Residents may remember the Bank of America plaza that used to occupy the northeast corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, where this 371-unit mixed-use development is planned. Rendering provided
By Tao Woolfe
Boynton Beach appears poised to approve an imposing 371-unit mixed-use development at the northeast corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway early this month.
The developer also wants the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to approve an $11.5 million subsidy for the project, using tax incentive funding revenues (also called tax increment revenue funding).
The project known as Ocean One, estimated to cost $170 million, is not new to the city. One smaller 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 one with 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.
The complex also will boast a parking garage with 90 spaces set aside for the public, as well as 70 commercial spaces. Too much traffic and too few parking spaces are the two biggest complaints residents lob at city officials whenever new developments are on the horizon.
Those criticisms surfaced again at the April 9 CRA board meeting at which the Ocean One plan was discussed. The board postponed a vote on the matter until a special hourlong CRA meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. May 7— just before a City Commission meeting that same night.
The developer, Miami-based Hyperion Development Group, has asked the CRA for a TIF subsidy up to a maximum amount of $11.5 million over 15 years.
Hyperion has said the property will offer tenants a lap pool, a fitness area, a pickleball court, two public plazas and a courtyard.
Timothy Tack, the CRA’s assistant director, told city commissioners who make up the CRA board that an evaluation done of the developer’s request for TIF funding determined it “appears to be generally in the range of reasonableness.”
TIF payments amount to a portion of the increased taxes accruing from a project’s increasing property values, taxes which 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 wants the CRA 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.
Bonnie Miskel, attorney for Hyperion, said the developers had been meeting with residents and business owners to hear concerns and work on solutions — especially those centered on parking and amenities.
Miskel has said the developer is not responsible for the city’s parking problems, but his willingness to work with the neighbors resulted in the promise of 90 public spaces and the addition of amenities that everyone can enjoy.
“Let’s be part of the solution. This is a really exciting project,” said Hyperion Chief Executive Officer Rob Vecsler. “We love Boynton Beach.”
But not all the city commissioners seemed convinced of the project’s merits.
“This building does nothing for me in terms of attractiveness,” said Commissioner Woodrow Hay. “I’m not convinced. I want more.”
Commissioner Thomas Turkin agreed.
“We should have negotiated further,” he said, adding that he would like to see a reduction in the TIF amount; public parking spaces preserved in perpetuity; and that residents from nearby Marina Village be given a seat at the negotiating table.
“My biggest fear is that we’re getting something worse” than the earlier proposal, Turkin said.
The public, too, seemed skeptical.
“This project involves more rental and not enough office space,” said longtime resident Susan Oyer. “What does this project add? Where are the jobs and hotels?”
Harry Woodworth, another longtime city resident, said the project should be sexier.
“If you’re going to give that much TIF money, you’ve got to ask them to give something that would make people get off the highway,” Woodworth said. “Get a little more creative.”
In answer to residents’ suggestion that more office space be added, Miskel said office space is languishing on the market these days. She also said the public parking spaces would remain public, unlike some complexes where public parking expires after a set number of years.
Vecsler said he would love to add a hotel, but the financing simply would not work right now. He added that the smaller scale height — eight stories, rather than the 15 stories previously allowed by the downtown zoning code — helped to make the project friendlier.
“It’s a transformative project,” Vecsler said.
Some of the commissioners’ hard feelings about the project stem from the failure of the site under its original owner, Davis Camalier.
Camalier had also negotiated a TIF agreement for his project, but that lapsed after several extensions when he failed to start construction. As a result, the 3.7-acre site has been vacant for years.
In 2018, the CRA sold a half-acre parcel of adjacent land to Camalier for $10. That land, valued now at more than $500,000, allowed the project to extend north to Boynton Beach Boulevard.
The city had negotiated that the developer would, in turn, build a small park on the site, but neither it, nor the apartment complex, ever materialized.
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