This real-estate feature from the South Florida ֱ highlights the latest plans for new construction as demand rises for more housing, offices and stores across the region. You can submit questions or by emailing buildings@sunsentinel.com, if you’re wondering about “what’s being built there?” in your community. Here’s one of the latest projects.
The location? .
What’s planned? Pinnacle at La Cabaña, a five-story, 110-unit affordable housing development for seniors, is being constructed in Miramar. Everyone living in the unit must be age 62 or older.
“It’s a priority,” said Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam, of the focus on seniors. “We started with our most vulnerable population. Many of our seniors are living off Social Security, they are on fixed incomes; If you can imagine the challenge of affording market-priced rent is next to impossible at that income base.”
To make affordable housing happen, Pinnacle, the developer, used a half-dozen financing sources for the $41.2 million project, including millions of dollars in bank construction loans, and another $27.3 million in Housing Tax Credit equity from Bank of America, which as a partner won’t get paid back but will get tax benefits. Groups like Florida Housing Finance Corp. and United Way of Broward County also gave loans, and the city of Miramar offered up a $656,000 loan.
“There was no one place we could get everything we need,” said Pinnacle Partner Tim Wheat. “Projects that used to have two, three sources of financing now have four, five, six. It’s the byproduct of the rapid rises in construction costs and declining cash flow performance caused by taxes and insurance.”
What amenities will be on site? Pinnacle at La Cabaña will be one- and two-bedroom apartments and amenities will include meeting spaces, a fitness center, a computer room, a dog walk area, outdoor putting green and cornhole.
What will the apartments cost? Eleven units will be reserved for seniors at the lowest income level, with most apartments set aside for renters earning 60% of the area median income. That means a one-person household would generally not earn more than $40,000 and a two-person household would be capped at $46,000 a year. The rent is anticipated to be between $1,100 and $1,400 a month at those income levels, Wheat said.
What other comparable projects have been completed in Broward? This is Pinnacle’s third affordable housing for senior housing, having completed Pinnacle at Peacefield in Hollywood in 2021. That was 120 units, also for seniors age 62 and older.
Pinnacle also built Highland Gardens Phase II in Deerfield Beach in 2009, a project of 100 units for seniors age 55 and older.
Affordable housing that is not age restricted will open in Hollywood within the next 45 days as “Pinnacle 441 Phase 1.” That project will have 113 units. The 100-unit Pinnacle 441 Phase 2 is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2025.
Why the focus on seniors? Seniors “generally tend to be more cost burdened, they are paying more than a reasonable proportion (of their income) on housing-related costs,” Wheat said.
He said the project would provide “much-needed housing stability for the most vulnerable in Miramar” but acknowledges it still “won’t come close to meeting the need. We have a significantly aging population that is going to need affordable age restricted housing.”
A Broward County study shows average rent for a two-bedroom unit in Miramar is $2,720, but the income of a renter is about $51,605. That’s a gap of $1,430 a month to make it affordable to live there. The county estimates there is a gap of 3,417 rental apartments in the city.
What’s being replaced? Hurricane Wilma slammed into Broward in 2005, damaging the police headquarters off of Miramar Parkway just west of ֱ Road which once stood on this spot. For years the police department was scattered throughout the city, the crime scene property evidence division working for a decade out of warehouse space until a new building was constructed.
The land is still owned by the city, and is being leased to Pinnacle, which helped the project come about.
“It represents the power of taking advantage of public-private partnerships,” Wheat said. “Developing affordable housing is challenging enough. Publicly-owned land infusion is important.”
When will construction be finished? Completion of the project is estimated in mid-2025.
Will there be stores? There will be a small retail component but the developer has not made any final decisions. It’s a small space, about 700 square feet, so while it will be “resident-centric” for something the residents at the senior housing would want, it will be open to the public.
“We’ve kicking around a few ideas,” Wheat said, including the possibility of a yoga studio.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash
