THE 1% RULE SNAPSHOT · 🏆 Karim's Top 3 Multifamily Picks

🏙️ Karim's Top 3 Condo Picks

Mid-Beach leads this cycle's condo picks with two units from the same Collins Ave building. The third pick is at the opposite end of the price spectrum. Pompano Beach under $150K. Here's what cleared the bar.

🏗️ $210 Million Just Changed Hands in Downtown Miami

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On April 2, a joint venture led by Falcone Group closed on the retail and entertainment district at Miami Worldcenter for $210 million. The partners (Art Falcone, ROK Acquisitions, Andrew Mirmelli, The Davis Companies, and Jamestown) acquired the 27-acre retail core of the $6 billion mixed-use development spanning multiple city blocks in downtown Miami. Falcone Group co-developed the overall project before this transaction, so this isn't outside money discovering Miami. It's inside money doubling down.

Two things worth tracking here. First, institutional capital at this scale is a conviction bet on downtown Miami's ground-floor retail corridor having a durable future. Second, every major anchor deal in a mixed-use district reshapes the rental demand equation for surrounding blocks. Residential buildings adjacent to a repositioned entertainment district see different tenant profiles and lease velocity than ones standing next to a half-filled retail plaza. The Worldcenter footprint is large enough to move the needle for the broader Overtown and Park West adjacencies, neighborhoods where workforce multifamily still clears the 1% rule. Overtown in particular has active 2–4 unit multifamily inventory at those price points. An anchor deal like this shifts the demand curve over a 3–5 year horizon.

📜 Florida HB 399: What the New Development Law Actually Says

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Gov. DeSantis signed House Bill 399 on March 31, and it changes the rules for how cities and counties can interact with development projects across Florida. Three provisions worth knowing:

Manufactured and modular housing as of right. In residential zones where these housing types were previously restricted or prohibited, they must now be permitted. For investors evaluating modular duplexes or triplexes in suburban Miami-Dade corridors, the pathway just got wider. This is the most actionable change in the bill for small-scale investors. If you have been watching suburban Miami-Dade or Broward lots that weren't viable under old zoning, run the numbers again.

Permit fees must reflect actual costs. Local governments can no longer set application fees based on a percentage of construction value or use fee structures as a slowdown mechanism. Fees must be "reasonably related" to the actual cost of reviewing the application. For small-scale multifamily developers running tight pro formas, this is a real reduction in upfront friction.

Objective standards for zoning compatibility. Cities and counties must now use defined, measurable criteria when evaluating whether a project is "compatible" with surrounding uses. Getting a denial on record becomes harder for municipalities that previously used vague compatibility arguments to block projects.

One part of HB 399 drew controversy. Large destination resorts, defined as public lodging establishments on five or more contiguous acres under common ownership, can now receive administrative approval for minor variances, bypassing traditional local review boards. Critics flagged this as a resort developer carve-out. The provision passed with the rest of the bill.

What HB 399 does not change: Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary remains intact. A version of the bill that would have allowed development beyond that boundary was removed before it passed. For investors, that means the supply constraints keeping inner-ring neighborhoods like Allapattah, Little Havana, and Hialeah structurally tight haven't moved.

☕ Tariffs and Deportations Are Both Hitting Your Construction Budget

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Two separate policy tracks are hitting South Florida construction costs from opposite ends right now, and they're converging on the same outcome: new-build multifamily is getting more expensive to deliver.

On materials, the Trump administration's import tariffs on steel, aluminum, appliances, and building components are showing up directly in South Florida construction estimates. On labor, Trump administration tariffs are projected to result in 450,000 fewer new homes through 2030 according to analysis by the Center for American Progress, while immigration enforcement has pulled crews off active job sites across the Southeast, per mid-March survey data from John Burns Research and Consulting. Florida is among the states most exposed: foreign-born workers make up a disproportionate share of the state's construction workforce, and enforcement concerns have already pulled crews off active job sites in markets across the Southeast.

When it costs more to build and harder to staff a job site, fewer units get started. Fewer starts today means less new supply hitting the rental market 18 to 24 months from now. For owners of 2–4 unit properties already in operation, this is worth holding onto: the pipeline that was supposed to compete with your rents in 2027 is facing cost headwinds on both lines simultaneously. It doesn't change what you do today. It changes what the market looks like in two years.

