Work starts in Westlake on sprawling, $15M ‘family-friendly’ amenities center
First phase to include grassy area for games, plus concert pavilion, playground, pool.
WESTLAKE — Palm Beach County’s newest city continues to break ground on new projects, the latest being a large amenities center on the east side of town.
Developer Minto broke ground Tuesday on the 15-acre project, which represents a $15 million investment for the company, Minto USA president Mike Belmont said. “This really starts to set the family-friendly lifestyle of the community,” he said.
Construction on the complex will be split into two phases. The first will include a concert pavilion and large
grassy area for lawn games, along with a playground.
Also included in the first phase is a large pool facility, with a towering slide and splash pad.
In designing Westlake’s amenities center, Minto toured other communities to see what features residents found appealing, Belmont said. They also looked for ways to keep all ages busy — one of the inspirations behind the “bicycle pump park,” a BMX-style course. “Teens and adults may be using that,” Belmont said.
Included in phase two of the amenities center will be basketball courts, an adultsonly pool, more parking and an event lawn.
This is the second recent groundbreaking for nonresidential development in Westlake.
On May 24, Wellington Regional Medical Center broke ground for a free-standing emergency department that will sit off Seminole Pratt Whitney Road just south of the Grove Market Shopping Center. The facility was approved by Westlake’s city council and will be 11,000 square feet once completed. Officials expect the $12.5 million project to see its first patient in January.
And Wellington Regional has room to grow on the nearly 6 acres of land it purchased from Minto for about $2 million, medical center CEO Robbin Lee said at the groundbreaking.
Westlake’s city council in April approved the site plan for another commercial development, a Florida Power & Light Co. solar farm on 401 acres at the city’s west end.
Still to come is Westlake’s large commercial Town Center. Belmont said as more residents fill homes, the 500,000 square feet of commercial and retail space will be more marketable.
To date, Minto has sold 149 homes in Westlake, with 86 sold this year, he said.