Delray Marketplace Could Get Medical Office Building Despite Cap On Commercial Space — How Is That Possible?

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It’s the second time in less than a month that the planning commission accommodated a builder whose project was jeopardized by rules designed to limit development in the Ag Reserve.

The County Planning Commission voted 7-6 earlier this month to initiate a change in the county’s growth plan to increase the commercial cap in the Agricultural Reserve — a move is designed to allow a 13,000-square-foot, medical office building on a narrow, two-acre lot at Delray Marketplace.

This marked the second time in less than a month that the planning commission accommodated a builder whose project was jeopardized by rules designed to limit development in the Ag Reserve. In early January, the commission voted to initiate a change to the growth plan that will consider self-storage facilities as noncommercial and, therefore, exempt self-storage from the commercial cap.

“How many more times are we going to increase the cap or make exceptions?” Planning Commissioner Dagmar Brahs asked her colleagues.

She “implored” them to vote against the project at Delray Marketplace.

“At least wait until Atlantic Avenue is widened from State Road 7 to Lyons Road,” Brahs said.

“Traffic congestion now is ridiculous,” Commissioner Spencer Siegel said. “However, approving the project was a way to force county commissioners to decide whether an in-depth review of Ag Reserve rules should be conducted.”

The planning commission vote to “initiate” the change to increase the commercial cap will be taken up by the county commission on February 5. County commissioners, if they support the planning commission, will eventually have to hold public hearings.

The lot is on Atlantic Avenue sandwiched in between the Marketplace to the east and a kennel currently under construction to the west. It is a preserve parcel, which means nothing can be built on it. So the builder found another two-acre lot in the Ag Reserve that will be preserved in exchange for allowing the property at the Marketplace to be developed.

Siegel noted that the existing preserve parcel at the Marketplace is idle land and the new preserve parcel, about a mile away, is better suited for agriculture. Other commissioners said they were frustrated at the number of preserve parcels that are not being used for agricultural purposes such as the one at the Marketplace. County planners said it should not have been approved as a preserve parcel.

To accommodate the builder, the county’s growth plan needs to be amended. Staff called the change “inappropriate” and an effort to “circumvent” the growth plan. The lot is only 33 feet wide by approximately 670 feet deep. Staff said approval triggers policy issues such as “piecemeal development.”

Jennifer Morton, the builder’s agent, told the commission that there is a need for more medical office space on Atlantic Avenue. The builder, Garret Bender of Delray Beach, has already opened a medical office complex just east of the Marketplace on Atlantic Avenue. It is fully leased, and Bender already has a physician interested in operating in his Marketplace building, according to Morton.

Morton noted that her client’s project will increase the current cap of 1,015,000 square feet by just 1.3%. The county has already increased the cap three times since 2016, adding another 94,000 square feet of commercial space during that time. When the Ag Reserve rules were written in 2002, the cap was set at 750,000 square feet. Commercial development is restricted to within a quarter-mile of either Atlantic Avenue or Boynton Beach Boulevard.

Morton said if the commissioners decided against raising the commercial cap, she proposed they get around the cap by considering the medical office building “commercial low office” and then exempt that category from being considered commercial. That option was not taken up by the planning commission.

Voting to increase the cap and allow the medical office building to be built were Siegel, Edwin Ferguson, Kiley Harper Larsen, Jim Knight, Marcia Hayden, Angella Vann and Eric Royal.

Voting against increasing the cap were Brahs, Barbara Roth, David Dinin, Lori Vinikoor, Alex Garcia, and Evan Rosenberg.

 

Source: Palm Beach Post

700-Foot Vertical Medical City Being Planned On Biscayne Boulevard, Valued At $2.1B

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An Orlando company submitted plans to the Federal Aviation Administration last week for a 700-foot downtown Miami project called Vertical Medical City Biscayne.

The application was filed on January 22. According to the application, the project will be built in the 1600 block of Biscayne Boulevard. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2021.

