cypress realty - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T11:42:18Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/cypress+realtyBoca Raton: Area plan for Midtown addresses beautification and safety, not developmenthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-area-plan-for-midtown-addresses-beautification-and-saf2019-01-02T15:53:33.000Z2019-01-02T15:53:33.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>City staffers have issued their long-awaited “small area plan” for Midtown that makes no recommendation on the most important issue for the 300-acre area — whether residential development should be allowed.<br /> Development Services Director Brandon Schaad presented the staff’s proposed plan, 11 months in the making, to residents on Dec. 4. The Boca Raton City Council is expected to consider it later this month.<br /> Schaad did not mention residential development during his 45-minute presentation at the Spanish River Library. Asked about it by a resident, Schaad said, “We are not recommending any residential.”<br /> After the meeting, Schaad said staff did not make a recommendation because City Council members have not yet reached a consensus on whether they want residential development in Midtown.<br /> Midtown landowners, including Crocker Partners and Cypress Realty of Florida, joined forces about four years ago in an ambitious plan to redevelop the large tract located west of Interstate 95 and east of the Town Center mall, where no residential development is allowed.<br /> They envisioned a “live, work, play” transit-oriented development where people would live in as many as 2,500 residential units and walk or take shuttles to their jobs, shopping and restaurants.<br /> The landowners and city staff worked jointly on land development regulations that would allow such a project until, at the behest of the City Council, staff took the reins.<br /> The redevelopment plan died one year ago when council members postponed a vote on regulations that staff recommended. They voted instead to have staff develop a small area plan for Midtown, an idea proposed by council member Andrea O’Rourke.<br /> Crocker Partners and Cypress Realty, frustrated by the delays, have sued the city for not adopting land development regulations and stifling their ability to redevelop their properties.<br /> Cypress Realty principal Nader Salour said he had expected the small area plan would determine how many residential units could be built and allowable building heights, among other things. Instead, the plan concentrates on beautifying the area.<br /> “That is disappointing and just seems to be a delaying tactic,” he said.<br /> “Council is looking for guidance from staff. Staff is looking to council for guidance. And neither side is forthcoming with a recommendation, so we keep having this circular discussion,” he said. “I am baffled by what they are trying to achieve.”<br /> The Dec. 4 meeting “is a clear indication of the city’s intent to frustrate and delay property owners’ rights,” said Crocker Partners managing partner Angelo Bianco.<br /> The meeting was sparsely attended, but the few residents who spoke up thanked city staff for its efforts on the plan and voiced no objections.<br /> “Overall, I think you are doing a great job,” said Jack McWalter.<br /> The plan calls for gradual improvements over five years to streets, street lighting, landscaping and parking. It aims to reduce traffic congestion, improve street walkability and create places where the public can gather for special events. <br /> It devotes considerable attention to Military Trail, adding landscaped medians, trees, wider sidewalks and better crosswalks, while also improving safety.<br /> The improvements could be paid for by creating a special taxing district, with property owners in the area paying the increased taxes. The City Council will make the final decision on a taxing district.<br /> “Under the terms and conditions laid out, all the landowners would be taxed simply to beautify or improve certain streets with no added incentive, namely residential or anything else,” Salour said. “I can’t imagine anyone would be in support of it. We certainly would not.”<br /> While the plan would improve Midtown, it is not a blueprint for what the area can become. The city still must adopt land development regulations that will spell out to developers and landowners what they can build in Midtown. Staff is working on those.<br /> “The elephant in the room is still density,” resident Bill DeAngelis said at the meeting.<br /> Crocker Partners, which owns 67 acres, sued the city in October, seeking $137.6 million in damages on grounds that the delay in approving land development regulations created an impermissible building moratorium that took away its property rights.<br /> Crocker filed a separate legal action in May, seeking to have a judge compel the city to write land development regulations.<br /> Cypress Realty also sued in October, citing the lack of land development regulations and saying the city has been “stonewalling” its efforts to redevelop its 10.2 acres. It is asking the court to require the city to process its August development application.</p></div>Boca Raton: Crocker, Cypress Realty file lawsuits against cityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-crocker-cypress-realty-file-lawsuits-against-city2018-10-31T14:33:41.000Z2018-10-31T14:33:41.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>Developer and landowner Crocker Partners filed its promised lawsuit against Boca Raton, seeking $137.6 million in damages on grounds the city failed to adopt regulations that would allow it to build its proposed Midtown project.<br /> Cypress Realty of Florida, a landowner that partnered with Crocker Partners on Midtown planning, also has sued, saying in its lawsuit that the city has been “stonewalling” its efforts to develop 10.2 acres. <br />Crocker Partners, which wants to redevelop 67 acres it owns east of the Town Center mall, informed the city in April it planned to file the Bert Harris Act lawsuit. Such a lawsuit gives both sides 150 days to resolve their differences outside of court.<br /> But Crocker Partners heard nothing from the city until September, when the city sent a letter denying Crocker Partners’ claims and declining to enter into settlement negotiations, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 23 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.<br /> “Due to the fact that the city has taken an obstructionist, non-cooperative approach, we are left with no choice but to move forward” with the lawsuit, Crocker Partners managing partner Angelo Bianco said in a release. “We are saddened that the city has forced our hand in this matter and is endangering the financial health of our community. …”<br /> The city, Crocker Partners and other property owners in the Midtown area worked together over several years to write land development regulations that would allow the property owners to move ahead with their ambitious plan to redevelop 300 acres into a transit-oriented development where people would live in as many as 2,500 new residential units and walk or take shuttles to their jobs, shopping and restaurants.<br /> Boca Raton City Council members torpedoed that plan Jan. 23 when they postponed a vote on the land development regulations that set a framework for how Midtown could be built. Instead, they voted to have staff develop a “small area plan” for Midtown.<br /> That “small area plan” has not yet been completed and no decisions have been made on whether residential units will be allowed in the Midtown area.<br /> Bianco contended the delay created an impermissible building moratorium that took away his property rights.<br /> In calculating the economic damage to Crocker Partners, the lawsuit said the three properties it owns in Midtown — Boca Center, The Plaza, and One Town Center — are worth $59.9 million.<br /> If the company could build about 1,200 apartments on that land, as would be allowed under the planned mobility district designation the city had given the area, the properties would be worth $197.5 million, the lawsuit states. The difference is the $137.6 million in damages Crocker Partners is seeking.<br /> Crocker filed a separate legal action in May, seeking to have a judge compel the city to write land development regulations for Midtown, and to rule that the City Council’s January delay in adopting them, and instead develop the “small area plan,” are illegal.<br /> The lack of land development regulations also is at the heart of Cypress Realty’s Oct. 12 lawsuit.<br />The landowner has sought city approval to develop its property since 2015, and most recently filed an amended development application in August following the city council’s delay in adopting the regulations. It wants to build 204 high-end rentals and 64,000 square feet of retail space.<br />But the city has not acted, and has said it can not do so because the land development regulations have not been approved. <br />On Sept. 24, City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser informed Cypress Realty that the city does not intend to process the development application, the lawsuit states.<br />Cypress Realty is asking the court to require that the city process it.<br />On Oct. 29, Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Gillen ordered an expedited hearing be held during which the city must demonstrate why it should not be ordered to process the application.<br />“The city’s inaction is unconscionable. It seems the only way you can do business with Boca Raton these days is to file a lawsuit. That’s not the way it should be,” Cypress Realty principal Nader Salour said in a release.<br />“We now find ourselves in an untenable situation and a classic Catch-22. The city won’t schedule our site plan application for review without regulations in place. Yet, they refuse to put the regulations in place.”<br />City spokeswoman Chrissy Gibson said Oct. 30 that the city had not yet been served with the Crocker Partners lawsuit. The city attorney’s office will review that lawsuit when it sees it and the Cypress Realty lawsuit “and prepare an appropriate and timely response.”<br />The city faces another development-related legal problem. In August, landowner Robert Buehl announced he also plans to file a Bert Harris Act lawsuit against the city, seeking as much as $100 million in damages, over the city council’s July rejection of a proposal to build the $75 million Concierge, a luxury adult living facility, in the downtown.<br /> Group P6, the developer of Concierge, headed to court in August in an effort to quash the city’s denial of the project.<br /> The city annexed the Midtown area in 2003. On Oct. 23, the City Council voted unanimously to replace the area’s county zoning districts with city zoning districts. The ordinances also change some permitted uses in the area that would, in part, help the city control excessive noise from bars and restaurants.</p></div>