The Hill, February 5, 2024, This Florida Mall Has Gucci, Prada…And Soon, Affordable Housing?
In Bal Harbour, Fla., an oceanside village north of Miami Beach, a luxury mall says it wants to help tackle one of the nation’s — and Florida’s — most intractable problems: a lack of affordable housing.
It is an unexpected move for a retail temple where Gucci, Chanel and Rolex are on offer. Affordable? Here?
But in a rare instance of bipartisan agreement, the Florida Legislature passed a law last spring intended to encourage projects like the one that the owner of the mall, Bal Harbour Shops, has in mind. Called the Live Local Act, the law allows developers to bypass certain local zoning rules and to qualify for tax breaks if their projects include enough “workforce housing.”
