$43 Million Loan Moves 192-Unit Live Local Apartment Project Forward Near Miami

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A planned 192-unit apartment development in Palmetto Bay, Florida, has secured $43 million in construction financing, giving the Miami-area market another test of whether Florida’s Live Local Act can help move workforce-oriented housing from entitlement to construction.

IPA Capital Markets, a division of Marcus & Millichap, announced Sept. 18 that it arranged the financing for Lyra Palmetto Bay, an eight-story development at 17210 Homestead Avenue.

Pearlmark Real Estate Partners provided the financing to a joint venture between Ora Development Group and Conconcreto. IPA senior managing director Marko Kazanjian arranged the loan on behalf of the development partnership.

Project targets middle-income renters

According to IPA, Lyra Palmetto Bay is being developed under Florida’s Live Local Act and is designed to serve households earning between 80% and 120% of area median income.

The 274,063-square-foot project will contain 192 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and a 224-space parking garage. Planned amenities include a rooftop pool, fitness center, basketball and pickleball courts and meeting rooms.

Construction began in July 2026 and is expected to be completed in December 2027, according to the financing announcement.

The property sits adjacent to the South Dade TransitWay, a roughly 20-mile bus rapid-transit corridor linking Homestead with Dadeland. That connection is central to the project’s positioning: middle-income housing close to transit can reduce the distance between lower-cost housing options and major employment centers.

Why the financing matters

Construction debt remains one of the biggest hurdles for apartment developers. Elevated interest rates, construction costs and tighter underwriting can prevent otherwise entitled projects from breaking ground or force sponsors to bring substantially more equity to a deal.

A $43 million construction facility therefore provides more than a capital-markets headline. It is evidence that a lender was willing to finance a project using the state’s housing framework despite a difficult rate environment.

Florida enacted the Live Local Act to encourage housing production through a combination of land-use provisions, tax incentives and affordability requirements. The law has attracted substantial attention from developers because qualifying projects can receive development advantages in jurisdictions where housing supply has struggled to keep pace with demand.

Lyra’s target band of 80% to 120% of area median income places it in the workforce-housing segment rather than deeply subsidized affordable housing. That range is aimed at households that can earn too much for many traditional housing-assistance programs while still struggling with market rents in high-cost South Florida.

What comes next

The financing announcement does not establish future rents, lease-up performance or the project’s ultimate development cost. IPA also did not disclose the loan’s interest rate, term or leverage.

Those omissions matter in a capital environment where the structure of a construction loan can be as important as its headline amount. Still, the transaction moves a 192-unit project already under construction toward its expected 2027 completion.

For housing professionals watching Florida’s experiment with state-level housing reform, Lyra Palmetto Bay is another concrete data point: policy may open the door to development, but projects still have to secure private capital before new units reach the market.