Housing Trust Group Lands Naranja Lakes CRA Land-for-Loan Deal
Housing Trust Group beat two rivals for Naranja Lakes CRA's 328-unit deal, nominal-cost land plus a $7M loan for a 99-year affordability covenant.
The Naranja Lakes Community Redevelopment Agency’s board voted August 27 to hand Housing Trust Group development rights to two CRA-owned parcels on South Dixie Highway for a nominal price, plus a loan of up to $7 million, to build a 328-unit affordable community the developer is calling Lakeview at Naranja.
Why it matters
The deal is a template other South Florida developers can study. HTG beat out ACRE Communities and MRK Partners’ Landing South Dixie proposal and Tre Bel Development’s La Belle Apartments at Naranja in a scored evaluation, with HTG’s bid earning an 89.00 average score against 76.66 and 70.33 for the other two. The CRA is not writing a grant check. It is trading land it already owns for a long affordability covenant, a structure that lets a public agency with limited cash still produce deeply affordable units by leveraging its real estate instead of its budget. For developers pitching CRAs elsewhere in Miami-Dade, the terms HTG negotiated, nominal land cost plus a low-rate loan in exchange for a 99-year deed restriction at 30 to 80 percent of area median income, are now a public benchmark.
The numbers
The CRA’s staff memo shows it paid a combined $12,615,070 for the two parcels at 27501 and 27525 South Dixie Highway in 2025, well above the $7,446,409 the county’s own property appraiser currently assigns them. HTG’s proposal calls for 328 units built in two phases, 203 units first and 125 second, plus 11,466 square feet of commercial space with existing tenants getting first right of refusal. The $7 million loan carries a nominal 1 percent interest rate, funded through tax increment financing. At the reported $126.4 million preliminary budget, that works out to roughly $385,366 per unit.
What’s next
Because the land is going to HTG below fair value, Florida law requires the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners to approve the disposition following a public hearing before the CRA can close. The Naranja Lakes vote authorizes the executive director to negotiate a purchase and sale agreement and finalize loan documents, but nothing binds the CRA until those agreements are signed. HTG already has two other affordable projects underway nearby in the South Florida market, giving it a track record the county will weigh as the deal moves toward a countywide vote.