaked last year, incentivizes developers to include below market-rate apartments in their projects by allowing bigger buildings than sites’ zonings permit. The law also grants property tax exemptions.
Developers have seized on the legislation, in some cases proposing towers in traditionally low-rise neighborhoods. The Little Havana project’s site is mostly surrounded by two-story and three-story buildings.
Others Live Local proposals include commercial brokers Lyle Stern and Kerry Newman’s 24-story, 400-unit tower at 2186 Northwest 13th Avenue and 1330-1342 Northwest 22nd Street in Miami’s Allapattah, as well as former professional baseballer Alex Guerrero’s 41-story, 234-unit tower at 330-356 Northwest 37th Street in Miami’s Wynwood Norte neighborhood. Both projects are on the development review committee’s agenda for Wednesday.