Developers interested in buying Rivieria Beach public land near the waterfront will have another month to make an offer.
Riviera Beach council members, sitting as the board of directors of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, extended the deadline for offers to acquire and redevelop 2.2 acres of land at 1851 Broadway to June 19. The previous deadline ended May 14. The extension passed with a vote of 4 to 1 on Wednesday evening.
Riviera Beach solicited offers for developers interested in buying the land in March after North Palm Beach-based Forest Development made an unsolicited offer to buy the property for about $3.5 million. The development firm, headed by Peter Baytarian, wants to build a $325 million project that will include 450 apartments and 17,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, according to a July 2024 CRA memo.
Extending the deadline is geared to provide more time for the property to be advertised nationally instead of just South Florida publications such as The Palm Beach Post. The additional time also allows the city to “cast a wider net” in hopes of attracting more lucrative offers, said council member Bruce Guyton.
“We live in a capitalistic society. Competition is what drives us. And if there are others out there who have an interest, it will put us in a better position of strength with whoever we decide to negotiate with,” Guyton said.
But CRA executive director Gedel Merzius warned council members that the nation is “in the middle of uncertain financial times,” and time is not on the city’s side. “There’s a lot of volatility in the market, and I want us all to understand that time is of the essence when we are dealing with large development projects,” Merzius told council members.
Guyton said the 30-day extension is “not two years” and therefore “not a significant amount of time” for huge fluctuations in the real estate market.
Council Member Glen Spiritis, the lone dissenting vote, disagreed. “As a developer and someone who has built in good times and bad times, I can assure you that one day, 24 hours, can make a difference of whether you get financing and whether you get a successful project,” said Spiritis, president of G & J Associates Corp, a planning and development consulting company.
The Riviera Beach CRA had approved a resolution to extend the deadline on April 9. However, because the extension wasn’t on that meeting’s advertised agenda, a new vote was needed, a city memo said.
Riviera Beach has sought to attract more residential and retail development to grow its tax base and attract more jobs for locals, and has generated more attention from developers on the hunt for affordable land in South Florida. Yet, many of those projects are still on the drawing board.
Forest Development, led by Peter Baytarian, is among the builders that Riviera Beach has attracted. The firm recently obtained approvals from the city council to build a pair of 25-story condo towers at 3700 Broadway. Called Oculina, the proposed project will be just 1,600 feet away from the site where Forest Development and Royal Palm Companies are building Nautilus 220 in neighboring Lake Park.
The property at 1851 Broadway (U.S. 1) that is up for bid is owned by both the CRA and the city of Riviera Beach. Nearly 1 acre of the site’s 2.2 acres previously housed a Miami Subs fast food restaurant that the CRA demolished in 2022. The CRA acquired the site for $1.2 million in January 2021, according to Palm Beach County property records.
The assemblage is across the street from Jim Barry Light Harbor Park, a Palm Beach County owned property that includes boat trailer parking, boat ramps and kayak launches. Jim Barry Light Harbor Park is just south of Safe Harbor Rybovich North, a marina and boat repair facility.
Read more
Development
South Florida
Riviera Beach seeks developers for waterfront entertainment complex
Development
South Florida
Related joint venture submits plans for Riviera Beach mixed-use project
Development
South Florida
Here’s how South Florida condo developers are prepping for tariffs
