SOURCE: Town of Boynton Beach & Morgan Boynton Beach LLC
Map by Bonnie Lallky Seibert/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Less than a month after one downtown Boynton Beach development project fizzled, another arose to keep the promise of long-awaited construction activity alive.
Morgan Boynton Beach LLC filed a site plan with the city Jan. 8 for a 370-unit, seven-story residential tower at the southwest corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway. The project as planned includes about 14,000 square feet of retail space, a six-story parking garage and a public plaza on the corner.
“It’s all pretty doable, all easily adjustable,” city Planning and Zoning Director Michael Rumpf said.
Unlike many proposals that seek maximum floor space or more, the plan for 500 Ocean calls for less than Boynton Beach’s minimum floor space requirement. But the city is tweaking its rules, which were “a little bit higher” than model regulations, to accommodate the project, Rumpf said.
“We want people down there, we want buildings, massing. We want development, a train station down there,” Rumpf said.
The limited liability corporation that submitted the plans has the same mailing address as LeCesse Development Corp. of Altamonte Springs and most of the same executives. Rumpf said the site plan labels the project “residential,” but does not say whether that means condominiums or rental apartments.
LeCesse specializes in multifamily residential development, its website says.
The project will go to the city’s Planning and Development Board on Feb. 25 and then to the City Commission in March.
The 4.7-acre site is also bounded by Southeast Second Avenue and Southeast Fourth Street. Entrances are proposed on Federal and Fourth.
The site plan was welcome news to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which in December withdrew a request for proposals for its half-acre at 222 N. Federal Highway after a year of negotiations with a Delray Beach law firm, Kanner and Pintaluga PA, and with One Boynton LLC, which owns most of the land fronting Federal Highway between Ocean Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard.
The lawyers wanted a spot for a 50,000-square-foot headquarters and said they would bring 200 jobs downtown by 2015. One Boynton, owned by Davis Camalier, proposed two residential towers and a flagship hotel. But negotiations disintegrated in the fall.
The 500 Ocean project is on the same location as The Arches, a previous $105 million proposal for 378 condominiums and more than 40,000 square feet of retail. But the property wound up in foreclosure in 2011.
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