🏘️ Allapattah's First Live Local Project Is Now Under Construction

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On February 13, Coral Rock Development Group broke ground on Dulce Vida, a 227-unit mixed-income housing project at 1785 NW 35th Street in Allapattah. The $89 million development is among the first in the City of Miami to move into construction under Florida's Live Local Act, the 2023 legislation that allows qualifying affordable and mixed-income developments to bypass local zoning restrictions on height and density in commercially zoned areas. The eight-story building will also include an 8,500-square-foot branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library System on the ground floor, replacing the Allapattah Branch Library that was demolished to make way for the project.

The numbers behind Dulce Vida tell you a lot about why Allapattah was the first neighborhood where this got built. The site sits within two miles of Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami International Airport, and the University of Miami Health District. That's the kind of employment density that makes workforce housing at 60%–120% of Area Median Income genuinely viable. Of the 227 units, 92 are reserved for households earning up to 60% AMI, 78 for those at 100% AMI, and 60 for households at 120% AMI. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months, with the building projected to open in 2028. Due to anticipated demand, units may be allocated by lottery.

For investors tracking the neighborhood: new mixed-income supply at this scale won't directly compete with workforce housing at the price points where the 1% rule clears. What it does is build out neighborhood infrastructure, pull in retail and services, and establish residential density that raises the floor on nearby property values over time. Allapattah was Issue #07's neighborhood pick. It's still worth watching.

⚽ Inter Miami Just Opened Its New Home — and It's Two Miles from the Airport

Photo: Leonardo Fernandez/MLS via Getty Images

On April 4, Inter Miami CF played its first-ever MLS home match at Nu Stadium, the 25,000-seat venue that anchors the new Miami Freedom Park development at 1802 NW 37th Avenue in Grapeland Heights. The stadium sits directly adjacent to Miami International Airport, connected to Metrorail and Tri-Rail via the Miami Intermodal Center. It has been under construction since 2023 on the former Melreese golf course site, backed by a 99-year lease with the City of Miami and an estimated $350 million stadium price tag. The broader Freedom Park project approaches $1 billion and will eventually include a hotel, office campus, retail village, and 58 acres of public park.

The opener delivered. Marc Anthony sang the national anthem. Beckham and Jorge Mas spoke to a sellout crowd. Messi scored in the 10th minute. Austin FC came back to lead 2-1, and Suárez equalized in the 82nd to finish 2-2. Not the win they wanted, but hard to call it anything other than a historic night.

For real estate investors, the stadium's location matters more than the soccer. Grapeland Heights sits between Allapattah and the Health District, two of the most active development corridors in Miami-Dade. The Freedom Park project commits $20 million annually for 30 years to public parks across the city. The area around the Intermodal Center is now one of the most transit-accessible sites in Miami. A development of this scale, this close to the airport and a major employment hub, does what all large anchors do: it pulls the surrounding neighborhood forward faster than the market would have moved on its own.

🎉 What's Happening in Miami

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April in Miami. The heat hasn't arrived, the snowbirds are gone, and the calendar is stacked.

🎬 Miami Film Festival · April 9–19 · Various venues citywide
Its 43rd edition. Over 160 films, 40 world premieres, and screenings across the city. Opens with the directorial debut from the Oscar-winning director of Navalny.

🏳️‍🌈 Miami Beach Pride · Through April 12 · Parade on April 12 at Lummus Park
Nine days of programming culminating in the Lummus Park parade along Ocean Drive. One of the largest Pride celebrations in the country.

🦞 Deering Seafood Festival · April 12 · Deering Estate, Palmetto Bay
Fresh seafood, live music, chef demos, a Bahamian Junkanoo parade, and boat rides across 450 acres of historic waterfront estate. 20th annual edition. Consistently sells out.

Until next time. If this issue landed in your inbox and made you look up a listing, forward it to one investor friend who should be reading it too. The bigger this community gets, the better the deals we can uncover together.

If you want me to run numbers on any of the properties above, or any listing you're currently eyeing, just reply to this email. I'm here.

Karim Samy Real Estate Agent d. 407.405.2969 [email protected] karimsamy.keyes.com

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