The Riviera Beach City Council unanimously voted to forge a deal with a team led by Sonnenblick Development that will include the construction of a new city hall and library, sports complexes, and residential units on about 72 acres of publicly owned land.
The 5 to 0 vote took place during Riviera Beach City Council’s Monday meeting. Should negotiations fail with Pacific Palisades, California-based Sonnenblick, the city would then arrange a deal with its competitor, Peter Bayatarian’s North Palm Beach-based Forest Development.
Sonnenblick Development’s partners include Clearwater-based Sports Facilities Companies, Washington, D.C.-based Gragg Cardona Souadi, and West Palm Beach-based RDG Development Group.
Both Sonnenblick Development, led by Robert Sonnenblick, and Forest Development answered an invitation-to-negotiate that centers on redeveloping 40.8 acres of city-owned land at 600 and 601 West Blue Heron Boulevard where Riviera Beach’s current city hall now stands; 29 acres of vacant Palm Beach County School District-owned land near Inlet Grove Community High School; and 2 acres of city-owned land at 2215 Broadway, according to a summary presented by the city’s consultant, PFM Group Consulting.
Sonnenblick’s $480.6 proposal, which will be designed by Omaha-based architecture firm Leo A. Daly, received a slightly higher score from the city’s selection committee than Forest Development’s phased $635 million redevelopment plan.
Sonnenblick’s concept includes a $100 million city hall, a $59.5 million sports complex with indoor and outdoor facilities, and a pair of $237 million mixed-use residential developments that would target teachers and first responders as residents.
Sonnenblick’s proposal has two options for a new city hall. The firm could build a new 150,000-square-foot city hall with a 600-space parking garage somewhere within the ITN area, or it can build a 150,000-square-foot city hall and library complex with 1,000 spaces on what is now the water tank at C Street within Marina Village, a waterfront area at 200 East 13th Street that the city of Riviera Beach is also intent on redeveloping.
Sonnenblick’s athletic facility proposal, spearheaded by Sports Facilities Companies, includes an indoor sports facility with four basketball and eight volleyball courts, 10,000 square feet of meeting space and a 16,000-square-foot fitness center, as well as an outdoor complex with four fields, eight tennis/pickleball courts, four outdoor basketball courts and other features.
For housing, Sonnenblick proposed building The Flats at Blue Heron, a 488-unit project by West Blue Heron Boulevard that will include a rail transit station and a broadband telecommunications network, and the 170-unit The Commons at Broadway and West 23rd Street.
Riviera Beach issued an invitation to negotiate in 2024 as a means of replacing the city’s crumbling 1970s-era city hall and attracting more investment in the city.
Since then, a slew of projects have been proposed in Riviera Beach with about 2,000 apartments and condos in the pipeline. Among the new projects are Forest Development’s Oculina, a pair of 25-story condo towers at 3700 Broadway that will be built next door to the nearly completed Nautilus 220 project that Forest and Daniel Kodski’s Royal Palm Companies are developing in neighboring Lake Park.
Last week, Forest Development also beat four other contenders for the right to negotiate the purchase of a 2.2-acre parcel from Riviera Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency for a future $325 million project near the waterfront at 1851 Broadway.
Sonnenblick emphasized his track record of building public facilities all over the country.
“We don’t build $400 million condo projects. What we do is build government tenanted buildings like city halls, federal government offices, state and county buildings, things like that,” Sonnenblick told council members.
Sports Facilities Companies, meanwhile, has built and programmed sports and recreational facilities all over the country. While Gragg Cardona Souadi has built affordable housing and mixed-income projects in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
Sonnenblick has also made a bid to construct a Margaritaville Hotel in Riviera Beach’s Marina Village
