Brownsville's Annie Coleman Site Inches Toward 180 New Apartments, Retail

A developer has filed a pre-application to build the first phase of a long-planned overhaul of Miami's Annie Coleman public housing site, proposing an eight-story building with 180 residential units and ground-floor retail on land that has sat empty since the county emptied it in 2020. The filing, submitted by Magasi Redwood AC Holdings I LLC, covers a roughly three-acre stretch at 2415 to 2479 N.W. 50th Street in the Brownsville neighborhood, zip code 33142.

According to Florida YIMBY, the pre-application was filed on August 21 and is designed to surface community feedback and flag potential complications before a formal application moves forward. The first phase would include 388 parking spots, split between a 362-space covered garage and 26 surface spaces, along with 6,455 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Units would range from one-bedroom to five-bedroom layouts, spanning roughly 680 to 1,800 square feet, with reprtwar listed as the project architect.

The site has been vacant for years for a specific reason. Miami-Dade County officially closed the original Annie Coleman 14 public housing complex in late 2019 due to severe health, safety, and physical deterioration issues, according to Miami-Dade County records tied to Resolution R-1181-19, with county officials citing nearly $48 million in needed physical repairs. All residents were relocated by November 2020, leaving the property empty ever since.

A Bigger Master Plan Behind Phase One

The 180-unit filing represents just the opening phase of a much larger vision for the property. The full Annie Coleman 14 redevelopment approved by the county calls for 287 affordable rental units across three eight-story buildings, plus 36 townhomes and 4,800 square feet of retail space, replacing 73 former public housing units that once stood on the site, per a release from law firm Holland & Knight. National homebuilder Lennar was selected to build the 36 townhomes, which are designated for rental or affordable homeownership programs. Future phases could also bring additional apartments and for-sale townhomes, per Florida YIMBY's reporting.

That master plan traces back to July 2025, when the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners approved 99-year ground lease agreements with Redwood Dev Co and co-developer Magasi Management to redevelop several county-owned public housing sites, including Annie Coleman 14, under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program, as reported by The Real Deal. The RAD program lets housing authorities lean on private capital while keeping public subsidy vouchers attached to the units.

Who Can Move In, and Who Gets First Dibs

Residency at the completed project will be available to households earning up to 80 and 120 percent of area median income, according to Florida YIMBY's account of the filing. That standard is tied to federal benchmarks; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development set the 2026 Area Median Income for Miami-Dade County at $89,800 for a four-person household, the North Miami CRA notes, which anchors the income caps for eligibility.

Former Annie Coleman 14 residents who were relocated also retain a legally binding right of first refusal to move into the newly constructed replacement units, Holland & Knight's release states, under RAD regulations requiring one-for-one replacement of public housing subsidies. Financing for the project is expected to come through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits alongside RAD Project-Based Vouchers, the same release indicates, a funding stack meant to keep rents below market rate over the long term.

One Developer, Several Sites Across the County

Redwood Dev Co, led by David Burstyn and Brian Sidman, was awarded three public housing sites by Miami-Dade County this year to deliver nearly 700 affordable units overall, including the 150-unit Gwen Cherry 07 senior housing complex and the 260-unit Lemon City development, according to Holland & Knight. Florida YIMBY separately notes that Redwood Dev Co has other similar redevelopment projects in its pipeline, including what it describes as the Gwen Cherry endeavor. The firm has also been active elsewhere in South Florida's housing market, acquiring 223 newly constructed townhomes from Lennar in Florida City and Homestead for $80 million in June 2025 to operate as affordable rentals, per The Real Deal.

The Annie Coleman site isn't the only piece of this cluster in motion. In an earlier Hoodline report, developer Integra Investments submitted plans in April for a neighboring parcel at 2101 NW 52nd Street within the same Annie Coleman cluster, proposing 316 affordable apartments with a ground-floor food hall and community space. Miami-Dade County divided the broader Annie Coleman public housing footprint into separate development groups for different private partners, allowing parallel projects to move forward across the same corridor.

The Brownsville site also sits directly across from the Lincoln Gardens redevelopment, where 134 affordable homes were completed in late 2022 to help displaced public housing families, according to the Miami Herald. Displaced Annie Coleman residents were granted priority access to apply for neighboring projects like Lincoln Gardens, giving some families a path back into the neighborhood even before construction begins on their original site.