Resia has transferred development rights for the Palmetto Station apartment complex in Medley to a new group of developers, who are now expanding the project to 1,152 units. The Real Deal has learned that Jose Gonzalez of GLC Real Estate, Ivan Herrera of Unicapital Asset Management Group, and Alex Lastra of Desarrollo took over the workforce housing project at the Palmetto Metrorail station during the second quarter.
The site is located at 7701 Northwest 79th Avenue and is leased from Miami-Dade County under a 90-year term. In a statement, Resia said it is “no longer involved with this project” and it “transferred the development rights to another developer.”
Resia is a Miami-based multifamily developer and a subsidiary of MRV, a publicly traded Brazilian homebuilder.
Jose Gonzalez started GLC Real Estate after more than 27 years with Florida East Coast Industries. Ivan Herrera co-founded UniVista Insurance in 2009 and launched Unicapital earlier this year after partially selling UniVista for $700 million. Alex Lastra founded Desarrollo in 2018 after working for Atlantic Pacific Companies for 15 years.
According to filings submitted to Miami-Dade County earlier this month, the new plans call for one eight-story building and two 12-story buildings. The project will include 7,000 square feet of office and retail space as well as 1,742 parking spaces across garage and surface lots. Renovations are also planned for the Palmetto Metrorail stop.
The original plan by Resia and MagicWaste Youth Foundation called for four 12-story buildings with a total of 948 units, along with 7,500 square feet of retail space and a garage with space for 1,596 vehicles. This plan was approved by county planning officials last year.
Resia’s original design used prefabricated kitchens and bathrooms from its own manufacturing facility in Fairburn, Georgia. Last month, Resia completed its first modular project—the Resia Golden Glades complex—at another location in unincorporated Miami-Dade.
Gonzalez explained changes to the layout: “We redesigned it into U-shaped buildings with a garage in the middle,” he said. He added that Resia’s initial design featured linear buildings.
Construction on Palmetto Station is expected to begin next summer.
The updated plans will not use Live Local Act provisions but all units will be designated as workforce rentals for households earning up to 120 percent of area median income (AMI). According to Florida Housing Finance Corporation data (https://www.floridahousing.org/), Miami-Dade’s AMI stands at $87,200 per year. Projects located near major transit hubs like Palmetto Metrorail are already allowed higher density under county rules.
Residential projects have begun moving into Medley from neighboring Hialeah; Medley has traditionally been an industrial area.
GLC Real Estate, Unicapital, and Desarrollo also plan an affordable housing project on land currently occupied by Miami-Dade’s overflow animal shelter at 7401 Northwest 74th Street. They are partnering with the county to build a new animal shelter at another location in south Miami-Dade; once complete, ownership of the current Medley site will transfer to the developers.
