transit-village_web.jpgMIAMI — A long time coming, city officials on Monday lifted the soil to kick off construction of Liberty City’s Seventh Avenue Transit Village. The Transit Village will be built in two phases on land owned by Miami-Dade County.

The residential part of project includes 76 low-income rental units in a high-rise building with a community room, central laundry facility, gym/exercise room and a computer center. In addition to the residential units, the project will include a community theatre and Miami-Dade County Transit Hub for taxis and buses.
 
Construction is expected to be completed by fall of 2015 and move-ins by the end of 2015. Price tag for the construction of the village has been reported at about $34 million with funding coming from the Federal Transit Administration, the county and city of Miami.

After many years of championing the project, Commissioner Audrey M. Edmonson put a shovel in the ground June 30 and kicked off construction of the long-awaited development at Northwest 62 Street and Seventh Avenue.

Edmonson was joined by Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade County Transit Department Director Ysela Llort, members of the development team of Atlantic Pacific Communities, City of Miami representatives, residents, clergy and union workers.

“The Seventh Avenue Transit Village was a Miami-Dade County Transit project that was years in the making even before I was elected to office,” Edmonson said. “It experienced some major set-backs to the point that it died on the drawing board.  Today, I am so thrilled to finally see this long-awaited project come to fruition thanks to the tenacity of many people, both in and out of government. But I am even more ecstatic that we will keep a long-standing commitment to the community and give Liberty City a project that will serve as a major catalyst to economic development, affordable housing and cultural experiences, as we promised.”

Nearly a decade in the making, the project didn’t get off the ground until 2011, when the county gave Carlisle Development Group of Miami the construction contract. 

Florida’s largest builder of affordable housing, Carlisle is among the top in the nation. But Carlisle lost the project when it was disclosed last year that it was under federal investigation for allegedly defrauding the US government by padding construction costs.

Miami-Dade commissioners approved the project’s transfer to the Miami-based Atlantic|Pacific Companies and the non-profit BAME Development Corporation of South Florida in September.