Kolter Group is seeking streamlined approval of Alton Delray, a 386-unit multifamily development with a workforce housing component, under the state’s Live Local Act.
Kolter, led by CEO Bobby Julien, plans to charge below-market rents for 154 workforce housing units, or 40 percent of the apartments at Alton Delray, a mixed-use project that will include 1,748 square feet of industrial space.
The Delray Beach-based developer plans to rent the workforce housing apartments to tenants whose income ranges from 80 percent to 120 percent of area median income, Anthea Gianniotes, the city’s development services director, told the Delray Beach City Commission on Monday. The annual median income in Palm Beach County was $104,000 in 2024, according to the Palm Beach County Housing Authority.
The 40 percent workforce housing component is a key feature of Alton Delray that qualifies it for streamlined administrative approval, the first of its kind in Delray Beach under the Live Local Act. The state law encourages construction of workforce housing on land with non-residential zoning by preempting local land use and zoning regulations for developments that meet the Live Local criteria.
“There is no commission review,” Gianniotes said during her presentation of the Alton Delray development at the Delray Beach City Commission meeting. For example, “the site plan approval itself — regardless of the size, the density, the height — is administrative if it meets the Live Local [criteria],” she said.
Alton Delray is designed as a five-building cluster of apartments at 2101 South Congress Avenue in Delray Beach, according to plans Kolter filed with the city. The design includes three apartment buildings that would be six stories tall and two others with five stories.
Gianniotes said Kolter plans to designate 40 percent of each type of apartment floor plan at Alton Delray, including studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms, as workforce housing units.
Property records show that a company controlled by Kolter paid $21.9 million last year to acquire the 12.3-acre development site from George T. Elmore, trustee of the George T. Elmore Trust. The site, which has an industrial land use and zoning designation, was previously occupied by an asphalt paving business.
At their meeting Monday evening, most city commissioners praised the design of Alton Delray, but some said the income eligibility requirements for workforce housing units are too high to meet the needs of many low-income workers in Delray Beach.
“What we need here is something way less to accommodate the individuals in our city who are in need of housing,” said commissioner Juli Casale. “We have a high number of low-paying jobs here, and this will bring new people in, but it pushes the people who are here out.”
Casale and other commissioners also said that, by preempting local control of development, the Live Local Act can add to the residential property tax burden in Delray Beach and other Florida cities with a limited amount of non-residential property.
“We’re a very small town, and while Live Local may work in towns with a lot more land available, we don’t have a lot of land available,” said Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney. “I appreciate that there’s going to be a new tax base there [at the Alton Delray site]. But I think it’s unfortunate that it gets imposed on you, as opposed to everyone embracing it and saying this is a great idea.”
