It was already one of the biggest redevelopment proposals in Miami-Dade history, a $3 billion plan aiming to remake a broad swath of Miami’s Little River-Little Haiti neighborhood with an intensive focus on affordable housing, transit and jobs. Now, as it heads toward likely approval from the County Commission, it’s only gotten larger in scope and ambition.
Since its unveiling a year ago , the plan spearheaded by Coconut Grove-based developer Swerdlow Group has added hundreds of affordable apartments, more big-box shopping and commercial space, and a fresh element — over 2,000 workforce condos aimed at providing homeownership to middle-income families who are finding it increasingly difficult to buy in the city, especially in the urban core. That brings the total number of units in the plan to over 5,700, all qualifying as affordable or workforce housing under county guidelines.
In addition, veteran developer Michael Swerdlow and his partners in SG Holdings have committed to a list of benefits for construction workers that include higher-than-usual wages, jobs for residents from local public and low-income housing, and what the developer describes as an “industry-leading” program to protect them against extreme heat, a principal cause of illness and death as the climate warms. The guarantees were in part a response to demands from WeCount!, a coalition of community groups and labor unions…