Related Urban, BH Group and Tezral Partners won initial approval to build an apartment complex with two 20-story towers on city-owned land in Riviera Beach.
The 418-unit project at Marina Village was given the green light from the village’s planning and zoning board Thursday, but its members recommended adding workforce housing to the mix.
The project, called Gallery at Marina Village, is slated for 2.45 acres surrounded by Broadway, East 12th Street, Avenue C, and West 13th Street. The proposal is headed to Riviera Beach City Council for a final vote.
The Related Group’s affordable housing arm, Miami-based Related Urban Development Group, is partnering with Aventura-based BH Group and West Palm Beach-based Tezral Partners on the project.
It will consist of 190 two-bedrooms, 152 one-bedrooms, 38 three-bedrooms, and 38 studios as well as 3,000 square feet of retail and 3,000 square feet of office. Amenities include an 1,800-square-foot fitness center, an 1,800-square-foot coworking space and a ground floor pool deck.
A nine-level parking garage is planned with 652 spaces, about 25 percent fewer than the 863 spaces required under city code.
The development site is next to Residences at Marina Village, an eight-story, 149-unit affordable and workforce housing project that Related Urban and Tezral Partners have under construction. That project is close to topping off and will be finished in the fall, Related Urban president Albert Milo told the board.
Both developments are elements of Riviera Beach’s Marina Village Master Plan, a 2013 concept designed to bring economic development to a 90-acre area by the waterfront owned by the city and its community redevelopment agency. It consists of a marina and an event space with an outdoor restaurant.
The complex that’s under construction includes affordable and workforce housing, but the proposed development was designed as a market-rate project.
“That doesn’t mean a workforce person can’t reside in the Gallery at Marina Village, but the market will dictate what the rents will be,” Milo told the board.
Rents are expected to cost $2,500 to $4,000 a month, he said.
Frank Fernandez, the board’s vice chair, pressed for workforce units to be part of this project.
Milo said he had no objections to that since workforce housing units only need to be affordable for households earning 120 percent of the area median income. In Palm Beach County, that is about $98,000 a year, an amount that is expected to grow to $108,000 in May, Milo told the board.
Related Urban is one of three development teams that submitted bids to build on 12 acres of Marina Village near the waterfront as part of the city’s master plan.
The overall master plan includes 224 condo units, 120 hotel rooms, 10 three-story condos, waterfront retail and a parking garage with a soccer field and tennis and pickleball courts.
Related Urban’s proposal will face off against Forest Development’s offer to build a convention center of at least 320,000 square feet, along with 270 hotel rooms and 164 condo units, as well as Sonnenblick Development’s plans to construct a mixed-use project that will include a Margaritaville Hotel and 270 residential units.