A pair of affordable housing developers want to bring 224 senior apartments to a 9.7-acre stretch of Doral, with plans calling for four three-story buildings, a pool, a dog park and roughly 10,000 square feet of commercial space. The project, dubbed Doral Gardens, is estimated to cost $102 million to complete.
Housing Trust Group (HTG) and AM Affordable Housing are behind the proposal, according to Florida YIMBY, which reports the community would rise on a site between Northwest 104th Avenue and Northwest 102nd Avenue. The outlet notes that AM Affordable Housing is led by former Miami Heat player Alonzo Mourning, pairing his nonprofit with HTG's development track record across South Florida.
Current plans call for one-bedroom units measuring 710 square feet and two-bedroom layouts at 888 square feet, per the same report. Eligibility would be limited to households earning between 60 and 80 percent of area median income, a bracket aimed at working and fixed-income seniors who fall above the threshold for deeply subsidized housing but still struggle with market rents.
Amenities and Design Emphasize Independent Living
Beyond the housing itself, the site plan includes a swimming pool, fitness center, walking trails and a clubhouse, and the community would welcome pets with its own dog park, the report states. Miami-based firm Reprtwar designed the project, and conceptual renderings show a garden-style layout emphasizing accessibility, wellness and independent living, according to the article's description of the design.
The roughly 10,000 square feet of planned commercial space has not yet attracted announced tenants, the outlet reports, leaving an open question about what kind of retail or service uses might eventually anchor the ground floor alongside the residential buildings.
A Pattern of Senior and Affordable Projects
Doral Gardens would be the latest in a string of projects from the same development partnership. Just last month, Housing Trust Group and AM Affordable Housing celebrated the grand opening of Courtside Apartments II, a $58 million venture with 120 income-restricted apartments, according to Florida YIMBY's reporting. That Overtown project reserves its units for families earning at or below 30, 50, 60 and 70 percent of area median income, with monthly asking rents starting at $683, per Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business.
The same two organizations have also built specifically for older residents elsewhere in Florida. In Crestview, their Princeton Grove development holds 107 one- and two-bedroom units for people 55 and older, including six reserved for veterans, with rents ranging from $381 to $1,323 depending on income tier, as detailed by Housing Finance. And in Aventura, the pair opened Oasis at Aventura, a 95-unit affordable seniors community spread across eight stories and developed for $38 million, with one-bedroom apartments reserved for residents 62 and older earning at or below 25, 33 and 60 percent of area median income, according to Seniors Housing Business; monthly rents there range from $555 to $1,369.
Those completed projects offer a rough template for what Doral Gardens could eventually look like in terms of scale and rent structure, though the Doral proposal itself remains in the planning stage. No timeline for approvals or construction has been reported, and the commercial space's future tenants remain unannounced.