An affiliate of Ponte Health Properties, LLC is the developer. A press release from Ponte in October 2019 said that Vertical Medical City Biscayne will be built in the Bayfront Park vicinity in downtown Miami. The project will be valued at $2.1 billion and include 90+ stories of development, the release said.

Ponte is also planning similar projects in Orlando and Chicago. All Vertical Medical City locations are planned to include residential Independent Living, Memory Care Units, Urgent Care, Medical Office and Outpatient Surgery and Services Spaces, Urban Farming, and Research and Development spaces as part of a complex mixed-used geriatric-focused project, according to Ponte.

Source: The Next MIami

Lucky’s Market Site In Florida Up For Grabs For Medical Or Grocery Space

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Reports that Lucky’s Market is shutting down almost all of its Florida grocery stores leaves the one under construction in Cape Coral in limbo.

Of the 12 existing Lucky’s Markets in Florida, only the one in Melbourne will remain operational, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Employees at the two Lucky’s Market locations in Naples were told their stores are closing.

The Lucky’s Market construction site in Cape Coral, which took more than a decade to assemble by local developer Dan Creighton, is not quite half-finished.

Creighton, who was traveling with limited phone and internet access, released a statement through Priority Marketing: “As representatives for SB-VETS-1 LLC, which serves as the landlord of this property, we are not privy to Lucky’s Market’s next steps at this point and have no additional information beyond what has already been shared publicly We are hopeful the next tenant for this site will be another excellent fit for the Cape Coral community.”

Work on the Lucky’s Market in Cape Coral has halted as the grocery chain is backing out of Florida. The building was to be completed by June but is now in limbo off Veterans Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard. (PHOTO CREDIT: David Dorsey)

Walls are already up on what was planned to be the 30,000-square-foot Lucky’s at the southeast corner of Veterans Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard. The store shell is flanked by a still-under-construction Wawa gas station and convenience store, Aspen Dental, other businesses and a new and open Burger King that are accessible from Santa Barbara.

Creighton celebrated the groundbreaking in September with city dignitaries on hand. He said then the construction would be targeted for completion by June of this year.

This marks the second time in two years a major chain has announced plans to open a grocery in Cape Coral only to back out. Fresh Market announced plans to build a store in Coralwood Mall. It backed out and Aldi has taken its place there. And now Lucky’s Market remains in limbo.

“One does not have to do with the other,” said Gary Tasman, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield in Fort Myers. About a month ago, Kroger backed out of financing Lucky’s Market, which put the store in financial jeopardy. Lucky’s has been looking for a replacement partner,” Tasman said of the chain that began by a husband and wife in Boulder, Colorado. “And it’s my understanding they haven’t been able to find one. That’s why you’re seeing them retreat on their growth. Everything I’ve seen in the Cape justifies the need for additional grocers in Cape Coral based on the growth and sales and all that. But that internal partnership, it just for whatever reason separated out. The financial capacity just wasn’t there to execute it.”

Tasman said he did not know the scenarios surrounding the Cape Coral property and construction site. But he hoped for the best for Creighton, who should be able to find a solution in the long-term for what has been yet another speed bump.

“I don’t know his deal,” Tasman said of Creighton. “I can’t speak to it. But I know Dan Creighton is a very smart, astute businessman. I just have to believe he built certain protections for himself. My hope for Dan is that he is adequately protected. The risk he was willing to take to do that deal was commensurate with the risk that he was willing to take and gain on the upside and protecting him on the downside.”

As for the site’s future, Tasman speculated that another chain like Trader Joe’s or Sprouts could look at the site. Or he could see it as a medical-related space or a big-box store.

“You know, that’s a hard one right now,” Tasman said. “I’m not sure it would be retail. There’s definitely a demand for a grocer in that spot. It could also be medical. I do believe it will be backfilled into something else. If the footprint works for other concepts, frankly I think medical is a great use for it. It’s a great location. I think you’re going to see medical or a big-box retailer.”

 

Source: News-Press