From left: NDT Development co-founders Damien Barr and Ned Grace along with 418-444 Nottingham Boulevard in West Palm Beach (Google Maps, NDT Development)
A partner in the Nora District that is slated to breathe life in a long-overlooked part of downtown West Palm Beach is zeroing in on another area that developers have glossed over for years.
Ned Grace and Damien Barr’s NDT Development accumulated 1.6 acres on the south side of Nottingham Boulevard, from South Dixie Highway west to the Florida East Coast Railroad tracks, in West Palm Beach, with plans to build luxury townhouses, The Palm Beach Post reported.
The properties were assembled in multiple deals for over $3 million, records show. They include vacant land, a roadside inn and neighborhood gathering spot El Bonche Bar.
The plan is for 16 townhomes, ranging from 2,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet, priced at roughly $1.5 million. Presales could start at the end of this year or early next year, although the project is pending a city review that is expected in the next two months.
Tommy Frankel’s Frankel Development Company, with offices in Jupiter and Philadelphia, is partnering on the design of the townhouses.
The project would add to the growth of the area, which is seeing development activity and increasing real estate prices spilling over from more desirable nearby communities, such as South of Southern, or SoSo. Douglas Elliman agent Burt Minkoff told The Palm Beach Post the entire South Dixie corridor is poised to become “the new Tribeca.”
West Palm Beach-based NDT is used to making real estate plays on areas that have been passed over for years. In partnership with Joe Furst’s Miami-based Place Projects, NDT is redeveloping 40 acres in a northern part of downtown West Palm.
Christened the Nora District, it spans from Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard south to Quadrille Boulevard and from Dixie Highway west to the FEC Railway tracks.
Place Projects and NDT’s first order of business, in partnership with Wheelock Street Capital, is repurposing the warehouse row along Railroad Avenue into shopping, dining and offices. Completion is expected in early 2024.
The vacant lots on the northern Nora section will be developed with mixed-use buildings, and the residential midsection will be preserved.
Furst, among the pioneer developers who helped transform Miami’s Wynwood, and NDT worked with the city of West Palm to get the Nora District rezoned last year.
— Lidia Dinkova