Riviera Beach’s Planning and Zoning Board unanimously backed land use changes that would enable a development group led by New York-based O’Connor Capital Partners to build a mixed-use workforce apartment complex with retail and a community center.
Last week, board members voted 5 to 0 in favor of the zoning changes and site plan sought by Marina Annex Housing, LLC, an affiliate of New York-based O’Connor Capital Partners, for 3.6 acres of land at 251 West 11th Street.
The land use changes, which still must be approved by the Riviera Beach City Council, would enable O’Connor Capital Partners, Hallandale Beach-based Urban Farmers and the Riviera Beach Housing Authority to build a 77-foot-tall apartment complex with 175 one- to three-bedroom units as well as 6,500 square feet of retail and a 15,000-square-foot community center.
The site will also have 218 on-site parking spaces, plus another 16 spaces on West Park Drive, and a fenced-in pool with an outdoor kitchen area accessible for only residents, said Jerrell Harris, director of planning for Urban Farmers.
Marina Annex, the working title for the development, will be designed by Hallandale Beach-based Architecture Farm and Port St. Lucie-based Architects Design Collaborative. It is slated to be built on land that Marina Annex Housing acquired for $2 million in February, property records show. The seller was the Riviera Beach Housing Authority, which was deeded the land by the city in 2024 for $10 and remains a partner in the venture.
“The way we can effectively work as the housing authority is to… partner with others to bring affordable housing to this community,” said Riviera Beach Housing Authority Executive Director John Hurt.
The housing authority will also partner with the Alpha Phi Alpha Foundation to run the community center, which can be used for educational purposes, meeting room space and offices for nonprofits, he added.
A later presentation by Harris of Urban Farmers revealed that the community center would be named after the late Edward Rodgers, the first Black circuit court judge of Palm Beach County.
Since its founding in 1983, O’Connor Capital Partners has developed $30 billion worth of projects in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia, according to the company’s website. Led by CEO Bill O’Connor, O’Connor Capital paid $28.8 million for an 86,000-square-foot shopping center in Delray Beach in July.
Workforce housing developer Urban Farmers was started in 2010 by former Marriott International development manager Terry Booty. In 2019, the Hallandale Beach City Commission approved Urban Farmers’ plan to build the 200-unit Eighth Avenue Commons project on a parking lot previously owned by the Hallandale Church of God.
Developers are targeting Riviera Beach, as they seek new frontiers to build in Palm Beach County.
Two blocks east of Marina Annex’s development site, Boca Raton-based SobelCo proposed a 1.2-million-square-foot mixed-use project with 508 condos at West 11th Street and Broadway. Between those two development sites the Riviera Beach Community Development Corporation is building Villa L’Onz, a 12-unit workforce townhouse project.
And on the east side of Broadway, Related Urban and the Related Group have secured development sites in the city-owned, 90-acre Marina Village area for Residences at Marina Village (a 149-unit workforce housing project) and Gallery at Marina Village (a 418-unit market-rate project).
The Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency is still entertaining additional development proposals at Marina Village after elected city officials declared a do-over in July after most developers sent incomplete applications for a previous request for qualifications. Anyone interested in building on publicly-owned waterfront land has until Nov. 18 to submit plans and qualifications.Related Urban, the only bidder to submit a completed application in July, will present plans to build a condo-hotel with food and beverage establishments, a Related Urban spokesman previously told The Real Deal. Robert Sonnenblick, chairman of Pacific Palisades, California-based Sonnenblick Development, said he wants to build a two-phased project that will include a 150-room Compass by Margaritaville hotel.