davis camalier - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T08:08:38Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/davis+camalierBoynton Beach: Interim director of CRA appointed after unexpected firinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-cra-interim-director-appointed-director-fired2023-11-29T15:36:17.000Z2023-11-29T15:36:17.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Tao Woolfe</strong></p>
<p>Boynton Beach has named an interim Community Redevelopment Agency director and determined that a permanent CRA director should be sought by seeking bids from executive recruiting firms.</p>
<p>The city could also look into using a familiar public sector recruiting firm such as GovHR USA, City Manager Daniel Dugger said at a Nov. 14 CRA meeting.</p>
<p>An invitation to bid on recruitment services was issued on Nov. 19 and the sealed bids are due by Dec. 18. City commissioners, sitting as the CRA board, agreed unanimously at their Nov. 13 meeting to promote Assistant Director Timothy Tack to interim director. </p>
<p>Tack, who joined the CRA in 2021, is a licensed engineer with more than 18 years’ experience in the public and private sectors. The commissioners agreed to raise his salary by $28,000 to a total of $167,852 while Tack serves as interim director.</p>
<p>Former CRA Director Thuy Shutt was fired from her post by the commission, for largely unspecified reasons, at a tumultuous CRA meeting on Oct. 10. </p>
<p>The three commissioners who initiated the dismissal — Mayor Ty Penserga and commissioners Aimee Kelley and Thomas Turkin — cited only unspecified “communication issues” between Shutt and city employees.</p>
<p>Many members of the public at the October meeting spoke out against the commission’s action and praised Shutt’s award-winning work.</p>
<p>Among them was Mildred Hay, wife of Commissioner Woodrow Hay.</p>
<p>“You do not deserve this,” Mildred Hay said to Shutt. “I pray God blesses you on your trail as you go.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Status update on The Pierce</span><br />The City Commission received a status update on a stalled development — The Pierce — from its newly hired in-house city counsel, Shawna Lamb. </p>
<p>A lawsuit challenging the abandonment of three streets leading into the mixed-use project “is still a problem,” and is pending in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, she told the commissioners at the Nov. 14 CRA meeting.</p>
<p>An adjacent property owner — F. Davis Camalier, of 209 N. Federal Highway — filed suit against Pierce developer Affiliated Development and the city this summer.</p>
<p>Boardwalk Italian Ice & Creamery leases space at that location.</p>
<p>Camalier is claiming that the city improperly abandoned three streets to accommodate Affiliated’s winning bid to build The Pierce, a $100 million mixed retail and commercial development that will contain 300 apartments. </p></div>Boynton Beach: City Commission votes to give Ocean One one more chancehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-city-commission-votes-to-give-ocean-one-one-more-ch2023-05-03T15:13:16.000Z2023-05-03T15:13:16.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11063012280,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11063012280,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="11063012280?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong><em>Once it is built, Ocean One will dominate a long-empty corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway where a Bank of America once stood. <strong>Rendering provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Tao Woolfe</strong></p>
<p>After listening to numerous residents’ fears that the Ocean One mixed-use complex would further snarl downtown traffic, the City Commission voted 4-1 to grant site plan modifications — and an extension — to the project’s new developer.</p>
<p>But on April 11, during the first of two meetings on the topic, the commissioners, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, warned Hyperion Development Group that the company must perform as promised or face legal consequences.</p>
<p>Hyperion is proposing a 371-unit apartment complex with 25,600 feet of commercial space. There would be 238 one-bedroom apartments; 91 two-bedroom apartments; and 42 studio apartments.</p>
<p>The original proposal, approved in 2017, called for 358 apartments, 12,075 square feet of retail and a 120-room hotel.</p>
<p>Amenities would include a pickleball court, a swimming pool and “beautiful, well-programmed public plazas and open spaces on Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway and resort-style private recreational amenities for the future residents,” according to Bonnie Miskel, attorney for Hyperion.</p>
