Riviera Beach seeks developers for waterfront entertainment complex

After plans for a Margaritaville-branded hotel fizzled out, Riviera Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency is once again seeking bids from developers to build a mixed-use commercial project on publicly owned waterfront land.

Riviera Beach officials this week posted the new bid request on Bidnet Direct, an online platform for local government agency contract bids. The request for qualifications seeks developers willing to design, finance, construct, operate, and maintain a mixed-use “destination” project with restaurant, entertainment and hotel uses at Marina Village, a 90-acre site by the Intracoastal Waterway beside an event space building, the Rafiki Tiki Bar & Grill, and a marina. The project would be built as part of a P3 public-private partnership with Riviera Beach.

The CRA, headed by Executive Director Gedel Merzius, was previously negotiating with a development team led by Atlanta-based APD Solutions that offered to build a five-story project, with 150 rooms, a 875-space parking garage, and 225,000-square feet of retail and restaurant in partnership with Margaritaville, a resort company founded by the late singer Jimmy Buffett.

However, the project was put on hold in November after Margaritaville informed Rivera Beach officials that it had no deal with APD to build such a project. In response, an attorney for APD sent the city a letter of apology for prematurely sending a “draft letter” by mistake, according to a report from WPTV News Channel 5 in West Palm Beach.

APD Solutions did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

Although the city’s plans for a new entertainment complex were delayed, a separate residential project slated to be built on what is now used as a surface parking lot for Marina Village is moving forward.

This year, Miami-based Related Group’s affordable housing arm, Related Urban, and Rivera Beach-based Tezral Partners will break ground on Residences at Marina Village, a planned eight-story apartment building with 149 workforce housing units. It will be followed by Gallery at Marina Village, a 20-story joint venture by Related Group, Tezra, and Aventura-based BH Group with 418 market-rate apartments. Gallery is being built on a 2.5-acre portion of Marina Village where Related Group secured a 99-year lease.

A pre-bid conference between CRA officials and prospective developers for the Marina Village project with restaurant, entertainment and hotel uses, is scheduled for May 19. The deadline for developers to submit proposals is June 27.

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