Cañero proposes rental complex in south Miami-Dade

The Cañero Group is the latest developer to target south Miami-Dade County, with plans for a multifamily project.

The Coral Gables-based firm wants to build a 247-unit complex at 24735 South Dixie Highway in the Princeton neighborhood in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade, according to an application filed to the county in late September. Cañero Group has the property under contract for an undisclosed amount from the owner, an entity led by Rosa Garcia.

Plans show an eight-story building spanning the roughly 2-acre property. The property now is mostly vacant except for a 5,400-square-foot retail building that includes the A-1 Groceries store.

Cañero, led by Jose Cañero, offers management and advisory services to real estate investors, according to its website.

The firm is joining a growing number of companies that are turning to south Miami-Dade, an area with an ample supply of buildable land at much cheaper prices than South Florida’s urban cores.

Among them, The Richman Group, based in Greenwich, Conn., scored a $44.5 million construction loan for a Naranja neighborhood site at 27022 South Federal Highway. The property is approved for a 266-unit complex with eight-story and four-story buildings.

Aside from Princeton and Naranja, other south Miami-Dade neighborhoods include Goulds and Leisure City. The municipalities of Homestead and Florida City are on Miami-Dade’s southern tip, before the county gives way to the Florida Keys.

The area also has attracted industrial development. In a plan that reached a level of controversy Miami-Dade had not experienced since 2013, developers Stephen Blumenthal and Jose Hevia recently got approval to build 5.9 million square feet across 378 acres outside the Urban Development Boundary.

The UDB is meant to restrict construction sprawl and protect wetlands, farmland, the Everglades and Biscayne Bay. Blumenthal, of Coral Rock Development, and Hevia, of Aligned Real Estate Holdings, scored approval from county commissioners on Nov. 1 after five tries to get the needed number of votes.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who has opposed the megaproject that will include offices and retail, vetoed the approval on Nov. 10. But commissioners overrode the veto five days later.