Bluenest Development, a housing developer that primarily focuses on workforce-priced homes, is advancing projects with close to 1,000 residences just as anxiety grips homebuyers over mortgage-rate increases.
Workforce housing is in high demand, especially in Miami-Dade County, which is notorious for its elevated cost of living and shortage of attainably priced homes. But these buyers are particularly cautious about their monthly payments, with jitters on the rise that an interest-rate increase is in store this month.
Miami-based Bluenest, led by brothers Salim and Kamil Chraibi, is forging ahead with seven projects, finalizing a combined $111.6 million in construction loans for six of the developments. It also completed a $34.9 million development site assemblage for the seventh project, according to Salim Chraibi.
The firm has a reputation as the largest non-institutional homebuilder in south Miami-Dade, usually developing homes with at least three bedrooms. Amid recent years’ elevated interest rates, Bluenest has been buying down rates for its homebuyers to afford them lower monthly payments. Its strategy also includes working with county programs and lenders allowing for little-to-no down payment.
“The demand is there. It’s just a matter of people qualifying. The workforce is very interest rate sensitive,” Chraibi said. “It really affects the monthly payment.”
Expectations for an increase to the benchmark interest rate are swirling ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week.
Bluenest’s incentives are at about 6 percent of a home’s sale price, including the firm buying down interest rates to get them to about 4.99 percent, Chraibi said. It’s a cost the firm absorbs, he added.
“If the interest rates go up, it’s going to be affecting it more,” he said. “It’s crazy that rates might go up. Everybody was expecting a rate cut.”
Here’s more on the firm’s latest deals.
Development started on the six projects before they obtained construction financing.
K-Legacy, a complex with 57 townhomes in south Miami-Dade’s Princeton neighborhood, scored an $18.8 million financing and is expected to be completed next August. In Cutler Bay, the Quail Roost complex, with 33 townhomes, scored $11.5 million in construction debt and is slated for completion late next year, Chraibi said.
Next week, Bluenest is slated to close on a $34 million construction loan for Solara, a 100-townhome complex in Goulds that’s targeted for completion in early 2028, he said.
Also closing next week is an $18.5 million debt for the 56-unit Princeton East, and a $19.8 million debt for the 60-unit Princeton West. The pair of townhome complexes are expected to be completed late next year.
The 36-unit Gardens at Cutler Bay, which obtained $9 million in construction financing, will be an apartment project that’s slated for completion next August. All rentals will be at workforce rates, typically defined as affordable to residents making 140 percent of the area median income.
At each of the other five for-sale communities, 20 percent of the homes will be workforce priced for households earning from 60 percent to 140 percent of the area median income. The balance of homes will be at market-rate prices.
Miami-Dade’s annual AMI is $89,800, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
Los Angeles-based Ascent Developer Solutions, founded in 2024 by Robert Wasmund and backed by funds managed by Elliott Investment Management, is the lender for K-Legacy, Quail Roost, Solara and Gardens at Cutler Bay. Sherman Oaks, California-based Genesis Capital is the lender for the Princeton East and Princeton West projects.
Bluenest last week closed on the final parcel of its nine-lot assemblage where it plans the 582-unit Redland Reserve. The site spans 90 acres along Krome Avenue, a major south Miami-Dade connector, and north of Southwest 276th Street.
The firm has been assembling the lots since last year. The project scored a rezoning in the spring of last year, amid some opposition from south Miami-Dade residents decrying the added density and loss of farmland. Some opponents argued that many of the homes will be sold for market-rate prices, local news website Political Cortadito reported, though plans have seemingly changed since then.
In the latest plan, Bluenest plans to sell all of the homes at prices capped for the workforce, which right now is up to $494,000, Chraibi said. The maximum workforce home price increases annually as the median county income increases. Bluenest is reserving 20 percent of the townhomes at Redland Reserve for households earning from 60 percent to 140 percent of the AMI.
Construction of the three-phase project is expected to begin next year, Chraibi said.
The first phase will consist of 210 townhomes and six single-family homes, with completion expected in late 2030, according to a project data sheet Chraibi provided. The second phase, consisting of 144 townhomes and 15 single-family homes, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2031. In mid-2032, Bluenest expects to finish the third phase, with 172 townhomes and 35 single-family homes.
Redland Reserve will include 40,000 square feet of commercial space on the northwest corner of the site, including a grocer and outparcels for retailers such as convenience stores and a pharmacy, Chraibi said.
Chraibi founded Bluenest in 2018, with his brother, Kamil Chraibi, joining the firm about a year later. The pair started out building individual homes or townhome duplexes on infill sites across Miami-Dade until expanding into building communities.
As a whole, the firm has completed about 1,000 homes, with another 600 slated for completion next year. Its pipeline has 3,400 planned and under construction homes.
Read more
Bluenest, Related Group, Swerdlow are top donors to Miami-Dade politicians
Billionaires Ross, Pérez among real estate players backing Vicki Lopez’s election
Healthy demand? These Kendall projects near Baptist hospital provoked longtime residents
