Affiliated Development sped up $7 million in public incentives to build a mixed-use project with affordable housing in Boynton Beach.
The city commission voted Tuesday to fast track payments to Affiliated, which will receive the first installment after substantial completion of the development called The Pierce, at 115 North Federal Highway. Boynton Beach officials approved an agreement in the summer of 2022 that would’ve paid out over 15 years.
The faster pay schedule, less than three years, is meant to encourage Affiliated to build the project faster. It will consist of at least 236 apartments, 16,800 square feet of retail and office and 150 public parking spaces.
Half of the apartments are to be reserved for workforce housing. Nine will be reserved for tenants who make up to 80 percent of Palm Beach County’s area median income. About 55 apartments each will be for households earning 100 and 120 percent of the AMI, which is $96,100 annually for one person.
Those units will be marketed to police officers, firefighters, teachers and city employees “who want to stay in this city and not get priced out of this city,” Vice Mayor Thomas Turkin said during a June 9 Community Redevelopment Agency meeting.
Back in December 2021, Affiliated, founded by Jeff Burns and Nick Rojo, beat out four other real estate development firms in a bid to develop 4.5 acres of CRA-owned land in Boynton Beach’s downtown district.
However, soon after the city approved a development agreement with Affiliated in July 2022, construction was delayed for 18 months by a lawsuit filed by a neighboring property owner. Because construction costs have soared since then, Affiliated said it needs the $7 million “more on the front end,” the company’s co-founder, Rojo, told the South Florida Business Journal.
Under the revised agreement, Affiliated will get its first payment 40 days after all of the apartments are ready to be occupied. A second payment of $3 million will be paid a year later, and a third payment of $2 million paid a year after that.
But city officials said they wanted to give Affiliated their incentives even faster if possible. .
Boynton Beach officials have sought to encourage more development within the city’s 1,650-acre redevelopment district by offering land and subsidies to developers. It invested $15.4 million this year acquiring 5.4 acres for a future gateway development project. The CRA also increased its incentive package for Hyperion Group’s Ocean One project from $9 million to $11 million.
Meanwhile, Affiliated has secured a $73 million construction loan for The Dune, a 336-unit Live Local Act project at 2607 and 21617 South Federal Highway in Boynton Beach. It is also raising $250 million to build mixed-income apartment projects throughout Florida.