A residential development in Florida City is moving forward with partial financing through a Community Development District (CDD). Zamora Corporation has proposed the Old Town Floridian CDD for a 77.1-acre site at the northeast corner of Southwest 336th Street and Southwest 192nd Avenue/Tower Road, according to filings submitted to Miami-Dade County and information on the project’s website. The land, currently vacant and designated for agricultural use, will be developed into a master-planned community.
The project includes plans for 178 villas, 160 townhomes, and 108 single-family homes arranged around two existing lakes. CDDs are special governmental entities created to fund infrastructure such as roads, water and sewer systems, sidewalks, and other essential services in large-scale developments. Initially managed by representatives of the developer, these districts issue bonds that are repaid through special assessments first paid by developers and later passed on to homebuyers.
Florida City commissioners approved the establishment of the Old Town Floridian CDD in 2020. Miami-Dade County commissioners gave their approval in 2021. According to a February board meeting filing from the district, capital improvements are projected to cost about $12 million. This includes $6.8 million allocated for roads, $2.6 million for sanitary collection systems, nearly $2 million for water connections, and $937,000 dedicated to stormwater management. The district intends to finance part of these costs by issuing an $8.6 million bond.
Zamora Corporation is led by Rosa Zamora.
CDDs have been used by developers in Florida since the early 2000s primarily for large suburban housing projects on the state’s west coast. Major builders such as Lennar and D.R. Horton have utilized this structure.
In recent years there has been an increase in CDD-financed projects across South Florida amid a surge in large-scale developments in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. For example, developers Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani—together with Los Angeles-based CIM Group—established a CDD for Miami Worldcenter, a major project spanning ten blocks in downtown Miami valued at $6 billion; its CDD sold $74.1 million in tax-exempt bonds in 2017.
Similarly, Metropica, a planned community with more than 3,000 high-rise residential units on 64 acres at 1800 Northwest 136th Street in Sunrise received approval from city commissioners for its own CDD last year; developer Joseph Kavana can issue up to $65 million in bonds through this arrangement.
Another recent example is Solterra Community Development District which was established to help finance infrastructure improvements for Armando Codina and Jim Carr’s planned project featuring approximately 900 homes at 7400 Northwest 24th Place in Sunrise.
