Dunbar Village wraps up first phase of redevelopment

West Palm Beach Housing Authority
West Palm Beach Housing Authority

The biggest public housing community in West Palm Beach is on the brink of a $44 million redevelopment, the city’s housing authority says.

Dunbar Village, which received national media attention for a brutal gang rape that took place there in 2007, will take in its first tenants for nine new townhouse units in August. The completion of the $1 million Sabal Palm Place project will wrap up the first of three phases. 

The second phase calls for the construction of two, three-story buildings exclusively for the elderly. The Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior Complex will cost $21 million and include 99 units for heads of household 62 years old and up. The cost of the complex is expected to be covered with a privately-backed HUD loan, tax-exempt bonds and a state loan.

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Silver Palm Place, the project’s third phase, would replace the 17 buildings currently on the site with 120 multifamily units in garden-style apartments. Though it hasn’t gone out to bid and there are no plans for a design, the city housing authority’s executive director Laurel Robinson told the Palm Beach Post the project will be financed with hard-to-get tax credits that have already been secured by the city.

So far, thirteen building with 56 units have been demolished, with 17 more buildings to go. [Palm Beach Post-Kerry Barger