The HueHub, a pending development of seven 35-story towers with 4,032 furnished units of attainable housing in West Little River, has signed a decade-long agreement with unions to reserve 3,000 units for first responders and essential workers.
“HueHub is more than an idea, it’s a purpose,” said Pablo Castro, HueHub’s developer. “It comes because our approach to real estate is different than the conventional. We are focused on the middle class. What we like to say the missing middle class, because these people are out of the market.”
Mr. Castro explained HueHub’s approach differs in many ways because the developers of the project at 8395 NW 27th Ave. believe there is a need to update the real estate model. The model they have designed considers how they can improve and elevate people’s quality of life, he said.
HueHub has four pillars to reach that goal.
The first pillar is design, said Mr. Castro. “We really believe that the middle class and the people deserve to live in a nice place. Like all of us, we like to live in a nice place.”
The second is sustainability, he said. Sustainable in the entire process, how the design is completed, the engineering and building in an efficient way.
The third is improving quality of life, said Mr. Castro. The question: how can people’s quality of life be elevated seems difficult. However, “for me, it’s simple: we need to solve the issues of the day to day.”
The development is a gated community with security, he said. A variety of amenities and services aim to help people in their day to day life.
“We are giving the people time,” he said, “time to spend with your family, with your friends, with your kids, wherever. That’s how we see that we can elevate the quality of life for people and how you get there.”
The design includes an urgent care site, an area for socializing, an area for sports, a learning center, an art gallery, gyms, and more.
“We are also adding some services,” said Mr. Castro, “like we can clean your apartment for little money. We can walk your dog if you are late for your job. This is something that … wherever you live, it’s impossible to get, you will not find someone to clean your house in one hour per week. It’s impossible.”
The last pillar, he said, and perhaps most important, is the price must be attainable. However, attainable for HueHub is not being cheap. “Attainable for us is giving them the opportunity to have some money, some cash to spend on other things, like going to a restaurant once per week…or going to buy some clothes once per month,” he said.
Mr. Castro said the team is motivated to move forward. The land was bought two years ago and “it’s been a while to take the full title, and the first thing that we did is to present the project to the people that are serving the society: teachers, professors, nurses, policemen, firefighters. We offer them the project in advance. In fact, we commit, like, 3,000 units already signed with them. We fix the price for them for 10 years. It’s a real commitment.”
The 3,000 units have been committed due to the agreement with the unions and the organizations, he said. In October, the remaining units “are going to open to the market [as well as the] possibility to reserve a unit without paying anything, just reservation. Everyone is very welcomed. Hopefully, we can do another project like that soon.”
Additionally, from September to the middle of October, said Mr. Castro, “we are going to be in the associations and unions where we have the agreement, where we are going to set up pop-ups, that we are going to show the people the models and the units and everything. After that, we’ll find a place … to show the project to the general market.”
Construction is expected to begin by December or January, he said. The team is expecting to start delivering units by the end of 2027 for the first buildings constructed.
The HueHub is centrally located, said Mr. Castro. “We have a Metrorail one block away, the new extension of the Metrorail going in front of the property. We have a stop just in front of our property. We are like … 10 minutes away from all the airports, Miami Airport and Opa-locka Airport…. In 15 minutes’ drive, you are almost in all of Miami-Dade County.”
HueHub, he said, will add value to the surrounding community. “I think it’s going to be a win-win for everyone, for the municipality, for the county, for the neighbors, and for us. We are long haul.”
Mr. Castro offered insight on housing in the county.
“We deal with all the unions in town,” he said. “Personally, I did it by myself, with the head of the unions. I’ll tell you something, more than 33% of the members of policemen, firefighters, all these people, are living out of the county. The firefighters have people living in Orlando. When you speak with them, and you hear those kinds of things, it’s scary.
“I met all the school board. I met a lot of people in the education sector. They have a lack of almost 2,000 professors. They cannot recruit because they cannot afford to live here. That’s reality.”
Mr. Castro shared the reactions to initial stages when he was proposing his idea.
“At the very beginning,” said Mr. Castro, “people thought that that was completely crazy. If you really analyze what we are doing, it’s quite logical. With the way we are dealing today with the issue of housing, we didn’t solve the issue. We need to implement new strategies and the policy makers – for example, the Live Local Act, all these kinds of tools that the politicians are providing are helping.”
“I’m going to be probably the first one in starting,” he said, “but I know that other projects are coming in a bigger scale too, because the need is that, and it’s the way to solve the issue for the coming five, 10, years, we need to do housing in a massive way.”
Mr. Castro shared that future plans are in the works.
“We have already almost closed a deal for another site,” he said, “and we are dealing also with another. At least in Miami, we would like to do a couple more, of course, at that scale, and then we’d like to jump also to Broward. The idea is to grow with that model.”
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