South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
New homes are helping to change face of Pembroke Pines
PEMBROKE PINES – What once were acres of dirt and empty land have come to life in Pembroke Pines — with rows and rows of new housing, shops and restaurants.
The plans for City Center, which date to the late 1990s, call for creating a downtown destination to live, eat and shop. And with the end finally in sight, it’s bringing to completion one of the largest makeovers in recent city history.
The homes are almost nearly filled with families but when the final construction is done and complexes are fully leased, about 3,800 new residents will live there.
“City Center has been a project a long time in the making,” said Michael Stamm Jr., the city’s Planning and Economic Development director. “But we are now nearing the finish line and it was well worth the wait.”
The project site is bound on the north by Pines Boulevard, on the east by Palm Avenue, on the south by Washington Street, just east of Hiatus Road.
It is already attracting young professionals who can “go out to eat and socialize” and can afford living in a neighborhood of $2,200 in monthly rent for a
two-bedroom apartment, said Commissioner Angelo Castillo.
“That’s what Pembroke Pines was missing — that type of feel in housing,” he said. It’s a benefit to have “beautiful restaurants the people really enjoy,” Castillo said.
There was a long path for City Center, one filled with obstacles. The plan reached a crippling halt during the Great Recession. But then it saw a comeback through the years:
In 2015, Mill Creek Residential built 700 rental apartments called “City Center On 7th.”
In 2017, the Related Group, another residential development firm, built the 365 rental apartments in “Town City Center.”
The new City Hall — called the Charles F. Dodge City Center Pembroke Pines, which has an art museum and space for outdoor weekend events and an indoor auditorium — opened in 2017.
An adjoining shopping center followed in 2018, with a Publix and shops and restaurants, including Cooper’s Hawk Winery and BurgerFi, all within walking distance of the new townhouses and apartments.
More shops and restaurants — including Hobby Lobby, McAlister’s Deli and Chuy’s — are still planned. Some are expected to be complete in mid-2020.
The last of the residential projects is near completion, too.
Another apartment complex, Pines Garden at City Center, began to open several months ago and will be completely finished with all 387 units by the end of November.
The final phase will be at the old City Hall site, which is expected to become a hotel and 130-bed assisted living facility, gas station and offices. Construction could begin as early as 2020.
Three acres remain, and the city is “still contemplating what to do there,” Stamm said. “It could be anything.”
The latest figures cite the land and improvements to date costing the city almost $63 million overall — but the sale of the parcels to developers already brought in $66 million, a $3 million profit.
If there’s one quibble about the efforts so far, it’s that officials may have named too many buildings after people. “We got a bit carried away with naming things after people,” Castillo said.
He was referring to the Charles F. Dodge City Center Pembroke Pines, named after the current city manager. There’s also the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery and Exhibit Hall, named after the current mayor.
Thinking the names would simply be on a plaque, Castillo said he voted in favor of the names, but didn’t think it would be on the buildings.
“I showed up at City Hall and the names were up, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ People have increasingly come to me and said what’s this all about?”
But it’s been a pleasure seeing these improvements come to reality, Castillo said. “We wanted a familyoriented place,” he said. The center the city “dreamed of has come out of the ground.”