South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Continuing the energy
Delray Beach’s Atlantic Crossing wants to bridge Atlantic Avenue to the Intracoastal
Just a little past the busy-buzzy part of Delay Beach’s East Atlantic Avenue, at the bridge leading to the Intracoastal, sits the massive construction site for Atlantic Crossing.
When the first part is completed, sometime between August and October, the $300 million development will have restaurants, shops, offices and apartments (the next phase will add condominiums) and will draw people to a sleepier part of the downtown area east of the Colony Hotel & Cabana Club and U.S. 1.
At least that’s the plan for the 9-acre project, which will be rolled out in phases.
“Once you got to Federal Highway … you didn’t even want to go further,” explains Don DeVere, vice president of the Edwards Companies, which is overseeing the project. “You just think this is the end of the road. You turn around and go back.”
Talking to the South Florida Sun Sentinel from his corporate office in Columbus, Ohio, DeVere adds, “It’s a very, very pedestrian-oriented project. The whole idea is to continue the energy from the western portion of Atlantic [Avenue] down to the Intracoastal and across the bridge.”
Laura Simon, the executive director of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, agrees that it does no good for Atlantic Avenue to “have parcels that are empty or seem dormant for a long time. It’s just the nature of people to see something vacant, turn around and walk the other way.”
What mix of tenants are we talking about?
Part of the lure will be the tenants that DeVere says his company is curating, with an eye on fitting into the existing mix.
“We’ll be a part of larger community... so we’re landing concepts that are not currently present in the Delray marketplace,” he explains
That translates to eateries such as the coastal chic Hampton Social restaurant and the high-end sports bar Bounce Sporting Club. There are two other dining/drinking establishments, a possible medical spa and a few clothing/accessory retailers that are in the works, but have not been announced yet.
But we do know that women’s apparel shop Chico’s has signed on the dotted
the affordability of housing and relatively low crime.
In the 1990s, neighbors who worried about safety demanded that Perry be shut down permanently — a plan that gained support at the time from officials in Pembroke Pines and Miramar. But the plan ultimately fizzled because it would’ve meant sending planes to other airports.
Not far from the airport’s fence is now a memorial for Taylor Bishop, the 4-year-old who was killed by Monday’s plane crash. Three days after Taylor’s death, a few balloons still had enough gas to fly above a cross. Below the balloons was a carpet of white flowers.
The little boy died when the plane pummeled into the SUV he and his mother were riding in. His mother survived. Questions remain about what caused the crash, which also killed the two men who were aboard the plane: 63-year-old Yaacov Nahom and 71-year-old Grant Hustad, two pilots who each had years of flying experience.
Planning to move out
The crash happened just a few hundred yards from the runway, but on the residential side of the airport’s fence, effectively making the residents’ worst nightmares come true.
Marquez, the neighbor who rushed to help, says he isn’t sticking around in his community: It’s time for him, his wife and kids to move out of their home, a place they bought just three years ago.
Their home is the first one they’ve owned. The airplanes initially seemed just loud, but Monday’s crash made him and his family realize it’s risky to live in the community. He plans to move his family west, far from any airport.
Marquez came home from work about 20 minutes before Monday’s crash happened about 3 p.m. He was one of the first two or three people to race to the mangled SUV trying to rescue the little boy from the back seat.
Marquez helped the child’s mother out of her car and rushed back, but was unable to free Taylor from the wreckage. Rescue crews grabbed the boy and took him to a hospital, where he died.
For Marquez, the debate in his head about safety and whether to move or stay ended right there. “Absolutely,” he said of his decision to move out.
One mother who lives near Monday’s crash site said she constantly worries about a plane crashing into a home, car or the nearby playground, where she takes her kids. The planes “fly so low sometimes that our windows shake,” she said Thursday. “I moved here to give my kids a safe place, and now we are in constant fear of these planes.”
Another neighbor, 17-yearold John Killian, lives adjacent to one of the airport’s runways, just off 72nd Street, the road where the plane crashed. He has lived with his mother in the community since about 2010.
He has brought up the topic of moving with his mom many times, he said. But for many people in the neighborhood, moving simply isn’t an option. Killian said he’d rather see the airport close, relocate or at least undergo some stricter safety rules.
The pizza delivery driver said it is unnerving to live where planes fly dangerously close by. He checks for planes overhead each time he steps out of his home, he said. “It’s always going to keep you paranoid,” he said.
Charlton Riettie, 20, of Miramar, who has lived near the airport for about eight years, also often looks toward the sky — just to make sure low-flying planes aren’t headed his way. “The airplanes fly so low ... you don’t know if they’re coming at you or over you,” he said. “I was really depressed when I heard the crash happened.”
Seeking solutions
Broward County owns and maintains the airport, noted Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank C. Ortis, who said it’s frustrating for the city to have no control. Ortis said he has received between 40 to 50 emails from concerned residents. He said he understands their fears.
Commissioner Good, at a city meeting this past week, called for having a public meeting with county officials as well as the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation and Safety Board so the public can address their concerns and get answers to why there seems to be so many accidents happening at the airport.
The crash on Monday was at least the fifth major accident at the airport since May. One reason why there may be so many crash emergencies at the airport is because of the increasing frequency of flights, officials said.
Ten years ago, North Perry Airport and Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport had between 150,000 and 175,000 takeoffs and landings combined. Today, North Perry Airport alone has between 250,000 to 300,000 takeoffs and landings a year, Broward County Mayor Steve Geller said.
“If it seems their numbers are high, it’s because the numbers of takeoffs and landings are high,” Geller said.
But calls to close North Perry Airport could bring an unwanted outcome, Geller said.
If the airport were to close, that traffic would have to go somewhere else — the nearest local airports are Opa-Locka and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, both of which fly jumbo jets that would escalate the danger for smaller aircraft.
“It would be way more dangerous wherever they moved,” Geller said.
While Broward County owns North Perry Airport, it does not own the schools, businesses and planes that rely on it, Geller said. Those businesses follow Federal Aviation Administration guidelines and regulations.
Still, Geller said he has asked the airport administrator to review the county’s involvement to see if anything can be done to increase safety.