<p>The previous owner, Davis Camalier, asked for several extensions and failed to start construction. As a result, the 3.7-acre site — bounded on the north by Boynton Beach Boulevard, on the south by Ocean Avenue, and east and west by Northeast Sixth Court and Federal Highway, respectively — has been vacant for years. <br /> Miami-based Hyperion Group purchased the property in December 2021 for $12 million, but the Boynton Beach commissioners and residents said they are still nursing hard feelings about the project. </p>
<p>Miskel repeatedly asked the commissioners at the April meeting not to hold Hyperion responsible for the previous owner’s failures.</p>
<p>Miskel assured the commissioners that the only reason her client was seeking an extension was to secure the necessary permits to begin construction.</p>
<p>During almost three hours of public comment, residents expressed wariness of the new development as well as concerns about the density and traffic it would cause.</p>
<p>“We keep extending and extending, and should ask for penalties,” said Boynton Beach resident Yvonne Skovron, summing up the prevailing sentiment. “The property keeps getting transferred from developer to developer. Do they have financing in place?”</p>
<p>Many people in the audience mentioned that the city had “given away” a piece of property to facilitate the original Ocean One project.</p>
<p>They were referring to the fact that in 2016, the CRA sold a half-acre parcel of adjacent land to the previous developer for $10. That land, valued now at more than $500,000, allowed the project to extend north to Boynton Beach Boulevard.</p>
<p>The city had hoped the developer would, in turn, build a small park on the site, but neither it, nor the apartment complex, ever materialized.</p>
<p>Several residents of the nearby Marina Village complex said parking in the area is already in short supply.</p>
<p>“Parking is a huge issue,” said Linda Cross, a Marina Village resident. “When the bridge goes up, there’s a tremendous parking jam. We’re lucky nobody’s been hit in the marina parking garage.”</p>
<p>Her neighbor Terrence Cahill asked the commissioners to be sensitive to the community’s concerns about downtown crowding and traffic. “We need you to protect us, not the developers,” Cahill said.</p>
<p>Commissioners said they, too, are concerned about parking and density, and asked Miskel whether the developer could provide more parking.</p>
<p>The attorney replied that her client did not cause the problem, but that they will see what remedies are possible.</p>
<p>Hyperion is proposing to provide 652 parking spaces, with 532 of those spaces in the parking garage and the rest on the street level. </p>
<p>Mayor Ty Penserga said the city has already lost money on the project but wants to see something built on the site.</p>
<p>“I don’t want that land vacant,” Penserga said. “If this makes it to the City Commission meeting we can ask more questions.”</p>
<p>The project was brought up again at the April 18 City Commission meeting, and so many more residents talked about the downtown parking problems that the mayor suggested the commission discuss the possibility of building a big, downtown parking garage.</p>
<p>“You have all brought to the forefront that in order for us to grow this city we need more parking in the area,” Penserga said. “The city should start thinking about a public parking garage.”</p>
<p>Thomas Turkin, the sole dissenting vote, said he wanted to table the matter until parking and other issues had been worked out.</p>
<p>“I’m not trying to kill the project, but I want to mitigate a problem we’ve been hearing about for years and years and years,” Turkin said. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the commission agreed to allow Hyperion to add 13 more apartments to the complex and granted an extension. The commercial space has also been increased.</p>
<p>The commissioners, after conferring with city staff, imposed several conditions, including:</p>
<p>• That the extension be for only six months, rather than the requested year, to obtain permits.</p>
<p>• That another six to seven months would be granted to begin construction.</p>
<p>• That the developer meet with the city and CRA staff to discuss parking solutions.</p>
<p>• And that the developer hold two public workshops within 30 days of April 18 to discuss parking. </p></div>Boynton Beach: CRA to buy Hurricane Alley site, nearby buildings for $3.6 millionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-cra-to-buy-hurricane-alley-site-nearby-buildings-fo2021-08-04T15:18:59.000Z2021-08-04T15:18:59.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9380657465,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9380657465,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="9380657465?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>The area is home to the Hurricane Alley eatery and Oyer, Macoviak and Associates insurance agency. </em><strong>Coastal Star photo</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Larry Barszewski</strong></p>
<p>The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency plans to purchase the Hurricane Alley site and two buildings west of it for $3.6 million, to be part of a larger downtown redevelopment project.<br /> The Ocean Avenue properties, owned by the Oyer family, would be added to adjacent land already owned by the CRA at 115 N. Federal Highway. It would be used in a project that would extend from Ocean Avenue to Boynton Beach Boulevard between Northeast Fourth Street and Federal Highway.<br /> City commissioners, serving as the CRA’s governing board, agreed to the purchase price at the CRA’s July 13 meeting, with a sale likely before the end of the year. <br /> The Oyer buildings at 511, 515 and 529 E. Ocean Ave. don’t have any historical designation, though they are some of the oldest remaining in the city. Harvey Oyer said his grandfather purchased the buildings some 90 years ago and they have since been passed down through the family. <br /> The family has resisted past offers by the CRA to purchase the properties.<br /> “It’s a tough decision for us. There’s a lot of family history there,” Harvey Oyer said. “Emotionally it may be hard to part with, but looking at where the city is today, our vision and our father’s vision was always for the city to be successful.”<br /> Commissioners see the potential projects in the Federal Highway blocks immediately north of Ocean Avenue as critical to downtown’s success. <br /> “This is the Ocean Avenue frontage that is kind of our signature street in Boynton Beach,” Mayor Steven Grant said. “The project that we have moving forward with 115, this would only enhance it such a great deal because of the value Ocean Avenue has on the property as a whole.”<br /> The Oyer properties were appraised at $3.4 million in October. Commissioners are willing to go to the $3.6 million asking price to secure them, saying their value has likely increased anyway over the past nine months.<br /> One concern for commissioners is making sure Hurricane Alley Restaurant and Raw Bar has a downtown home once redevelopment of the block begins. They’d like to see Hurricane Alley included in the larger redevelopment and are hopeful it can be relocated temporarily during construction.<br /> Commissioners also decided they want to entertain as many offers as possible for the development of the CRA property on the block. The CRA is issuing a request for proposals, known as an RFP, to see what developers are interested in building on the site.<br /> Commissioners turned down an alternative offer from Hyperion Development Group, supported by Davis Camalier, for the CRA to skip the RFP process and work directly with Hyperion to develop properties on both sides of Federal Highway north of Ocean Avenue as one project.<br /> Camalier owns the property in the block on the east side of Federal Highway and is in the process of selling it to Hyperion. He received site plan approval from the city in 2017 for a multiuse project there called Ocean One, but nothing was ever built. <br /> Camalier and Hyperion also have leverage because they control a key parcel that the CRA has yet to acquire on the west side, the property that is home to Boardwalk Italian Ice & Creamery, a parcel Hyperion is also buying.<br /> Bonnie Miskel, an attorney who represents Camalier, said combining the properties on both sides of Federal Highway would make for a true gateway project that commissioners have said they want. It would also be paid for almost exclusively by Hyperion, she said.<br /> “The project is a $350 million project,” Miskel said. “In all of the years that I’ve been doing this, I can’t even think of another CRA project where the private developer spent 90% of the money to get the buildings out of the ground.”<br /> Camalier said commissioners should not discount the ability of Hyperion to do a great project.<br /> “They are capable of raising huge amounts of capital,” Camalier said. “This could be our Rockefeller Center in Boynton Beach.”<br /> Commissioners said Hyperion could submit a proposal just like any other interested group — and it might have an advantage because of the property it already plans to buy. They were reluctant to short-circuit the proposal process given the high level of interest from developers. Last year, six separate development groups submitted letters of interest for developing the CRA property on the west side of Federal Highway.<br /> “People are interested in this property. There is a fight to be had for a champion to rise,” Commissioner Justin Katz said. “If everyone believes that competition is good, if everyone believes that a fight is good and will produce the champion, the best person or outfit to do this, the RFP is the only process.” <br /> Only Grant and Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay favored accepting Hyperion’s letter of interest.