‘Game changer’: At this Little Havana project, affordable means you own, not rent
What would an affordable housing project where residents can own their place look like? The City of Miami plans to find out with another Little Havana development.
Miami will issue a request for proposals from developers by early 2022 on an affordable housing project to span about two blocks adjacent to loanDepot Park in Little Havana, said the city’s District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is running to keep his seat in the Nov. 2 election. Carollo partnered with Mayor Francis Suarez on the project. The city is planning to build on one of the parking lots that it owns between Northwest Third Street and Northwest Seventh Street.
The city wants an eight-story project with about 184 condominium units. The units will vary from 415-square-foot studios to one-bedroom units with 615 square feet. The one-bedroom units are anticipated to be priced at about $100,000 and studios “a little less than that,” Carollo told the Miami Herald.
Project plans have been in the works since the summer and are part of a larger city and countywide effort to provide more affordable housing. For years, locals have left the city and county experiencing little to no wage growth and the rising cost of living and housing.
“This will be a game changer,” Carollo said. “People will own their own homes. They will have a stake down in the community they live in. It’s also an investment. The value of their home will grow in price every year. It’s not like you pay rent and you don’t get anything back ever.”
The city will award the project sometime next year to the developer with the “best price for construction and quickest time[line],” Carollo said. The city will cover the construction cost through a $250 million home ownership program that it first explored in late 2019.
“The difference is that typical affordable housing that you build, you get to see 100% of your investment in 100 years or more,” Carollo said. “Here we will build and within two to three years, or less once it’s constructed, we will get money back.”
The city will split the profit from sales with the development firm and invest the money to another affordable housing project, Carollo said.
The qualifications for who will be allowed to buy in the project are still being worked out, Carollo said.
Other affordable housing projects are in the pipeline across the city and county, including the 20-unit senior housing project the Heron in Miami Beach, 104-unit affordable housing project Patria y Vida in Little Havana and the 191-unit building Platform 3750 in the West Grove.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 8:54 AM.
