By Cassidy Winegarden, FloridaBulldog.org
Sweetwater is the next Florida city to get a major master-planned development. “Flagler Center” will rise on more than 100 acres previously occupied by the defunct Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park. The $4.6 billion dollar project will be one of the largest redevelopment sites in Miami-Dade County.
Early plans for the new community recently approved by Sweetwater’s city commission include more than 6,000 housing units, with at least 1,000 committed to affordable, workforce and senior housing units. Additionally, the project is to include community amenities, space for hundreds of retail storefront, private offices, a new school, a 250-room hotel, self-storage and what’s being described as a “comprehensive medical campus.”
A key part of developer and landowner CREI Holdings’ vision is to make Flagler Center a state-of-the-art healthcare destination. It will feature a hospital with more than 400 beds, a medical outpatient facility and an assisted living facility. A 12.6-acre parcel set aside for that campus is now up for sale on the site’s northeast corner. No asking price has been announced.
The massive for profit deal promises to make CREI’s principal owner, Raul F. Rodriguez and his small band of fellow investors very wealthy.
Last month, Florida Bulldog reported how starting in 2024 Rodriguez began moving to oust the mobile home park’s approximately 3,000 elderly and working-class residents amid construction of his $86-million Abner III affordable housing high-rise apartment building. With emotions running high, some residents who refused to go filed a high-profile, yet failed lawsuit. In October 2025 a court order gave them 24 hours to vacate.
The story later disclosed how behind the scenes Miami Republican Congressmen Carlos Gimenez, who represented the mobile home park’s residents, and Mario Diaz-Balart, used earmarks to obtain $10 million in federal grants to help build the Li’l Abner housing project and the proximate large contributions Rodriguez made to their joint fundraising political committees.
Florida has become a hotbed for master-planned communities, defined as communities with 1,000 or more housing units, like the Flagler Center District, the new land use category recently approved by Sweetwater’s city commission.
Builder Online published a report from Zonda, a marketing and advisory firm concentrating on new construction, that says ten of the 25 best-selling master planned communities in the country are in Florida. They used 2025 projected sales to make their rankings.
The availability of land around metro areas, and incentives from the state-level are a big part of the appeal for developers across Florida according to Lisa McNatt, director of analytics at Homes.com.
“While the state of Florida has six primary markets — and only four if you consider South Florida to be one — much of the state has solid development potential” she said in a December story on the company’s website.
‘THE NEW STANDARD FOR LIVE, WORK, PLAY’
Many master-planned communities feature amenities like resort style pools, outdoor areas like trains, fitness centers, schools and shopping. It’s part of what makes it so appealing to buyers and potential residents who are prioritizing convenience, low-maintenance and community amenities when looking for a place to live.
It’s also a major part of what Flagler Center is envisioned to be.
“This is a project that’s destined to become the new standard for live, work, play, and thrive in the city of Sweetwater” said Alejandro Arias, a Holland & Knight lawyer representing CREI Holdings told the Sweetwater Commission.
The plans also emphasize the need to make the development walkable and interconnected. Section 2.07.10 of the Master Plans approved by Sweetwater emphasizes that. There will be multiple ways into and out of the district, which will prioritize pedestrian mobility.
CREI boss Raul Rodriguez filed paperwork in August 2025 asking Sweetwater to amend its comprehensive master plan to accommodate Flager Center, which is located on 105 acres around Flagler Street and Northwest 112 Ave., east of Florida’s Turnpike and south of the Dolphin Expressway.
In October, Sweetwater City Commissioners approved changes making Flagler Center into its own zoning district. In February, they approved the details about the new district including parking requirements, coordination with existing public transit and project requirements.
During that meeting, a special meeting was called just four days later where commissioners got their first look at the master plan for the development and approved Sweetwater’s 30-year contract with CREI Holdings.
During the meeting multiple commissioners said they hadn’t had time to really read the thick packet of information. Both the Commission President Marcos Villanueva and Vice-President Jose Marti expressed concern that they didn’t know what exactly they were approving.
“I know you’ve been working on this for years but it’s a lot for us to digest,” said Marti.
“We were just trying to hurry and get this to you” said Mayor Jose ‘Pepe’ Diaz who addressed the commissioners, “We want to make sure it’s done right. At the same time, we want to give the applicant as much as possible to make this a successful entity.”
Villanueva emphasized that he would “ask a lot of questions. As many as I need to.”
A ‘PROFESSIONAL COURTESY’ FOR MAYOR DIAZ
Flagler Center will be developed in phases, the first of which can’t begin until more details have been smoothed out and approved by the commission.
Mayor Diaz will be the “negotiator” between the city and CREI Holdings, said Villanueva, calling it a “professional courtesy.” Those negotiations will include who will be responsible for on site and off site roadway and infrastructure improvements, and other matters, attorney Arias told commissioners.
The project will be a Community Development District, or CDD, as defined by Fl. Stat. 190.005 and 190.046. As the proposed Flagler Center District is completely within Sweetwater’s city limits, the city and not the county has the authority to establish it.
The purpose of a CDD is to financially support developers of residential projects and the help with maintenance of public infrastructure. The law defines CDD’s as local “special purpose” government overseen by an elected board of directors.
“This means residents run for office and are chosen by their peers through the official municipal election process,” said Lucianno Mastrionni, vice president at Rizzetta & Company, a FirstService Residential company.
As a public entity CDDs must comply with Florida’s Sunshine Law which mandates transparency, something Mayor Diaz said during the Feb. 13th meeting “will be huge.”
So far, there’s no word on how, when or where the district’s board of supervisors, meetings or budgets will be worked out.
Once that is established, the CDD will be able to collect funds as a “non-ad tax valorem assessment” which will repay bonds issued for the infrastructure and operations and management of the district.
A letter from developer’s attorney Arias last December to Sweetwater’s building department states that “over the course of development” the Flagler project “is expected to generate over $25 million dollars in new annual tax revenue, more than 62 times what is currently collected from the property.”
He added the project is expected to generate more than 29,000 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs.
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