The proposed Ocean One with apartments and retail outlets would fill the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue in Boynton Beach. Rendering provided
By Tao Woolfe
Under the terms of a compromise deal between Hyperion Group LLC and the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, construction on Ocean One, a 371-unit mixed use downtown project, could begin next year.
The deal was reached at a special May 7 meeting of the City Commission sitting as the CRA board.
Essentially, Hyperion agreed to lower the amount of CRA subsidy it is requesting from $11.5 million to $9 million. The money would be provided using tax incentive funding revenues (also called tax increment revenue funding) over 12 years.
The 3.5-acre site is on the east side of Federal Highway north of Ocean Avenue. It is the second development with the Ocean One name proposed for the site. The earlier version proposed several years ago had 358 apartments, 12,075 square feet of retail and a 120-unit hotel.
That proposal was revised last year to offer 371 rental units, 25,000 square feet of retail space, 21,000 square feet of green space, and another 36,000 square feet of sidewalks and paved areas that will include public plazas with outdoor seating.
In return for the loan, the developer agreed to provide 90 public parking spaces inside a planned garage, as well as 20 on-street public parking spaces, with 20% of the parking revenue to be shared with the CRA.
Judging by their comments and questions, the commissioners seemed wary of entering into another downtown development deal without building safeguards into the contract.
Another major downtown project has been tied up in court for a year over a dispute with a neighboring property. The property for The Pierce — a $73 million complex of apartments, restaurants, retail stores and green space planned for 115 N. Federal Highway — sits across the street from the Ocean One site.
Commissioner Woodrow Hay asked CRA Attorney Tara Duhy whether safeguards could be added to the Ocean One deal.
“This is a big project. We want to make sure, as much as possible, that we get it right the first time,” Hay said. “Is there some way we could word it so we can assure ourselves that this is not going to be another one of those deals where, at a certain point, the developer splits?”
Duhy replied that some assurances are built into the contract: The tax increment funding (TIF) is capped; if the developer fails, and must assign the project to another developer, the CRA must be consulted; no TIF money will be available until the developer has met the terms of the contract; and any changes to the site plan must come back to the CRA for approval.
Hyperion CEO Robert Vecsler sounded reluctant to lower the TIF amount, but seemed more interested in getting the project started.
“We intend, if the market cooperates, to commence development now,” Vecsler told the board members. “We’re here because we believe in Boynton Beach. We have plans and we’re ready to build.”
The commissioners seemed pleased that Vecsler agreed that the 110 public parking spaces should remain public in perpetuity. The City Commission hears complaints about too much downtown traffic and too little public parking at almost every meeting.
Vecsler said he hopes to begin construction in the fall of 2025 and to have the project completed by 2029.
TIF payments amount to a portion of the increased taxes accruing from a project’s increasing property values—taxes that under state law are then paid to the CRA. The funding is used by CRAs to pay for additional projects in a designated redevelopment area.
Hyperion’s request is to use a portion of those revenues generated by its project to subsidize the project’s costs, making the dollars unavailable for other CRA projects or land purchases.
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