Five developers faced off this month for the chance to build a housing complex on public land in Riviera Beach’s urban core, a waterfront area that residential investors have long bypassed.
City Council members, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, selected Forest Development on Nov. 12 to build up to 450 apartments and 17,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space on about 2.2 acres at 1851 Broadway south of Blue Heron Boulevard.
The $325 million project’s approval is part of the city’s transformation into a boomtown. Forest pitched $3.78 million for the land but later agreed to match the highest competing bid of $4.5 million.
The North Palm Beach-based developer is “days away” from completing the luxury high-rise Nautilus 220 condominiums just north of the city in Lake Park, Forest representative Wayne Richards said at the meeting.