How small can you go? These new Miami apartments want you to downsize and live large

MIAMI – Would you plunk down $300,000 for a studio that measures 350 square feet — about the size of two surface parking lot spaces — to live in the heart of Miami Beach?

If the idea seems preposterous, micro-units are not for you.

But a growing number of real estate developers are banking on the micro-unit concept — tiny, furnished apartments in amenity-laden buildings, located in hot neighborhoods — to attract buyers and renters who want to live in Miami-Dade's most popular neighborhoods but can't afford to pay market rates.

They are also exploiting the malleability of the tiny-living concept — which has been used in cities such as Seattle and New York to alleviate the affordable housing crunch — and customizing it to suit their individual projects:

• The 70-unit 6080 Boutique Hotel at 6080 Collins Av., due for completion in July, is a residential/hotel mixed-use project with turnkey residences ranging from 350-square-foot studios to 900-square-foot two-bedrooms (about a fifth of a professional basketball court). Prices range from $300,000 to $750,000.

• Property Management Group has launched a co-living operation, dubbed PMGx, that applies the micro-unit living concept to traditional apartments. The company is adopting a rent-by-bedroom (RBB) tactic at the 464 units in the X Miami tower (formerly known as Vice) at 300 Biscayne Blvd. The RBB strategy is simple: You rent a single bedroom (with private bathroom) inside a fully furnished unit and share living space with roommates that have been screened and vetted during the application process. Rents will range from $1,300 to $1,500.

• X Las Olas, a two-tower project at 300 SW. First Av. in Fort Lauderdale, will add another 1,100 RBB units. The company plans to break ground on a third South Florida project — the 700-unit tower X Biscayne, at 400 Biscayne Blvd. — late this year.

• Moishe Mana, the developer who owns large chunks of land in Wynwood and along Flagler Street in downtown Miami, is proceeding with a plan to build a 49-story tower at 200 N. Miami Av. that would include 328 micro-units of 400 to 500 square feet. "It is our initiative to endorse the development of micro-units in the city of Miami," Mana said. "It is crucial to provide housing for millennials to ensure the growth of Miami as a global hub for industries and technology."

All of these developments take advantage of building and zoning codes that allow for higher density and lower parking requirements, which maximize land use. Although some fixed construction costs stay the same — you still need a bathroom and a kitchen, for example — the overall building costs are roughly 20 percent lower.

"Developers and lenders see Miami is growing up," said Luis Flores, a partner at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, who works with developers around the U.S. "The micro-unit model permits rentals and complies with zoning. For a New York lender, that's a no-brainer. The wrinkle Miami adds is that the units will also have beautiful design and finishes."

All of the micro-unit buildings coming online in Miami-Dade are rich in amenities — common work and play spaces, gyms, pools and outdoor areas. Some of them, such as the 6080 Boutique Hotel and the X Miami tower, come fully furnished with beds, sofas, flat-screen TVs — even flatware and bed linens.

In other words, they are move-in ready, which is what their residents want. According to a study by the Urban Land Institute Multifamily Housing Councils, the majority of micro-unit dwellers are under-30 professionals and first-time renters who don't need much living space — or, presumably, closets.