A 142-unit South Dade affordable housing development for people 62 and older adjacent to the new 20-mile-long Bus Rapid Transit corridor got a boost as developer Pinnacle closed on $68 million in construction financing and equity financing to build Caribbean Isles. When completed, the project will s erve as the second phase of a master-planned transit-oriented housing village, following Caribbean Village, which opened in February 2020. All residences in Caribbean Isles will be for people who earn 60% of less of the area’s median income. The financing package includes private loans, tax-credit equity and public investment. Bank of America provided a $34 million construction loan and $27.6 million in tax equity credit, Chase Bank provided a conventional $27 million first mortgage and Miami-Dade County contributed $10 million from Community Development Block Grants and the county’s surtax program. Pinnacle and the South Miami Heights Community Development Corp. are co-developing the project on county-owned land, as the county is stressing transit-oriented housing developments near its mass transit stops. Caribbean Isles, at US 1 and Caribbean Boulevard, is adjacent to one of the 14 new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations that entered service in October along the busway linking Dadeland to the north with Florida City to the south. “We want our seniors to stay close to the resources, transit and services they rely on,” Pinnacle co-founder and President David O. Deutch said in a written statement. The Caribbean Boulevard station is one of six pinpointed as top development sites in county plans to encourage transit-oriented developments along the BRT, the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust was told in December. Francisco Arbelaez, principal planner with the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the trust of plans for those sites. “The purpose obviously is to promote economic development, address affordable housing needs on the corridor, and to be able, with some cautious urban design, to show what the future of development can look like along these corridors and how we can densify at those transit stations, recognizing that there’s a new BRT that was implemented and hoping that those projects can be a catalyst for more dense, intense uses at those stations,” he said. Aims include recognizing BRT stations as a catalyst for major redevelopment “and memorable placemaking around the station,” his presentation said. Also targeted are creating new mixed-use urban centers designed to fit into the physical and historic context of the neighborhood, and providing new commercial opportunities, affordable housing and jobs. The first part of the Pinnacle project was completed five years before the delayed opening of the adjacent Bus Rapid Transit service. County officials in 2020 joined in cutting the ribbon at the 123-unit, seven-story Caribbean Village, which also was a public-private partnership among Pinnacle, the South Miami Heights Community Development Corp. and the county. At that time, Pinnacle built a surface lot next door as a park-and-ride site for the nearby transitway. And this month, the development team completed a 256-space parking garage there with 150 spaces reserved for transit riders. Caribbean Village includes 85 one-bedroom and 38 two-bedroom residences – more than the 82 units that were originally planned as the area’s affordable housing needs grew. The post Pinnacle senior housing funded along transitway appeared first on Miami Today. ...read more read less