<br /> “I feel we are missing out on an opportunity here,” Hay said. “I’ve seen RFPs where the best did not rise to the top. We ended up going into litigation as we’re currently doing with Town Square,” a public-private partnership that’s in a dispute over two planned parking garages that have yet to be constructed.<br /> Grant said the ability to have a combined project on both sides of Federal Highway would allow for uses that may not be included if they are done separately. He fears the new proposals will all include large apartment complexes.<br /> “I would want to see office space. I would want to see condos. I would want to see a hotel. I do not want more residential,” Grant said. “We are missing the boat on Class A office space that is needed. It is the combined aspect of the hotel, the residential, the retail and the commercial. I don’t believe anyone else can offer that.”<br /> Hyperion CEO Rob Vecsler said his company may move forward with plans for just the east side “because maybe we believe that waiting on the RFP adds too much uncertainty in timing. We feel the time to strike is now. The iron is hot now.”<br /> The main portion of the CRA property is 1.58 acres it purchased for $3 million in 2018, which is now being used as surface-level parking while awaiting development. In April, the CRA approved the purchase later this year of an adjacent 0.29-acre property at 508 E. Boynton Beach Blvd. — west of Ace Hardware — for $915,000. The purchase of the three Oyer properties, with their 0.41 acres, will bring the CRA-owned portions of the block to 2.29 acres at a cost of $7.5 million.<br /> Commissioners hope to have the RFP proposals in and reviewed, with a winner selected and negotiations completed so that a final contract can be approved at the CRA’s February 2022 meeting. The mayor and two of the four other commissioners are term-limited, so they would like to see their efforts finished before a new board is seated following the March elections.<br /> The CRA’s purchases may not be ended. Besides the Boardwalk Italian Ice site, other privately owned properties in the eastern block include a convenience store on Ocean Avenue at Federal, a gas station at Boynton Beach Boulevard and Federal, and Ace Hardware on Boynton Beach Boulevard.<br /> “We need to keep going and accept that the adjacent property, particularly the convenience store, likely needs to be acquired now,” Katz said. “The acquisition of the Oyer property necessitates the acquisition of the corner parcel now, because then we have the entire Ocean (Avenue) frontage.”</p></div>Boynton Beach: Commissioners want to partner with developer, but fear getting burnedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-commissioners-want-to-partner-with-developer-but-fe2021-04-28T14:56:31.000Z2021-04-28T14:56:31.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8862244880,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8862244880,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8862244880?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="425" /></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related Story: Downtown dilemma: Start building <a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-downtown-dilemma-start-building-new-park-or-give-up=edit" target="_blank">new park</a> or give up on idea for now</strong></p>
<h3 class="entry-title"> </h3>
<p><strong>By Larry Barszewski</strong><br /> <br /> Two large undeveloped Federal Highway properties sitting across from each other in downtown Boynton Beach have some city commissioners suggesting that the two owners team up on their building plans. <br /> Not all commissioners welcomed the idea, though, given that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency owns the 2.6-acre site at 115 N. Federal Highway on the west side of the street and private developer Davis Camalier owns the 3.5-acre Ocean One parcel at 114 N. Federal Highway on the east side.<br /> The CRA purchased its 2.6-acre property to the north of Hurricane Alley Raw Bar and Restaurant three years ago for $3 million. Camalier’s Ocean One property received site plan approval in 2017, but nothing has been built on it so far.<br /> “I’m open-minded to things, but I’m just cautioning and going on the record that a stalled-out, financially unfunded project across the street does not sound like the type of thing I want to tether to our 115 project that we own,” said Commissioner Justin Katz, referring to the CRA site by its street address. <br /> “I just want to make sure we don’t start to create the narrative that these two projects are symbiotic,” Katz went on. “I don’t want to tether them together, because now in order to make 115 work, we have to make the project across the street work, and that has been a difficult lift.”