New apartments will fill gap on Linton Boulevard
DELRAY BEACH — More change and more people are coming to Linton Boulevard in crowded Delray Beach.
The city has cleared the way for a new five-story apartment complex on Linton, one of the latest efforts to overhaul a gateway into the city and fulfill a need for more housing.
The proposed 277-unit complex, named The Linton, would transform the Linton Commons shopping plaza at 510 Linton Blvd., home to PetSmart and other businesses.
The project comes from Menin Development, one of the largest developers in Delray Beach. Menin is slated to open two new properties this year — Delray Beach Market and The Ray Hotel, both in downtown Delray.
Whole Foods last year opened a 41,000-square-foot store less than a quarter-mile from the planned apartment complex. Club Pilates and a BurgerFi restaurant opened in the same plaza this past summer.
At least three previous tenants in the Linton Commons plaza — Sports Authority, Guitar Center and Orchard Supply Hardware — have declared bankruptcy, making the spot ripe for development in a city with little available land.
Ninety-eight percent of Delray Beach is already built out, making it difficult to create new housing, according to city documents.
The city’s need for housing leads to continually rising rent. Among suburbs nationwide, Delray Beach has seen the fifth-highest increase in housing prices, according to Realtor.com.
The Linton plans to allocate 20% of its units to “workforce housing,” serving workers such as police officers, firefighters, teachers and medical personnel. The units will feature a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Construction is expected no sooner than 2022 and would take about 15 months.
Jordana Jarjura, president of Menin Development, acknowledged that the plans concern some residents, who fear that property values will decrease due to lower prices and that traffic could increase. She said neither is the case.
“From the housing studies we’ve done, it will be an above-market project in terms of amenities, design, tree canopy,” Jarjura, a former Delray Beach vice mayor, told the City Commission. “We’re looking to enhance the neighborhood, not decrease it.
“I know there are some concerns that sometimes it’s a scary word saying ‘workforce housing,’ but it’s not like the entire project is all workforce affordable housing.”
Attempting to alleviate concerns about congestion, Jarjura said the apartment complex would actually reduce traffic in the area.
The plaza, with PetSmart, generates 3,600 trips per day, according to a traffic study, but the apartment complex would generate 1,900 trips per day once PetSmart moves.
The Palm Beach County Traffic Division agreed with the study’s findings, saying in a letter June 12 that the proposed development meets the county’s traffic performance standards.
While the project will encompass 9½ acres, Jarjura said it won’t interfere with four other tenants in the plaza — Chipotle, PNC Bank, AT&T and Cream — which are outside the planned construction area, Jarjura said.