Real estate development is picking up in the Sistrunk Boulevard corridor, a long-overlooked African-American community in Fort Lauderdale.
Developments planned there range from residential buildings and a performing arts center to a new YMCA, blues club and microbrewery.
Most of the developers are applying for public subsidies from Fort Lauderdale’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which focuses on eliminating blighted properties.
Among the planned developments is the Sistrunk Market and Brewery at 115 West Sistrunk Boulevard. The Fort Lauderdale City Commission will vote soon on a forgivable loan of $1.4 million to finance the transformation of a 23,000-square-foot warehouse to a food hall with a microbrewery and a rooftop gathering place. The manager of the development is Steven Dapuzzo.
Just west of the site of the planned microbrewery location, Affiliated Development is preparing to build an 11-story residential tower with 142 units. The city has extended a forgivable $7 million loan to finance the planned development at 613 Northwest Third Avenue, called Six13.
A five-story complex with 400 apartments is planned at the southwest corner of Sistrunk Boulevard and Northwest Seventh Avenue. Felipe Yalale, an entrepreneur, and developer Peter Flotz bought almost the entire block for the complex, which would include 30,000 square feet for restaurants and retail stores. Flotz expects to present plans for the project to city officials in March and to seek a subsidy for a parking garage that would be part of the development.
The city has agreed to spend $10 million to fund construction of a new YMCA at 1409 West Sistrunk Boulevard, now occupied by the old Mizell Center. Just west of the site of the new YMCA, Miguel Pilgram, a Florida Lotto winner, bought properties between Northwest 14 Way and Northwest 14 Avenue for construction of a performing arts center and commercial plaza.
Pilgram also has acquired a two-story building on the southeast corner o Sistrunk Boulevard and Northwest 15 Avenue, where plans to open a blues club upstairs and a restaurant downstairs. [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth