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Mark Freerks

Developer Michael Swerdlow is negotiating with the city of North Miami to cut a lease for the 190-acre site once known as Biscayne Landing.

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Oscar Pedro Musibay

Reporter - South Florida Business Journal

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Developer Michael Swerdlow envisions big-box retailers and an assisted living facility to kick off development of the 190-acre site once known as Biscayne Landing.

If it successfully negotiates an agreement with the city of North Miami, Swerdlow’s Oleta Partners plans to focus first on infrastructure and cleanup of the former landfill site.

Swerdlow turned into one of the region’s most successful developers after becoming an expert at handling retail leases in bankruptcy courts. In the 1970s, he led a group that purchased Hollywood Inc., which developed the south Broward city of the same name, and subsequently developed Oakwood Plaza along Interstate 95 in Hollywood and Cypress Creek Station on Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.

Swerdlow knows the North Miami property well because he was Biscayne Landing’s developer before selling his interest to partner Boca Developers. Boca Developers built a small number of residential units before the project stalled, and the site was eventually handed back to the lender group.

Swerdlow’s new proposal is projected to generate 10,000 construction jobs and 2,500 permanent jobs from a long-term development plan that would include retail, a luxury assisted living facility and 200 residences within the first four years.

The assisted living facility would be on 10 acres and the retail on about 80 acres, Swerdlow said.

The assisted living facility site, on the north side of the property, is nearly ready, but infrastructure work on the other acreage would take about a year to complete, he said in an interview.

Swerdlow is in talks with an assisted living facility operator, but there is no firm deal and he declined to identify the company. Some of the potential services would require state licenses, which makes having an existing operator advantageous, he said.