Fort Lauderdale-based Affiliated Development is asking the city for $8.83 million in tax reimbursement financing to help build The Cypress, a 340-unit apartment complex planned for 400 Corporate Drive that would set aside 136 units for workforce households. The eight-story project, designed by the firm's in-house architect Rinka, would rise on a 3.76-acre site the developer has under contract from PFL VII LLC, sharing a parking garage with the adjacent Westin Fort Lauderdale hotel.
The financing request, first reported by Florida YIMBY, comes through the city's affordable-workforce housing ad valorem tax reimbursement incentive, the same tool Affiliated used for its 376-unit Cove project on North Federal Highway. That project received a 100 percent city property tax rebate for 15 years capped at $8.8 million, plus a 50 percent county tax rebate over 30 years capped at $5.5 million, according to The Real Deal. The Cove closed a $74 million construction loan last month, a milestone Hoodline previously reported.
What the Cypress Would Include
The Cypress is planned to include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with 204 units at market rate. The remaining 136 units would be reserved for households earning between 100 and 120 percent of area median income, per Florida YIMBY's reporting. Amenities are set to include a swimming pool, fitness center, clubroom and ground-floor retail space, with the building sharing its parking structure with the hotel next door rather than building a standalone garage.
Broward County's median income sits at $89,100, per Florida YIMBY, though HUD's 2026 area median income figure for the county is $102,500, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. That puts the 120 percent AMI income cap at $106,440 for a single person and $152,160 for a four-person household, thresholds that will determine who qualifies to rent the workforce units once the building opens.
Why the City Keeps Approving These Deals
Fort Lauderdale's City Commission approved a formal Workforce Housing Incentive Agreement with Affiliated Development for The Cypress on August 18, locking in the 40 percent set-aside for 30 years, according to city commission records. The site sits inside the city's Uptown Urban Village planning district, a 353-acre zone around the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station that the city designated to replace low-density office and hotel land with walkable residential density, a shift Hoodline explored in its report on the neighborhood's rapid transformation.
The push for workforce set-asides is unfolding against a grim backdrop for renters. In Broward County, 61.9 percent of renter households — more than 154,000 families — are cost-burdened, spending over 30 percent of their income on housing, according to Broward County Housing data. That places the county in the bottom 4 percent of U.S. counties for affordability, a statistic that helps explain why municipal leaders keep signing off on tax rebate packages tied to income-restricted units.
Florida's HB 1389, the newest iteration of the Live Local Act, took effect on July 1 and expanded state preemptions against local height and setback restrictions while refining the ad valorem tax exemption rules for projects that reserve at least 40 percent of units at 120 percent AMI or below, according to Holland & Knight. Developers across Fort Lauderdale are increasingly stacking those state benefits on top of municipal rebate agreements to make mixed-income construction financially viable, a trend also visible in the 765-unit Terrasse Towers proposal elsewhere in the city.
A Crowded Cypress Creek Pipeline
The Cypress is far from the only workforce housing bet in the submarket. Related Group's 422-unit Manor Cypress Creek was approved with 62 workforce units in late 2025, and Pinnacle Communities' 196-unit Pinnacle at Cypress secured city loan support across 2025 and 2026, according to The Real Deal. Affiliated Development itself has multiple South Florida projects in various stages, including the 142-unit Six13 in Flagler Village and workforce developments in Hollywood and West Palm Beach that Hoodline has covered separately.
Affiliated funds these projects through dedicated impact capital, including a $125 million fund launched in 2020 and a $250 million Affiliated Housing Impact Fund II launched in October 2025 that raised equity from South Florida municipal police and firefighter pension funds, according to Institutional Real Estate, Inc. The firm was founded in 2014 by CEO Jeff Burns and President Nick Rojo.
Construction on The Cypress could begin in the second quarter of 2027, pending various approvals, according to Florida YIMBY. Whether Broward County will offer a matching tax rebate, and how quickly the Uptown district's flex-unit allocations get absorbed by competing projects, remain open questions as the development pipeline around Cypress Creek continues to fill in.
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