DFRE Breaks Ground on The Triangle in Miami Health District

DFRE has broken ground on The Triangle, a 112-unit, eight-story apartment building at 1750 NW 15th St Rd in Miami’s Health District, steps from Jackson Memorial Hospital. Every unit will be capped at 120 percent of area median income under Florida’s Live Local Act, and founder Daniel Dias is funding the roughly $35 million project entirely with his own equity, no construction lender involved.

Why it matters

Debt-financed Live Local Act projects across South Florida have stalled as rates and insurance costs squeeze underwriting, but a 100 percent equity stack sidesteps that bottleneck entirely. Dias, a fourth-generation member of a family with construction and development interests, and DFRE co-founder Laura Weinstein-Berman are five years into building the firm. Betting the balance sheet on a single Miami project is the kind of move only a handful of emerging Miami developers can make, and it is exactly the story readers watching the up-and-coming names want: a local firm getting a workforce-housing project out of the ground while bigger, debt-reliant peers wait on financing.

The numbers

DFRE paid $1.7 million for the 0.7-acre triangular site, sized for up to 90 units under base zoning before the Live Local Act’s density bonus pushed the plan to 112 units across eight stories. City of Miami’s building permit, issued July 13, puts the construction value at $21.29 million on 121,636 square feet, with Miller Construction Company as general contractor. A Miami-Dade County permit tied to the same address and unit count was issued in May. The parcel is held under 1750 NW 15 ST RD LLC.

What’s next

Construction is underway with completion targeted for early 2028. DFRE has not disclosed lease-up or pricing plans for the AMI-capped units, and Miami’s Live Local Act inventory list has not yet been updated to reflect the project’s status.