LTC 370-2025 Progress on Financial Forecast for Byron Carlyle Cultural Center Workforce HousingMIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CIT Y MANAGER
L TC# LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO : Honorable Mayor Steven Meiner and Members of the City Commission
FROM : Eric Carpenter, City Manager ~ ~
DA TE : September 9, 2025
SUBJECT : Progress on Financial Forecast for Byron Carlyle Cultural Center Workforce
Housing
The purpose of this Letter to Commission ("L TC ") is to provide the Mayor and City Commission
with an update on the progress made in the financial analysis of the Byron Carlyle Cultural Center
and workforce housing project.
Following a strategy meeting with the City Manager on July 31, 2025, the Administration began
work on creating a spreadsheet model that can forecast different iterations of scale and cost for
the Byron Carlyle Cultural Center (the "Culture Center") workforce housing component , to better
understand the project 's future cashflows and the City 's financing options.
Using a sample pro forma previously provided by Servitas and data from a massing study created
by a consulting architect (Roberto Espejo of C-Studio 's) which explored the physical placement of
the workforce housing in relation to the Cultural Center, a working model is in development that
considers lot size, FAR, height, un it counts, unit sizes , and rent. This will allow the Administration
to scale the project and examine how many units can be delivered at a given cost within density
allowances, height, and FAR. The projected total project cost will be based on a given hard cost
per square foot for this type of construction , with additiona l soft costs budgeted based on industry
estimating standards .
The Administration is current ly working to refine the model and to verify that the costs and
allowances being used are reliable and in line with current industry costs and trends. For th is
purpose , the City is reaching out to internal and external resources to inform these cost
assumptions .
A meeting was held on Wednesday August 27, 2025 , with Tom Mooney, Planning Director, and
C-Studios to get definitive guidance on the zoning regulations and allowances for the workforce
housing . Discussions in that meeting explored the City 's opt ions for conveying unused FAR from
the Byron parcel to the park ing parcel on the east side of Byron Ave.The team also recommended
some options to consider that could make the project more cohesive and efficient. The team at C-
Studios is working on some renderings based on the discussion . In consideration of the feedback
the Administration is looking at three generic scenarios as a starting place . These opt ions will
change based on cost and potential rent revenues as the model is refined.
• Cultural Center on Byron lot , and approximate ly 50 workforce housing un its (Studio , 1 BR,
and 2 BR) on the parking lot east of Byron Ave. The workforce housing cou ld be increased
with conveyance of FAR and a variance to setbacks. In this early stage however, the
approach is to reduce complexity. This could potentially be the easiest and cheapest way
to deliver both a minimum number of workforce hous ing and the env isioned Cultural Center .
370-2025
• Cultural Center and approximately 100 workforce housing units on the Byron lot. No use of
the parking lot across Byron Ave .
• Cultural Center with approx . 100 residential units on the Byron lot, and an additional 50
units on the parking lot across Byron Ave .
Other similar projects are also being looked at to better understand how the combination of the
Cultural Center and workforce housing may present unique circumstances that must be accounted
for in the model. The Administration has reached out to the developers of the Sandrelle Rivers
Theater, to gain their insights from that project. That meeting is forthcoming .
Once the Administration is comfortable with the accuracy of the model and resulting project costs,
the financing necessary for specific iterations of the project can be modeled as a bond to
understand potential future cashflows of rental revenue, operating costs, and debt service. For
this, the Administration has had a preliminary conversation with the financial consultants at PFM
to create a project pro forma based on the Administration's assumptions and anticipated amount
of financing needed. This analysis will give the City an understanding of how much workforce
housing it may choose to build based on what iteration of the project is the best fit.
Please direct any questions to Daniel Alzuri, Assistant Director of Facilities and Fleet Management at
Danielalzuri@miamibeachfl .gov
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MT/DA