Atlantic Pacific Proposes Third Culmer Place Phase in Overtown
A repeat expansion on the same Overtown site is a real-world read on whether the affordable stack pencils.
Atlantic Pacific Cos. has proposed a third phase of Culmer Place, its public housing redevelopment in Overtown, for a 3.14-acre assemblage anchored at 429 N.W. 6th Street. The Boca Raton-based developer’s filing, branded Culmer Gardens on 5th, calls for a seven-story building with 250 units, 200 of them affordable and 50 at market rate, replacing a 34-unit public housing building from the 1980s. The site sits on county land: Miami-Dade’s Culmer Place and Culmer Gardens are two separate original public housing blocks combined under one master development agreement with Atlantic Pacific, and phase 3 lands on the Culmer Gardens block, which is why the filing carries that name. Per the Real Deal, the price and terms of the county ground lease for this phase have not been disclosed.
Why it matters
A developer does not propose a third phase unless the first two are working. Atlantic Pacific’s phase 1, a 239-unit pair of seven-story buildings built through the county’s Rental Assistance Demonstration conversion, broke ground in spring 2024 and is nearing completion. Phase 2, a 375-unit building at 800 N.W. 5th Avenue designed by Corwil Architects, was proposed in July 2025 and has not yet broken ground. For sponsors weighing RAD-linked or workforce housing deals in Miami, a repeat expansion on the same combined site is a cleaner signal than any pro forma: the subsidy layering and lease-up at Culmer Place’s earlier phases held up well enough that the same developer is now moving to the adjacent Culmer Gardens block under the same master agreement.
The numbers
Phase 1 delivers 239 units, split between 119 replacement public housing units and 120 affordable units set aside at 30% to 80% of area median income. Phase 2 would add 375 mixed-income units, with 300 reserved as affordable at up to 80% AMI, plus 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 421 parking spots. Phase 3 would add another 250 units on 3.14 acres, with 106 parking spots. Across all three phases, Atlantic Pacific has pledged to take the site from 226 original public housing units to 1,056.
What’s next
Phase 3 is an early-stage filing, with Atlantic Pacific describing project details as still evolving ahead of county review. Phase 2 has entitlements but no groundbreaking date. The pace from here, whether phase 2 breaks ground before phase 3 clears review, will show whether Miami-Dade’s RAD pipeline can move faster than one phase per year.