Lewis Swezy proposes affordable housing project in Princeton

Developer Lewis Swezy proposes a 132-unit affordable apartment project in Miami-Dade County’s Princeton neighborhood.

The plan comes at a time when South Florida developers continue to focus on public housing, which can better withstand the current economic climate of high interest rates and uncertain debt and equity financing.

Swezy, through his Miami Lakes-based Centennial Management, wants to build an eight-story building on a 1.7-acre vacant lot at 13841 Southwest 252nd Street in unincorporated south Miami-Dade, according to the application Centennial filed with the county last month. The company is asking the county for a management plan review.

The project, called Princeton Manor, will offer 75 one-bedroom apartments and 57 two-bedroom apartments. It is aimed at households earning 30 to 70 percent of the area median income. The annual AMI in Miami-Dade is $79,400.

The application is labeled LIHTC, meaning Centennial would likely use the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program to finance Princeton Manor. Under this program, developers go through a competitive application process for tax credits granted by the state. The developers then sell the credits to investors, which adds equity to the projects and gives the investors a 1:1 reduction in their federal taxes.

Swezy has worked with the tax credit program since the federal government introduced it in 1986, he said The only true last year.

With the help of LIHTC, Centennial began construction last year on the 190-unit Cordova Estates, consisting of seven buildings at 321 and 329 East Davis Parkway in Florida City.

The company’s portfolio includes 3,500 affordable housing units and approximately 227 acres of land in south Miami-Dade, including in Florida City and the Naranja and Princeton neighborhoods.

The resilience of affordable housing to economic headwinds is due in part to the financing mechanisms of these projects. Aside from the LIHTC, governments provide grants and loans that are offered at much lower interest rates than private debt. In addition, South Florida’s longstanding problem of a shortage of below-market housing is driving high demand for new housing. The tri-county region’s crisis was exacerbated by an influx of out-of-state residents between 2020 and 2022, driving up demand for market-rate housing and leading to record rent increases.

In other current proposals, Coastland Residential wants to build an eight-story building with 371 residential units

Fifty-five of the apartments would be for households earning no more than 120 percent of AMI. The project is slated for 4201, 4321, 4351 and 4383 Southwest 75th Avenue in the Glenvar Heights neighborhood of unincorporated Miami-Dade.

Pinnacle is planning a five-story, 120-unit affordable housing building at 10455 Old Cutler Road, near Cutler Bay in south Miami-Dade.