Live Local Act project proposed in Oakland Park
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From the South Florida Business Journal:
By Erik Bojnansky – Reporter, South Florida Business Journal
Aug 14, 2024
A local developer plans to build a mixed-use Live Local Act project on two acres in Oakland Park.
The 62-foot-tall apartment complex, which will be named Oaklyn Crossing, will be built at 3520 N.W. 80 Ave. and consist of 101 units that will cater to first responders, nurses, and educators, said KC Cross, CEO of Mountaineer Development.
The project will also have 170 parking spaces with 35% of the project will be reserved for commercial, the exact use of it is still being determined.
"We are in talks with a med spa and possibly a coffee shop and some rental workspace, kind of like WeWork," Cross said.
Oaklyn Crossing will be built on a 1.92-acre segment of land by the North Fork Middle River that an affiliate of Mountaineer Development acquired for $2.35 million in January2020. The site includes a one-story office building that houses the headquarters of Mountaineer Development.
The project is a work in progress and subject to change, Cross added. "Mountaineer Development is still in the design phase of the project and we are working with the city of Oakland Park to determine their requirements under the Live Local Act, "Cross said. "We hope to break ground on the project before the end of 2025."
The preliminary designs for Oaklyn Crossing were unveiled during an Oakland Park Neighborhood Participation Meeting held on Zoom on Aug. 13. An city ordinance, enacted in 2009, requires developers to present their initial plans for major projects in a public neighborhood meeting, prior to submitting them to the city, to allow residents to offer their input.
During the meeting, the main architect for the project, Sean Walsh of Fort Lauderdale-based Adache Group Architects, said its present plans consist of 25 two-bedroom apartments, 71 one-bedroom apartments, and five studios.
Under the state's Live Local Act, developers can receive tax abatements and the highest zoning a city or county allows if a project is built on commercially zoned land and reserves at least 40% of its units for households for affordable housing for the next 30years. The state legislature defines "affordable" as a unit that is at or below 120% of an area's median household income, or AMI.
In Broward County, a household of one in the 120% AMI category makes $88,680 a year, according to the latest figures from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation Developers of Live Local Act projects can also build up to tallest height allowed within a mile radius. In the case of Oaklyn Crossing, the developer could go up to 100 feet, but "we are being conscious of the scale of the building," Walsh said. Cross said he sought to build this project because he has two daughters who are teachers, a daughter who works as a nurse at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, and another daughter in a Bachelor of Science program at the University of Miami.
Rob Gillette, senior vice president of Fort Lauderdale-based project management firm Gulf Building, who spoke for the development team at the meeting, said the project aims to provide an option for families being displaced from other areas in South Florida by rising housing costs. "We are looking [to bring] very nice housing that is affordable to working people, "Gillette said at the meeting, though he added that the development team has not yet determined how many units will be reserved for affordable housing, nor for which income brackets.
Monthly rent limits for units reserved for 120% AMI households are $2,217 for a studio, $2,347 for a one-bedroom, and $2,850 for a two-bedroom, according to FHFC. Cross Apartments is the second Live Local Act to go through a neighborhood participation meeting, said Sierra Marrero, Oakland Park's director of engineering and community development. So far, no formal Live Local Act projects have been submitted to the city, she added.
