Developers Barbara and Sebastian Cobas have submitted plans for a 480-unit residential project called NoMi 7|90 near El Portal in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. The proposed development would rise 19 stories on nearly three acres at 9001 Northwest Seventh Avenue and 663 Northwest 90th Street, located just west of Interstate 95.
The application is part of a growing trend of projects leveraging the Live Local Act, a state law designed to increase housing affordability by allowing greater building heights and densities in exchange for reserving units for moderate-income households. The Cobases are seeking a pre-application meeting with county officials, a step typically taken to obtain feedback before submitting a formal proposal.
Under the Live Local Act, developers can build up to the tallest height within one mile and the highest density allowed in the area if they reserve at least 40 percent of apartments for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income (AMI) for no less than thirty years. In this case, that translates to 192 out of the total 480 units set aside for such households.
The developers are also using incentives from Miami-Dade’s workforce housing program, which allows them an additional six stories above existing limits. In return, they will designate another 60 units for families making no more than 140 percent of AMI. According to Florida Housing Finance Corporation data, Miami-Dade’s annual AMI is $87,200.
Property records show that Barbara and Sebastian Cobas acquired the two-lot site through separate transactions totaling $2.7 million in 2015 and 2021.
Applications under the Live Local Act have increased across South Florida as developers seek approvals for larger residential buildings. For example, Coral Rock Development Group is constructing Dulce Vida Live Local—a planned eight-story building with 227 apartments—in Allapattah. Spanish developer Pablo Castro and his partner Laura Tauber are planning The HueHub in West Little River, which would be South Florida’s largest Live Local Act development with over four thousand proposed units.
Despite this wave of proposals enabled by the new state law, only slightly more than three thousand Live Local units have been completed statewide so far. However, over forty-two thousand additional apartments are currently in various stages of planning or approval according to Florida TaxWatch.
