Prestige Cos. Plans Workforce Housing Project in Davie

Davie approved an unsolicited bid by Prestige Companies to redevelop a former wastewater site as a workforce multifamily project with more than 100 apartments priced below the market.

The Davie Town Council voted Wednesday to donate its former wastewater site to Prestige and approved a development agreement with the Miami Lakes-based company that will govern the workforce housing project.

Under an approved purchase and sale agreement, Prestige will pay $10 to acquire the 1.7-acre site at 6101 Southwest 36th Court. It’s appraised at $1.4 million. 

As part of the project footprint, Prestige has a contract to buy the adjacent automotive service garage called Davie Battery & Alternator at 6325 Southwest 37th Street. That property borders the west side of the former wastewater site.

Prestige is in contract to pay about $3.2 million for the Davie Battery & Alternator site, assistant town administrator Phillip Holste told the town council on Wednesday. If Prestige decides to withdraw from the workforce housing project, the town would pay the company the same price to acquire the development site. 

Prestige, led by CEO Marty Caparros Jr. and COO Alexander Ruiz, plans to build 105 to 120 garden-style apartments in a three-story complex. More than half of the apartments will have two bedrooms. The rest will be one-bedroom apartments.

Under its development agreement with the town, Prestige will reserve 80 percent of the apartments for tenants making up to 140 percent of median income in Broward County, and 20 percent of the apartments for tenants with up to 120 percent of median income. The median annual household income in Broward County was $64,522 in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The development agreement with the Town of Davie also requires Prestige Companies to submit a site plan for the apartment project by May, start construction within 18 months of site plan approval, and finish construction within 42 months, or three and a half years, of site plan approval.

The town received a letter of intent from Prestige on May 10 detailing the company’s unsolicited offer to acquire and redevelop the former wastewater site. The town then issued a public notice requesting proposals to redevelop the former wastewater property, but no other bidders emerged. Davie accepted Prestige’s letter of intent on July 26.

In addition to donating the development site to Prestige, the town would pay half the cost of an environmental cleanup of the site, if needed, up to a maximum of $250,000.  

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Davie also agreed to try to acquire a quarter-acre of land between Oaks Road and the old wastewater site and convey the land to Prestige for exclusive use as landscaping for the multifamily project. Tindall Hammock Irrigation and Soil Conservation District owns the land. Holste said the development can move forward without it, though. 

The mayor said more developments like the workforce housing project by Prestige are expected to pop up in Davie. 

“We have several other things on the horizon for affordable and workforce housing,” said Davie Mayor Judy Paul.

Some developers across South Florida are looking to incorporate the state’s new affordable housing law into their projects. The Live Local Act, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in late March, supersedes local governments’ zoning, density and height requirements for projects meeting specific affordable or workforce housing requirements, a controversial measure that some municipalities have opposed.