Plans for a West Palm Beach, Fla. development with micro-condominiums, affordable apartments, offices, a grocery and a park, have collapsed over city commissioner concerns the developer couldn't make it happen.
Northwood Commons, a $75 million village-like project, was meant to anchor the trendy neighborhood a mile north of downtown by attracting new residents and businesses and linking the desolate tract bordering railroad tracks west of Northwood Village to Northwood Road and the Currie Park waterfront.
But when raised for a vote before the Community Redevelopment Agency, the measure failed to win a second, so no vote was taken and the proposal died.
The lack of support left developer Mario Caprini and the commissioner who offered the motion, Corey Neering, baffled about why no one would second it, even for discussion, and where that left hopes for the site, which the city owns.
"We're still trying to figure out what happened," said Caprini, principal in charge of Capital Group P3 Developments LLC. "We're still hoping they reconsider what they did and that we find a way to move it forward."
That might not be possible. A board can reconsider a decision if someone who was on the prevailing side of the vote later asks to bring it back up. But, in this case, there was no vote taken.
CRA Executive Director Jon Ward said afterward he would put out another invitation to negotiate, to start over and again solicit projects for the 3.5-acre property, within a few weeks.
The city commissioners serve as the CRA board of directors. And four of the five said they weren't assured Caprini's group could complete a project as attractive as its artist's renderings.
The first phase of the project called for a 91-unit mini-condo building off Broadway at 2501 Pinewood Ave. If approved, construction could have started in 12 to 18 months, Caprini said.
The plan called for 91 condos with 450 to 680 square feet of living area, starting at $189,000. At that price, it makes more sense to buy than rent, he said. The eight-story building was to cost his Boca Raton firm $35 million to $39 million, he estimated.
The building, which also would include offices, a parking garage and an urban grocery, was to back up beside the Tri-Rail tracks that will come into use in coming months as the railway extends service north between West Palm Beach and Jupiter. The company hoped to land a Tri-Rail station next to it.
Commissioner Christina Lambert said she was concerned how the project would be financed, and that the developer would have seven years to complete its various phases. "While I don't have a crystal ball, I can imagine over the next seven years we could see another downturn in the economy and I wasn't comfortable with the financing, coupled with the length of time it would take to get done," she said.
Aside from the financing, she said, "I think it looks really great. I liked it. Residents want something like this in the neighborhood."
Commissioner Kelly Shoaf, likewise said she found the seven-year term of the project troubling, as well as other aspects of how the deal was structured. As it stood, the first phase, with the micro-condominiums, might get developed and then left by itself on the back of the property if the subsequent buildings didn't get built, she said.
She wants development "and smart growth, but the right kind," Shoaf said.
Commissioner Keith James said he had ranked another developer's concept ahead of this one to begin with, so he wasn't inclined to move this one forward by seconding the motion. The project he ranked higher, when it came up a year ago, was a smaller mixed-use development that stood a greater chance of success, he said.
The financing plan for this one seemed unnecessarily complex and sophisticated, he said.
The project was to rise on $4 million worth of CRA land, and to be eligible for up to $2 million in tax breaks. Its financing also included EB-5 investments, a federal program through which foreign nationals invest in a project and contribute to job-creation in exchange for visas.
Commissioner Paula Ryan also indicated she wasn't convinced the developer had a firm enough grip on the project details. "I listened, I heard the financing and the cost of construction, and I knew this was not a real deal," she said.
By contrast, Commissioner Cory Neering was "dumbfounded" none of his colleagues would second the motion to discuss it, or give the selected developer a few months to line up loans to start the project, given the length of time the CRA already took to get to this point, more than a year.
"This development would have been a catalyst," Neering said. "It would have provided a central location for our residents, pedestrian activity and was going to create that village square feel."
It also would have helped connect Northwood and the lower-income neighborhoods just to the west of it and would have provided a grocery in an area that, other than its eateries, is considered a food desert.
The failure to win approval also marks another setback for the concept of micro-apartments in West Palm Beach.
Micro-units, whether condos or apartments, are springing up in cities around the country with a paucity of housing that sought-after millennials can afford.
Developer Jeff Greene pulled the plug in November on a downtown micro-apartment project, at Banyan Boulevard and Rosemary Avenue, after deciding the rents he could charge would be so low the building would be worth less than it cost to build.
