The Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency will negotiate the sale of 2.2 acres near the waterfront to Peter Baytarian’s Forest Development to build a mixed-use project.
Riviera Beach council members, sitting as the city’s CRA’s board of commissioners, approved the deal with North Palm Beach-based Forest Development by a vote of 3 to 2 Wednesday evening, after hearing proposals from five development teams. Council Chairperson Shirley Lanier and Vice Chair KaShamba Miller-Anderson cast the dissenting votes.
Wayne Richards, Forest Development’s attorney, told council members that Baytarian was eager to build a $325 million project at 1851 Broadway with 350 to 450 apartments, including 20 as workforce housing. The project would also include 17,000 square feet of retail and would break ground within 18 months of site plan approval.
“When I asked him about timing, he said ‘full speed ahead.’ He wants to hit this market while it’s hot,” Richards said.
Baytarian told council members he was also willing to increase his current bid of $3.78 million to acquire land owned by the city and the CRA.
Should Baytarian move forward, this would be his third project along the Broadway/U.S. 1 corridor. Richards said Forest Development is just days away from getting a certificate of occupancy for a pair of 24-story condo towers called Nautilus 220 in neighboring Lake Park, and months away from “significant movement” at Oculina, a planned 25-story dual condo tower project at 3700 Broadway.
Baytarian’s Forest Development made an unsolicited offer to acquire the 2.2-acre Riviera Beach parcel more than two years ago. In response, the city put out a request for proposals from other developers interested in acquiring the property at 1851 Broadway for development.
Forest Development’s proposal received the highest score from a selection committee of city administrators, despite having the lowest cash bid. That’s because purchase price counted for just 15 percent of the selection committee’s total scoring, while categories dealing with the project’s design, community benefit package, and developer reputation each carried 20 percent, a CRA document explained.
According to LaTonya Ammons, Riviera Beach’s director of purchasing, if talks with Forest Development fall apart, the city could negotiate with the second-place contender, Washington, D.C.-based Frontier Development & Hospitality Group and Deerfield Beach-based Gedeon Financial. Frontier and Gedeon proposed building 12,500 square feet of retail and 300 apartments with 75 percent of units reserved for workforce housing. Their bid included paying $4 million for the land. Woody Victor, senior vice president of Frontier Development, told council members his team was considering using the state’s Live Local Act to gain extra density and, possibly, property tax abatements.
Third-place contender, West Palm Beach-based Kenco Communities, had the highest cash bid of more than $4.55 million. It proposed building an eight-story building with 219 residential units, with up to 22 units for workforce housing.
Coming in fourth place was New York-based Coltown Properties, which proposed a project with 450 apartments. Its initial bid offered $4 million to the city, plus another $400,000 for the CRA for community enhancements. However, founding principal Steven Neuman told council members that Coltown was willing to pay at least $100,000 more than the highest bidder.
The last ranked contender was Palm Beach Gardens-based Elysium Land Development, headed by Eliott Johnson. Rather than buy the land, Johnson proposed forming a partnership with the city and other organizations to build a “community incubator” that would include 106 affordable housing units.
Council members initially planned to hear presentations from just the top three ranked proposals. However, by a vote of 4 to 1 (councilman Glen Spirits dissenting) opted to hear all five proposals, partly because CRA Executive Director Gedel Merzius admitted he made a mistake when he told council members that Forest Development was the highest bidder during the CRA’s Oct. 22 meeting.Riviera Beach officials have sought to attract development to expand their city’s tax base to pay for infrastructure improvements such as a $400 million reconstruction of the city’s defunct water plant. According to an analysis by The Real Deal, nearly 2,000 condos and apartments are in Riviera Beach’s residential development pipeline.
