City looks to boost Heart of Boynton

With increasing growth, officials hope for more interest in development.

BOYNTON BEACH — Fresh with promising news that residents might finally see new and affordable housing in the Heart of Boynton community, city leaders are trying their luck with another site.

The Community Redevelopment Agency on Monday requested developers send in ideas on how to redevelop more than 4 acres off Seacrest Boulevard just north of Boynton Beach Boulevard. The land, between Northeast Fourth and Fifth avenues, is known as the Cottage District.

Developers have until July 17 to submit plans. The top three will present to the CRA board, which is the City Commission. The CRA hopes to have a contract signed in September. The CRA sent out a similar request in 2016 but received zero interest.

This year, the agency has received two letters of interest from developers, Mayor Steven Grant said. Rather than engage those, the CRA board decided to issue a request for proposals to the entire development community.

“The good news is we are a completely different place as a city than two years ago,” Grant said.

Grant pointed to the $500 million worth of development in the pipeline for the downtown area off Federal Highway just east of the Heart of Boynton.

“There is a lot of development that is going on around that area,” he said.

Officials have always hoped growth there would trigger the same for the low-income neighborhoods surrounding Seacrest and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that the city has tried to revitalize for decades.

This month, the CRA learned a company the board chose to build affordable apartments at the nearby Ocean Breeze East community received approval from the state to be given 9 percent tax

credits. The company, Centennial Management, was relying on the tax-credit program to be able to build the $25.9 million project. Centennial’s competitors have a chance to protest the company’s approval. Centennial expects to know a final answer in July.

Still, the initial approval is a win for both Centennial and the CRA — the land has been vacant since 2005 and several developers have tried to get that initial approval without success.

Like with Ocean Breeze East, the CRA board wants to increase homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families on the Cottage District land. The CRA board is open to offering the developer incentives.

The CRA has bought properties and assembled land in the Cottage District to make it easier for developers. The agency owns the majority of the land but the developer will have to work with some private owners.

Proposals must include on-street parking, a minimum of 6-foot-wide sidewalks, landscaping and a minimum of a 0.20-acre neighborhood park. The developer is expected to use local contractors. Minimum design guidelines include: size between 1,200 and 1,600 square feet; a one-car garage and energy efficiency.