{"id":252485,"date":"2026-04-30T14:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252485\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:10:11","slug":"south-florida-housing-crisis-met-with-free-land-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252485\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida Housing Crisis Met With Free Land Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Florida officials are increasingly turning to a controversial tool to combat the region\u2019s housing crisis: giving away public land to private developers<\/a> at no cost.<\/p>\n

Examples include former Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo\u2019s no-bid Little Havana deals last year and a recent move to add affordable housing to the up-and-coming luxury enclave West Palm Beach.<\/p>\n

Carollo<\/a> orchestrated the no-bid deal just before resigning from office in December, ceding city-owned parcels worth over $8 million to developers Swerdlow Group<\/a>, Nir Shoshani and Nuri Dorra, the Miami Herald reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carollo framed the move as a vital legacy for a district where residents pay \u201cridiculous amounts\u201d for housing that is \u201cThird World.\u201d But the lack of a competitive bidding process drew sharp criticism. His successor, Rolando Escalona, labeled the transfers a \u201cland giveaway,\u201d but he allowed the projects to proceed to avoid leaving the lots vacant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Escalona rerouted $12 million in planned direct subsidies through a public vetting process overseen by a city committee to add accountability.<\/p>\n

West Palm Beach<\/a> also recently gave away a city-owned parcel, the South Florida Business Journal reported<\/a>. City commissioners recently voted to transfer five parcels along Broadway\/U.S. 1 \u2014 nearly half a city block \u2014 to an affiliate of Tr\u00e8 B\u00e8l Procida Development Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The partnership, backed by former NFL linebacker Jonathan Vilma, received the land for free to anchor a 151-unit project. Like the Little Havana deals, these apartments are strictly reserved for residents earning 30 to 80 percent of the area median income.<\/p>\n

Supporters argue these land-for-affordability swaps are necessary to offset soaring construction costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

West Palm Beach even upzoned the land to allow seven-story buildings, incentivizing development in the neglected northern end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2014 Rachel Stone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Florida officials are increasingly turning to a controversial tool to combat the region\u2019s housing crisis: giving away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2152,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-252485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-development","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}