Midtown Capital Partners advanced Astor Progresso Village, a 249-unit multifamily development in Fort Lauderdale, after shelving an earlier version of the project with fewer units.
The Fort Lauderdale City Commission voted Tuesday night to approve Midtown’s site plan for the 11-story development.
The mixed-use building would have 1,665 square feet of commercial space and a residential mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
Miami-based Midtown, led by managing partners Alejando Velez and Alexander Saieh, paid $9.4 million in 2022 to acquire the development site at 4 Northwest 7th Street, a former salvage yard.
Astor Progresso Village would be an L-shaped building on a triangular site bordered by Northwest 7th Street to the north, Northwest 1st Avenue to the west, and the Florida East Coast railroad to the east.
Midtown won city approval for a development with 168 residential units at the site in August 2023, according to a memo to city commissioners from acting city manager Christopher Cooper.
But the Miami-based developer changed course in proposing 249 units, requesting to deviate from design standards and reduce the number of parking spaces required by code.
In approving the site plan for Astor Progresso Village, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission allowed a 24,645-square-foot building floorplate, more than double the 12,000-square-foot maximum, and a four-foot setback on the east side of the building along the railroad, where local rules require 30 feet.
The city commission also approved the site plan with about 30 percent fewer than the 386 parking spaces required. Midtown submitted a May report by David Plummer and Associates showing that only 269 spaces are needed if the required amount of parking is based on the number of bedrooms at Astor Progresso Village. The city’s Development Review Committee approved Midtown’s development-permit application a year ago, which included a proposed “alternative design” and parking reduction.
Rent growth in Fort Lauderdale is lagging compared to other major metropolitan markets, according to Apartments.com, although the market’s average rent is higher than the national average at over $2,200 a month.
The average monthly rent for apartments nationwide rose to $1,742 in June, up 0.1 percent from May, according to Apartments.com. Average rent increased in 41 of the nation’s 50 largest rental apartment markets. The nine markets where average rent was lower in June than in May included Fort Lauderdale, where it declined 0.3 percent.
