A developer wants to tear down part a Sunrise shopping center and build an apartment complex in its place.
Ashley Bosch, director of development at Miami-based Rilea Group, told the Sun-Sentinel the project would be “a very good marriage” of retail and residential properties.
Rilea Group’s planned project would replace part of the Village Shoppes of Pine Plaza at the corner of Pine Island Road and Northwest 44 Street with a 288-unit apartment complex.
A brick paver walkway would connect the apartments to the movie theater, stores and restaurants at the 24-acre shopping center, owned by Global Fund Investments.
The Sunrise City Commission is expected to vote Nov. 14 on the proposed project.
The Sun-Sentinel reported that the proposed Sunrise project may be among the first in Broward County to shrink a shopping center to clear space for rental apartments.
Jesse Saginor, a Florida Atlantic University professor who specializes in development trends, told the newspaper the proposed multifamily housing development could be the first of many that address a shortage of developable land by building rentals at retail centers with high vacancy rates.
The Village Shoppes of Pine Plaza lost an anchor tenant in June when Winn-Dixie closed its supermarket there.
If Rilea Group wins city approval of its proposed project, construction could start late next year and be finished by the middle of 2020. [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth