Forest Development, Kenco Communities and a partnership led by Frontier Development & Hospitality Group will make presentations to Riviera Beach officials next month, as they compete to acquire 2.2 acres of vacant publicly owned land near the waterfront.
Riviera Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency received five proposals in response to a request for offers to buy the property at 1851 Broadway, across the street from Jim Barry Light Harbor Park and Safe Harbor Rybovich Riviera Beach marina.
However, Wednesday evening, council members, sitting as the CRA’s board of directors, voted 3 to 1 to hear proposals only from development teams that received the three highest scores from a selection committee of city administrators. The presentations to the CRA’s board will be held on Nov. 12.
Led by managing partner Peter Baytarian, North Palm Beach-based Forest Development received the highest score. The firm started the bidding process after it made an unsolicited bid to acquire the land for about $3 million in July 2024 to build a $325 million mixed-use project with more than 450 apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail. Forest Development later increased its offer to $3.78 million and promised to reserve 5 percent of the units for workforce housing.
Washington, D.C.-based Frontier Development & Hospitality Group, founded by managing principal Evens Charles, and Deerfield Beach-based Gedeon Financial, headed by managing partner Evans Gedeon, received the second highest score. The team offered to pay $4 million for the land to build an $89 million project with 300 apartments, 12,500 square feet of ground-floor retail, rental storage units and amenities that would include a pool lounge, gym and clubhouse. A minimum of 75 percent of the units would be reserved as workforce housing “with the intended renter profile to include teachers, police officers and entry level professionals that desperately need workforce housing,” the proposal added.
West Palm Beach-based Kenco Communities, led by founder and chairman Kenneth Endelson, received the third highest score, offering about $4.56 million for the property to build a 191,908-square foot project up to eight stories tall and a four-level parking garage with 285 spaces. Floorplan sketches in Kenco’s proposal depict seven townhouses, amenities and commercial space for a café, fitness space or public co-working on the first floor, plus at least 20 units for each of the six floors above it.
Edged out of the top three were proposals from New York-based Coltown Properties and Palm Beach Gardens-based Elysium Land Development.
Coltown, led by principals Steven Neuman and Israel and Jonathan Weinberger, offered $4 million for a project that would have at least 400 apartments, retail, parking and amenities. Elysium, headed by Elliott Johnson, proposed 106 affordable housing units with 44,160 square feet of commercial space consisting of administrative offices, an urgent care facility, community services and retail. Rather than buy the land, Elysium stated it wanted to build the “community incubator” in partnership with the city and “a coalition of local stakeholder agencies and developers.”
Although Kenco, Frontier/Gedeon, and Coltown offered more money for the land, Forest Development scored higher overall based on criteria that included conceptual design, community benefits, developer qualifications, financial capacity and the project’s alignment with the CRA’s master plan, according to CRA documents.
Riviera Beach has attracted increased interest from developers such as Forest Development, which intends to build Oculina, a twin 25-story condo project at 3700 Broadway, just 1,600 feet away from the site where Forest and Royal Palm Companies are building a pair of 24-story towers called Nautilus 220 in neighboring Lake Park.
Kenco Communities has built several residential communities in Palm Beach County, including Orchid Isles and Coral Isles at Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens, the 72-acre Water Tower Commons mixed-use project in Lantana and The Estates at Arden near Wellington.
Frontier Development & Hospitality’s projects include the $560 million Hill East in Washington, D.C., and a $500 million project in Philadelphia that includes the 210-room Autograph Hotel and the African American Museum. Frontier Development was also a joint venture partner in the 2022 purchase of a 254-room Marriott Suites hotel in Downers Grove in suburban Chicago for $14.5 million.
