The largest U.S. affordable housing project of its kind that has been built in the past decade is now open in downtown Miami.

Residents at Sawyer's Walk, located in the heart of Miami’s historically Black Overtown area, have officially started moving into the 18-story tower's 578 units for seniors. The mixed-use complex occupies an entire city block at 249 NW 6th St. and comprises 1.5 million square feet of residential, office and retail space. Sawyer's Walk includes a 25,000-square-foot linear park just behind the building that is now open.

“It’s the largest, predominantly senior, low-income housing development completed in the U.S. in over a decade,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava at the project's official grand opening last week. “This is an example of developers taking the initiative to be a part of the solution,” she said.

The $350 million project is a result of a public-private partnership between the developers, Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami. Developed by SG Holdings, a partnership between Swerdlow Group, SJM Partners and Alben Duffie, Sawyer’s Walk is Swerdlow Group’s first affordable housing development in Miami.

“We built a lot of buildings" across the nation "but nothing in an area that’s anything" like Sawyer's Walk, Michael Swerdlow, CEO of locally based Swerdlow Group, said in an interview with CoStar News.

Sawyer’s Walk will also be home to the new headquarters of MSC Group's North American cruise line headquarters after the company committed to all of the office space at Sawyer's Walk comprising about 130,000 square feet. Swerdlow Group sold the office space under construction on the seventh floor to MSC Group in a $67 million transaction in June. MSC Group is expected to move into its new space in April 2025, according to Swerdlow Group.

The project's 175,000 square feet of retail space mostly on the first floor is fully leased by major companies such as Target, Ross, Burlington and Aldi. The retailers are expected to be open for business in October, according to Swerdlow Group.

In Overtown, where “the corner store ruled the day” not that long ago, “seniors can walk downstairs and enjoy a Target. Across the street, they can have Publix,” said County Commissioner Keon Hardemon at the event, referring to the grocery store at 3 Miami Central next door.

Hardemon, whose district includes Overtown and other predominantly Black neighborhoods like Liberty City and Little Haiti, said that despite the project’s affordable housing component, the building has all the trappings of a luxury development.

The developers "spared no cost" and the amenities are ones "you expect to see at a facility that really and truly can charge you three and four times more than the rent that we pay here,” said Hardemon.

Indeed, Swerdlow doesn't think affordable housing should look any different from market-rate or luxury housing.

“There is no reason that affordable housing has to have punch-out windows, no pool, no deck," Swerdlow said at the event.

Units at Sawyer’s Walk include studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments that range from 470 square feet to 1,000 square feet. A studio at Sawyer’s Walk rents for $1,184 per month; a one bedroom goes for $1,490, and a two-bedroom unit rents for $1,788. In downtown, a similar luxury apartment unit can range anywhere from $2,300 to over $5,000 per month, according to CoStar data.

In order to qualify to live at Sawyer's Walk, at least one member of your family has to be 62 or older, making the 578-unit project the largest senior affordable housing development to be completed in the country in the past decade, according to Swerdlow Group.

“If you're 62 and older, this is where you need to be,” Hardemon said.

For the new residents of Sawyer’s Walk, the apartments are opening after years of uncertainty. Many residents joining commissioners at the event were former residents of Harry Cain Tower, a public housing project a little less than a mile away that had long ago fallen into disrepair, with complaints of mold, asbestos, backed-up pipes and lead paint.

“This is a promise fulfilled through our housing department,” said County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, a longtime advocate for affordable housing and public transit expansion.

Higgins lauded the fact that Sawyer’s Walk is a block away from Brightline’s MiamiCentral Station, where all four of the city’s mass transit options — Metrorail, Metromover, Tri-Rail and Brightline — connect.

The access to transit will help residents, many who had used the Metromover for decades as residents of Harry Cain Tower, avoid the added expense of maintaining a car, Higgins said. In March, it was announced that an expanded commuter service along Brightline’s route had secured $263.7 million in federal funds as part of President Biden's 2025 budget. If completed, it would provide access as far north as Aventura.

Sawyer’s Walk may be the first of many projects to come from Swerdlow Group. The team is working alongside local officials for a project with more than 6,000 units in Miami’s Little River and Little Haiti neighborhoods just over four miles north of Overtown.

First reported by the Miami-Herald, the new development will be built along the rail that connects the Florida East Coast railway line, where Brightline runs, to the CSX mainline farther west. The proposed new development that has not been officially announced will include a commuter rail stop for Tri-Rail.

Swerdlow alluded to the potential project at Sawyer's Walk's grand opening, saying, “We have a vision. We’re working with the county on about 6,000 units. I think the community will be shocked at what you can do if you do things right.”

According to a study conducted by the University of Florida's Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, Miami-Dade County faces a 90,181-unit shortfall for renter households with incomes below 80% of the area's median income of $79,400. Homeowners face similar hurdles with 31,926 residents living between 80% and 120% of the area's median income and paying over a third of their income toward housing, according to the study.

Still, Swerdlow, who got his start investing in real estate in the 1970s in Manhattan, said the changes in Miami "have been unbelievable. There’s room for a lot of additional housing” across South Florida.

Miami is “just as busy as New York now. Just got better weather and less taxes," he said.