West Palm gives initial approval to condo towers

WEST PALM BEACH — The cit y commission gave initial approval Monday night to a five-tower, 300-condo development across from historic neighborhoods on South Dixie Highway. It voted 5-2 after being pressed on one side by neighbors opposed to zoning changes and on the other by a developer promising a $225 million project that would bring 2,300 construction jobs and more than $1.5 million in yearly tax revenues. A final vote is expected this month.

The Prospect Place project, a quarter-mile south of Belvedere Road, would replace a near-vac ant, one- to t wo-story office complex with a row of 14-story, 170-foot-tall towers set behind six one-story shops and restaurants on South Dixie.

In October, the city Planning Board recommended in favor of the 9-acre project, passing it to the commission even as board members professed to being torn over the decision, saying it would Keep up with The Post’s complete coverage of West Palm Beach on its Facebook page dedicated to the city. On Facebook, search for Post on West Palm Beach.

stick out “like a sore thumb” amid single-family homes and be visible from as far away as downtown and Palm Beach.

West Palm Beach principal planner John Roach told commissioners and a packed auditorium that even without the approval, the propert y owner, 311 Prospect Place Equities LLC, could build a project of similar densit y or intensity.

Representatives of the developer presented studies showing the project would generate much less traffic than currently allowed for the propert y and would block noise to neighborhoods east of the project. The requested zoning change “will permit a magnificent and truly transformative development,”