Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dania Beach calls for City Hall development proposals
City approved new project last week; May 30 is the deadline for designs
Dania Beach, which is undergoing a surge in development, has issued a call for developers to compete to build a new city hall and commercial complex on the site of the existing government The city has hired Collier’s International South Florida to advise it on the proposed project, at 100 W. Dania Beach Blvd. The firm has dubbed the project “The First at Dania Beach.” It would include a new city hall and a commercial complex that covers 6.42 The plans call for the demolition of the existing 29,000-square-foot city hall and the relocation of a fire station and two historic buildings to elsewhere in the city.
The site, according to the city’s request for proposal, could accommodate nearly 1.4 square feet of new building space, and allow for over 950 residential units that could be designed and constructed in phases. The city comcenter. mission approved the proposal March 12. It was formally advertised to the public last Friday.
The idea follows the lead of other South Florida cities that are either building new government centers or are contemplating them. Boynton Beach is moving forward with a project. On Tuesday, the City of Fort Lauderdale and Broward County are close to agreeing to build a joint cityacres.
complex downtown.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redevelop one of South Florida’s last remaining undeveloped urban cores,” Ken Krasnow, vice chairman of institutional client services with Colliers International, said of the Dania Beach proposal.
“The city would gain new public facilities in addition to a mixed-use development that would serve a growing need and stimulate the renaissance of Dania Beach.”
Colliers International broker Bradley Arendt, who is helping the city promote the project, said the site “could accommodate 1.4 million square feet of new building space, creating great potential for multiple uses, including retail and apartments.” The firm says an existing 440-space parkcounty ing structure could be expanded to 660 spaces by adding two floors.
There is also an opportunity to build beyond cityowned land, Arendt said. There is an acre and a quarter of private land for sale that abuts the city acreage on the south. The asking price: $3.5 million. Any developer who bought the land and won the city’s proposal process would control 7.5 acres for potential development, Arendt said.
The city’s site has been appraised at $12.31 million. Developers have until May 30 to submit their proposals.
Since 2010, Dania Beach has seen its population grow by 8.1 percent, with millennials as the largest group of new arrivals, according to Colliers International.
The city, which is south of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and a few minutes’s drive from major cruise line terminals at Port Everglades, is undergoing a major expansion on its west side with the construction of Dania Pointe, a 102-acre commercial and residential center containing shops, restaurants, movie theaters, hotels and apartment complexes.
The first of the new businesses opened in November when BrandsMart, Shoe Carnival, Ulta Cosmetics, Five Below, Verizon, Starbucks, Aspen Dental, and Men’s Wearhouse celebrated their official openings. Burger King and Advance Auto Parts had previously opened.
The Kimco Realty Corp. project occupies the site of the former Dania Beach wooden roller-coaster ride that was dismantled years ago, east of Interstate 95 at Stirling and Bryan roads.