<br /> Commissioners, acting as the city’s CRA board, plan to seek development proposals for the CRA site, but they also told staff at the CRA’s April 13 meeting to meet with Camalier to discuss what a working relationship might look like.<br /> Commissioner Christina Romelus said having Camalier as a partner would not take away any of the CRA’s rights, but working together could help prevent “piecemeal” projects. A partnership could create “a general master plan for that Federal Highway area,” she said.<br /> “I think the first step is just knowing that we have an equal partner that is willing to work with us here on this and is not going to be an adversary or is not going to railroad us in the process,” Romelus said. “We’re not going to give away anything. We’re not going to sell anything. Our property is still our property. His property is still his property. And if anything isn’t working out the way that we’re seeing it work out, we squash that and we move on with our original proposal.”<br /> Camalier, who made a rare appearance at the CRA meeting “to really try and put our minds together” and “approach how we develop” the two sites, grew frustrated as the night wore on over concerns raised about his inclusion in the CRA’s efforts. <br /> “I came here tonight to simply say I’d like to try to work together. So, you all can work with me or you can go take your marbles and go work on your own,” Camalier told commissioners. “It’s up to you all. I’m an investor. I want to maximize my value, my asset. I think working together, creating an important place, is the focus of this message.”<br /> Camalier’s representatives have said Ocean One’s original plans for a mixed-use development, including an eight-story, 231-unit residential complex, are no longer economically feasible and other alternatives are being considered. The project was supposed to receive about $4.1 million in taxpayer money to help with costs, but that potential has now expired.<br /> Still, commissioners want to see Camalier succeed because the Ocean One property is seen as a critical part of the downtown’s overall redevelopment. <br /> Camalier is also an important player because he owns the Boardwalk Italian Ice & Creamery site adjacent to the CRA’s 115 N. Federal Highway property. Commissioners are hoping to add adjacent parcels to the CRA site to make it more attractive for potential development. The Boardwalk site is particularly significant because of its prime Federal Highway frontage.<br /> The CRA site is already set to expand. Commissioners at the April CRA meeting agreed to purchase an adjacent parcel to the north of the CRA property, which will give the site access from Boynton Beach Boulevard. The closing for the .29-acre property at 508 E. Boynton Beach Blvd. won’t take place until November. <br /> Commissioners agreed to a $915,000 purchase price. The CRA is putting down a $100,000 deposit and will pay the balance with money budgeted in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.<br /> The property is the Boynton office for Urban Design Studio. It was formerly the home of Miller Land Planning Consultants, headed by Bradley Miller. Miller joined Urban Design Studio a year ago and is on the development team of one of the groups seeking approval to build on the CRA site. Six groups submitted letters of interest last year in the CRA site, with most suggesting mixed-use projects with office and commercial space and several hundred apartments or condos.<br /> Commissioners decided in December to put together their own suggestions for what they’d like to see built on the property. They received public input through an online survey in February.<br /> They’re now considering a two-pronged approach that would solicit proposals for the site and look at each developer’s qualifications to get a better idea of who is likely to be able to bring a project to fruition.<br /> The ideas commissioners supported include:<br /> • Mixed use, with retail, office, grocery and residential units.<br /> • Incorporation of open space, plazas and enhanced green spaces, including expansion of Dewey Park on Ocean Avenue.<br /> • Public parking in excess of development requirements.<br /> • Transportation amenities, including those for buses, trains, bikes and ride-sharing.<br /> • The inclusion of more adjacent properties into the site.<br /> Because of the problems in getting Ocean One built, commissioners want additional protection included in any agreement. Ocean One received a half-acre sliver of CRA-owned land — at the time valued at $480,000 — for a nominal $10 price. Commissioners said any agreement for the current property should include a reverter clause that gives the property back to the CRA if construction does not start by a certain time. <br /> The CRA also lists the average value of CRA-owned properties at $64 a square foot, placing the site’s value at $4.4 million.</p></div>