A Miami developer wants to build 76 apartments and townhouses on a 4.15-acre parcel hugging a canal bank in West Little River, capping off more than six years of work to get the project through Miami-Dade County's approval pipeline. The site plan calls for a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments alongside townhomes, a clubhouse, and a children's playground, all spread across a cluster of two-story buildings rather than a single tower.
West Group Developers LLC, an affiliate of Miami-based Modena Development, is seeking the approval for the property at 1927 N.W. 105th St., according to Florida YIMBY. Modena bought the land back in 2005 for $950,000, and the firm has spent more than six years specifically shepherding this 76-unit venture through the county system. The developer filed an administrative modification application in October to finalize the site plan, following a Comprehensive Development Master Plan amendment it originally submitted in 2020 and finally got approved in 2023, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
What's Actually Getting Built
Plans drawn up by architecture firm Burgos Lanza & Associates lay out 20 one-bedroom apartments, 40 two-bedroom apartments, 14 two-bedroom townhouses, and two three-bedroom townhouses, the Business Journal reports. The layout also includes 105 parking spaces, which works out to about 1.38 spots per unit, plus a 2,400-square-foot clubhouse. Burgos Lanza & Associates, founded by Pablo Burgos and Carlos Lanza, has also designed Metro 2, a 28-story mixed-use tower in Edgewater, and Wynwood View, an 8-story senior affordable housing building, giving the firm experience on both ends of the density spectrum.
The property itself sits on the bank of the Little River Canal, also known as the C-8 canal, a major drainage waterway managed by county and regional water authorities in northwest Miami-Dade, per Redfin. Because West Little River is an unincorporated census-designated place rather than its own municipality, zoning and site plan decisions like this one run through Miami-Dade County planning officials rather than any city hall. That arrangement dates back to a quirk of local history: the area was annexed into the City of Miami in 1925 during the Florida land boom, then handed back to county control during the Great Depression, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and Wikipedia.
A Smaller Project In a Neighborhood Going Vertical
Modena's low-rise approach stands in sharp contrast to what else is rising nearby. About 12 acres away at 8395 NW 27th Avenue, Miami-Dade approved The HueHub in August 2025, an $880 million Live Local Act project that will eventually bring 4,032 residential units across seven 35-story towers, according to Florida YIMBY's earlier reporting. Just last spring, IMC Equity Group also landed a $54 million construction loan to push forward Northside Town Station, a multi-phase residential and commercial development next to the Northside Metrorail station and Northside Shopping Center.
Modena is no stranger to the neighborhood either. The developer's parent company has multiple other projects underway in West Little River, including Modena 22, a 9-story, 48-unit apartment complex at 8624 NW 22nd Ave., and Modena 87 on Northwest 87th Street, according to the Business Journal's 2022 reporting. Unlike those taller buildings and the megaprojects transforming the area's commercial corridors, the 1927 NW 105th St. proposal is designed as a lower-density, canal-side layout meant to blend into the surrounding residential blocks.
Why the Market Favors Mid-Size Infill
The timing lines up with tight conditions across Miami-Dade's rental market. A Marcus & Millichap report for the second quarter of 2026 found the county's multifamily vacancy rate had dropped to 4.4%, even as average rents climbed 2.7% to $2,750 a month, despite roughly 7,000 new apartments delivered countywide during the year. That combination of scarce vacancy and rising rents has made outlying neighborhoods like West Little River attractive to builders looking to deliver mid-priced rental housing.
Affordability pressures are especially visible on the ground here. West Little River's median household income sits at $56,436, well below the $71,753 median for Miami-Dade County as a whole, according to Census Reporter figures drawn from American Community Survey data. The area is home to roughly 33,890 residents, and that income gap underscores why mid-density rental stock, rather than luxury towers, may find steady demand among local workers.
