Residents in predominantly working-class Hialeah are feeling the squeeze from soaring apartment rents, and some are getting slapped with evictions, following a wave of high-end multifamily construction in the city.
The development spree has led to a surge in rent, now ranging from $2,050 for a studio to $3,765 for a three-bedroom unit, pricing out residents in the city where the average household income is about $49,000 annually, according to the Miami Herald. The eviction crisis is especially pronounced at the three biggest recent developments –– Pura Vida Hialeah, Shoma Village and Manor Hialeah –– where a total of 165 eviction lawsuits have been filed in the past 20 months, according to analysis by el Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald’s Spanish language sister publication.
This has overturned Hialeah’s longtime image as a haven of more affordable apartments for tenants priced out of Miami-Dade County’s prime neighborhood and municipalities.
In some cases, the same households were sued multiple times for eviction. Generally, this is a tactic landlords use to “pressure tenants to leave,” instead of trying to collect unpaid rent, Juan Pablo Garnham, spokesperson for The Eviction Lab, a housing research group at Princeton University, told the Herald.
At Shoma Village, 20 tenants have been sued for eviction more than once. Pura Vida sued seven tenants multiple times, and Manor Hialeah sued six tenants more than once. Though most of the complaints were dismissed after tenants caught up on rent, over 30 percent of the suits ended with the eviction of a household or vacancies before a final order was issued.
Coral Gables-based Shoma Group developed the 304-unit Shoma Village complex with a pair of eight-story buildings at 445 Hialeah Drive. Led by husband-and-wife team Masoud and Stephanie Shojaee, Shoma completed the mixed-use project in 2022.
The Pérez family’s Coconut Grove-based Related Group and Jeffrey Soffer’s Aventura-based Fontainebleau Development completed the 642-unit Manor Hialeah at 7218 West Fourth Avenue last year.
Pura Vida Hialeah consists of 260 units and about 11,000 square feet of retail in three eight-story buildings. Coral Gables-based Coral Rock Development completed Pura Vida at 2901 to 3099 West 16th Avenue and 1571 West 29th Street in 2022.
Michael Wohl, principal at Coral Rock, told the Herald that he vows to work on the affordable housing crisis through his membership at the Affordable Housing Committee in Hialeah. One option, he added, would be to build mixed-income projects.
Property managers at Shoma Village and Manor Hialeah declined to comment to the Herald.
Shoma didn’t immediately return The Real Deal’s request for comment, while Related and Fontainebleau declined to comment.
They aren’t the only ones to seize on Hialeah. Amid South Florida’s apartment boom, developers often search for untapped markets where few others have built before. And Hialeah, long a blue-collar city largely home to single-family houses and aging apartment buildings, became their prime target.
Miami Lakes-based Prestige Companies has several completed and planned projects in the city. This includes the planned 114-unit Market Station North with two three-story buildings at 1001 Southeast 11th Street, and the 343-unit Flamingo Village complex and a Mater Academy charter school on a portion of Hialeah Park Racing & Casino.
Coral Gables-based MG Developer is working on the three-phase Metro Parc project with three 10-story buildings with over 1,500 units. New York-based Baron Property Group is a partner on the first two phases.
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