Alejandro J. Arias

Alejandro J. Arias is a real estate attorney in Holland & Knight's Miami office, where he focuses his practice on land use and zoning matters. Mr. Arias also is a regional co-chair of the firm's national Land Use and Government Team. He is well versed on creating multifaceted strategies for project approvals that include working with development teams (owners, architects, engineers and contractors), meeting with key constituencies (whether in support or opposition), interacting with government officials and staff, preparing public outreach messaging and lobbying elected officials. He routinely appears before city and county commissions, local zoning boards and specialized boards (architects' boards and environmental quality control boards) with requests for land use changes, rezonings, site plan approvals, variances, wetlands and environmental compliance requests, and contracting matters.

Mr. Arias regularly represents national homebuilders, local and international developers, affordable housing developers, multinational engineering and construction companies, major utility companies and government agencies. Throughout his career, he has obtained a multitude of development entitlement approvals for a number of diverse projects, including multifamily housing, master-planned residential subdivisions, retail and commercial uses, live/work developments, student housing complexes and more.

Among his representative matters, Mr. Arias advised:

• a South Florida developer in connection with the procurement of development entitlements and successful adaptive reuse of a shuttered hotel into a mixed-use project encompassing 251 multifamily units, 5,500 square feet of retail use and a 2,036-square-foot commercial outparcel
• a globally recognized flight academy in connection with a conditional use permit for a flight simulation training center encompassing 20 flight simulators with capacity for up to 60 pilots
• a local developer in connection with the entitlement process for two senior affordable housing buildings consisting of 560 apartment units for seniors making up to 60 percent of area median income (AMI)
• a school for developmentally disabled children, on a pro bono basis, in connection with the procurement of the required development entitlements for an expansion to their existing campus
• a South Florida developer in connection with the procurement of development entitlements for an 886-unit student housing development and secured $228 million in Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) bond financing
• numerous developers in the city of Sweetwater, Florida, in connection with the procurement of key development entitlements in the University District transect, leading to the development of multiple student housing towers encompassing more than 3,500 student housing beds and amounting to more than $1 billion of development
• a national homebuilder in connection with the procurement of rezoning and site plan approvals for a master-planned 1,300-unit residential subdivision encompassing single-family homes, townhomes, villas and multifamily units in Hialeah, Florida
• a national homebuilder in connection with Development of Regional Impact (DRI) modifications and site plan, subdivision and variance approvals for a master-planned development encompassing 770 residential units
• a leading healthcare provider in connection with the development entitlements in Homestead, Florida, for a state-of-the-art 49,000-square-foot medical facility that will serve approximately 5,000 Medicare patients throughout the South Miami-Dade County area
• a prominent South Florida developer in connection with the required development entitlements before Miami-Dade County, Florida, for a 13-story transit-oriented student housing development encompassing 726 beds and 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail uses near a large private university campus and abutting the Miami Underline
• a national homebuilder in connection with a site plan modification and approval for a master-planned 214-unit townhome development in Homestead, Florida
• a local developer in connection with land use amendment, rezoning and site plan approval entitlements for two respective shopping centers in Doral, Florida
• a prominent car dealer in connection with the rezoning and site plan approval of a more than 48,000-square-foot automotive dealership
• a multinational retail developer with the procurement of land use, rezoning and site plan approvals for a shopping center encompassing more than 250,000 square feet of commercial uses
• a group of international developers in connection with the modification and phased development structuring of a master development agreement for a mixed-use project encompassing 1,548 dwelling units, 300,000 square feet of commercial uses and 75,000 square feet of office uses
• a local developer in connection with land use amendment, rezoning and site plan approval entitlements for a mixed-use, transit-oriented development encompassing 559 multifamily units and 26,000 square feet of ground floor commercial uses in Hialeah, Florida
• one of South Florida's largest multifamily developers before the city of Homestead, Florida, in connection with the creation of a new land use and zoning subdistrict and the approval of a horizontal mixed-use development, consisting of 354 Class A dwelling units and six commercial outparcels centered along a grand promenade; the project was the first of its kind in Homestead, introducing a new level of highly amenitized mixed-use development in the city
• a national nonprofit organization, on a pro bono basis, in connection with the required entitlement approvals from Miami-Dade County, Florida, for the construction of their new eight-story clubhouse facility near a children's hospital that will provide lodging, meals, activities and a community of care to critically ill children and their families who need to be near the hospital for treatment

Mr. Arias has a particular interest in both the legal and business elements of the real estate development process. While earning his LL.M. in Real Property Development at the University of Miami School of Law, he gained in-depth experience interning with two major homebuilders, and a multinational law firm. As part of the LL.M. degree curriculum, Mr. Arias scrutinized legal and transactional issues, including land acquisition, finance, regulation, tax law, construction law, environmental law, land use and zoning, and residential and commercial development.

While in law school, Mr. Arias served as a judicial intern with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, working for the Honorable Adalberto Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Media Coverage

• South Florida Business Journal Leon Medical Centers Owner Wins Approval for 559 Apartments, February 27, 2025
• South Florida Business Journal, 555 Apartments Planned in Hialeah Near Hospital, Transit Station, June 10, 2024
• South Florida Business Journal, Sweetwater Approves Multifamily Project Near FIU, February 8, 2024
• South Florida Business Journal, Estate Cos. Wins Approval for Apartments on Baptist Health Site, September 22, 2023
• South Florida Business Journal, 96 Acres of Farmland Under Contract in Homestead, June 15, 2023
• South Florida Business Journal, Century Homebuilders Proposes Modifying Plans for Midtown Doral Project. Here's the New Plan., April 21, 2023
• South Florida Business Journal, Developer Has Homestead Site Under Contract from Baptist Health, December 27, 2022
• South Florida Business Journal, Developer Wins Approval for Affordable Housing in Sweetwater, November 10, 2022
• Law360, Fla. Officials OK 316-Unit Senior Apt. Complex in Sweetwater, November 9, 2022
• South Florida Business Journal, Former Movie Theater Could Be Converted in $16M Project, April 12, 2022
• South Florida Business Journal, Developer Plans Medical Office and Retail in Homestead, December 1, 2021
• South Florida Business Journal, Pan Am Flight Academy Plans New Training Location in Miami-Dade, August 25, 2021
• South Florida Business Journal, Apartments Break Ground in Sweetwater, August 4, 2021
• South Florida Business Journal, Developer Proposes 8-Story Apartment Complex in Sweetwater, July 9, 2021
• South Florida Business Journal, EIG Aims to Convert Shuttered Ramada Inn In Hialeah To Apartments, September 21, 2021
• South Florida Business Journal, Developer Proposes First Phase of Trailer Park Redevelopment, August 26, 2019
• South Florida Business Journal, Developer Proposes Mixed-Use Project Near FIU Campus, August 21, 2019
• Daily Business Review, 'This Deal Has Been Complex From Day One': Holland & Knight Guides FIU Student Housing Deal, October 30, 2018
• South Florida Business Journal, Retail Center Proposed Near Trump National Doral, August 9, 2017