West Palm Beach downtown office towers, real estate development
New office towers in downtown West Palm Beach, or completed towers such as 360 Rosemary, have attracted about 100 companies to Palm Beach County since 2019.
Greg Lovett, Palm Beach Post
A 160-unit Art Deco apartment complex is being proposed for a long-vacant piece of land along Broadway in West Palm Beach, in what the developer’s representative calls a “game changer” for the neglected neighborhood.
The project, called “Deco Northwood,” is the first presented to the city under the state’s Live Local Act, which is intended in part to incentivize developers to build more affordable housing through incentives such as higher building heights.
For Deco Northwood, the Kansas developer wants to build eight stories in an area limited to five stories, and he also wants to reserve 40% of the apartments for lower rents.
“This is a groundbreaking project for Broadway,” said Rebecca Miller, president of Miller Permitting and Land Development, which represents the developer. “It’s the beginning of bringing Class A architecture to Broadway and providing workforce housing.”
Because the developer wants to take advantage of the Live Local Act, Miller said the lower rents will be based on the area’s median income, which was recently $104,000.
The law allows affordable housing to be offered to families earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, or $90,000 for a single person. Depending on a person’s income, rent for a one-bedroom apartment would range from $1,200 for someone earning 60 percent of the area median income to $2,400 for someone earning 120 percent.
The project, which is located at 2900 Broadway, failed to pass an initial review by the city’s Plans, Plats and Review Committee this month. But Miller said the proposed changes were mostly technical ones she could make without drastically altering the plan, and they also addressed some design and landscaping concerns.
“It’s difficult because we have a very narrow terrain,” Miller said.
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Sandwiched between 28th and 29th Streets, the property is just 0.72 acres in size and borders the Old Northwood Historic District. It is located about three blocks east of the Intracoastal Waterway and two miles north of downtown.
There would be one level of underground parking, street-level retail space, and six floors of apartments stacked so as not to overshadow nearby homes. The eighth floor would have an amenity deck with a shallow sundeck and views of the Intracoastal.
The Art Deco theme would include rounded balconies and swaths of art running the height of the building and would be inspired by the “topography, flora and culture” unique to West Palm Beach.
Bill Grotto, chairman of the Old Northwood Historic District, said the community is largely supportive of the project, hoping it will improve infrastructure and bring more shops, restaurants and grocery stores to the area.
“We’re tired of looking at empty lots,” Grotto said. “We’re pro-development because we know it’s going to stress the North End, but we’re also excited about traffic calming, extra police, lighting and all the things that go into a great neighborhood.”
The Broadway corridor, which the city calls “severely neglected and in need of revitalization,” runs between 24th and 59th streets. It’s part of the city’s redevelopment plan, called Broadway Mixed Use Development, which aims to reevaluate zoning and land-use restrictions to spur economic development. The city’s website says the plan is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Miller also lives in Old Northwood and said that’s one of the reasons she wanted to represent the project.
“We basically have a food desert with no big box stores nearby,” Miller said. “We don’t have the density for a Publix.”
The Publix in Palm Beach is about 2.5 miles from the Deco Northwood location. It is about 3 miles to the Publix on Blue Heron Boulevard, just off the Intracoastal.
The Prime Co., based in Manhattan, Kansas, is the developer of Deco Northwood. It would be the first project in West Palm Beach, but the company owns three other properties on Broadway that could host similar developments, Miller said.
But being the first to use the Live Local Act also brings challenges.
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Brian Seymour, co-chair of the real estate department at Gunster Law Firm, is not affiliated with the Deco Northwood project, but said there are nuances in the law in general that can present obstacles.
He said some municipalities across the state have opposed the legislation because it takes away local control. If a project meets all the requirements of the law, it must be approved. On smaller lots, it can be difficult to meet multifamily regulations, including those related to landscaping, he said.
Seymour said West Palm Beach has worked with developers to create incentives to build affordable housing through its own regulations instead of using the Live Local Act.
“Some localities have tried to find the narrowest interpretation to limit the development provisions of the Live Local Act,” Seymour said. “The city of West Palm Beach is not one of those governments. West Palm Beach has worked with developers to create incentives to use the city’s rules, rather than just use the law.”
Kimberly Miller is a reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth is impacting the South Florida environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate digest. If you have news tips, send them to [email protected]. Support our local journalism and subscribe today.
