Low-income AIDS Healthcare tower reduced to 500 apartments

Fort Lauderdale proposal revised in response to opposition

A controversial apartment tower proposed in downtown Fort Lauderdale has been revised in response to opposition, but still offers hundreds of small studios for people with low incomes.

Though downtown Fort Lauderdale has been growing in recent years with a high-rise building boom, the proposal submitted last year for a tower at 700 SE Fourth Ave. hit strong resistance. A majority on the City Commission said they didn’t support the project, mainly because it was too dense. The project also had opponents in the community, including across U.S. 1 in Rio Vista.

Now, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit HIV/AIDS medical provider, has reduced its proposal from 680 apartments to 500, in a 15-story tower, a new site plan submitted to the city shows. The previous 345,000-square-foot tower was winnowed to 277,282 square feet.

A four-level EMS station was added to the project, the new drawings show.

Most of the apartments — 414 of them — would be 263 square feet, smaller than the typical hotel room. The largest apartments would be 411 square feet.

The project is designed to offer affordable housing for people who might have been homeless or can’t afford today’s rising rental prices. Michael Kahane, southern region bureau chief for AHF, said in an email that the development still is for low-income residents.

“South Florida is the most rent-burdened area in the country,” he said. “We look forward to bringing a dignified low income option into this market.”

The project still has “a huge number of very small units,” Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Ben Sorensen said. Sorensen represents the area where the tower is proposed and was singled out by AIDS Healthcare Foundation in attack ads based on his opposition.

“I still have significant concerns about the number of units that are going to be there,” he said Wednesday.

The nonprofit’s housing arm, Healthy Housing Foundation, would develop the project.

AHF operates a clinic across the street.

The apartment tower would have just 57 parking spots. But more parking would be available at the clinic across the street on weekends and in evenings, the plans say. The tower also would have space to park 50 bicycles.

COURTESY AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit HIV/AIDS medical provider, is proposing a 15-story tower with 500 apartments, as seen in this artist’s illustration, a plan submitted to the city shows.