CDH Tackles Affordable Housing Problem With Dania Beach Project

DANIA BEACH, FL—Continental Development Holding (CDH), the newly-launched affiliate of the Continental Group, has closed on land here, where it will build one of its affordable rental developments.

Longtime developers Juan Carlos Jurado and Juan Pablo Chirinos founded CDH due to the ongoing crisis surrounding the lack of affordable housing in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Working with county officials, CDH is developing 500 high quality affordable housing units (single-family homes, townhomes, multifamily, and duplexes) over the next four to five years throughout the tri-county area. They expect to build 90–120 units per year. The cost of the Dania Beach project is $15 million, according to Jurado.

The Dania Beach land, which CDH purchased for $1.4 million, was previously owned by 1301 Venture, LLC. The purchase of the property is via private equity, and CDH is looking into working with current partners for a construction loan.

Jurado tells GlobeSt.com that the need for affordable housing in the region continues to grow rapidly.

“The amount of people spending more money than they should on housing in Broward County continues to rise,” Jurado says. “An estimated 77,000 renters in Broward County spend more than half their income on housing alone, according to a report issued by FIU’s Metropolitan Center in April 2019, utilizing data from 2018. This goes to show you the dire need for affordable housing in Broward. The county’s growing workforce is adding about 11,000 workers each year and the homes currently on the market today are simply out of range for these working families and singles.

In the first week of February 2020, CDH will submit for approval with the City of Dania Beach Development Review Committee (DRC), and hopes to have permits in hand by September 2020. Groundbreaking will be in fall 2020, and the project is slated for completion in fall 2021.

The 80-unit development will be a gated community and include four three-story buildings, a clubhouse with gym, playground and green areas. It will offer 12 700-square-foot one-bedroom/one-bathroom units; 48 1,050-square-foot two-bedroom/two-bathroom units; and 20 1,250-square-foot three-bedroom/two-bathroom units. The rent for the one-bedroom/one-bathroom is $1,000 per month; the two-bedroom/two-bathroom is $1,500 per month; and the three-bedroom/two-bathroom is $1,700 per month.

Premiere Design Solutions, Inc. is the designer and Continental Construction Co. is the builder. CDH will employ local sub contractors for this job ― the company stays active in the neighborhoods where it builds by hiring people from within the area to work on the construction (where possible), thus becoming a fabric of the community.

“The land we have purchased in Dania Beach will serve as a much-needed location for quality affordable housing in the area,” said Jurado. “Residents need quality affordable housing within close proximity of where they work, and we are pleased to be building several affordable housing rentals throughout Broward County. We prefer that local residents have the first opportunity to stay in the neighborhoods where they already live.”

The 2018 Broward County Affordable Housing Needs Assessment states that with 53.9% cost-burdened households, Broward County is one of the most unaffordable places to live in the U.S.

The CDH partners saw great potential in land development from previous work under Continental Construction USA, LLC (CCC) while performing water, sewer and drainage infrastructure improvements in communities across Broward County. From this work, they identified an opportunity to create quality affordable housing for communities in need, along with CDH COO Anna Mirtha Jaime, who previously worked as Vice President of Real Estate Management at the Broward County Housing Authority.