A recent Sun Sentinel article looked at South Florida suburbs building downtown centers. We spoke with the executive director of the Margate Community Redevelopment Agency, Diane Colonna, about that city’s plans. Listen to the interview
Naples City Attorney Bob Pritt, who previously agreed that a three-story building with an underground garage violates the city’s charter, now has changed that opinion, arguing that a similar downtown development proposal is consistent with the charter. In the city’s first filing responding to a lawsuit by two downtown property owners in Collier County’s Circuit…
TAMPA — The First Friday block party has long been a fixture of St. Petersburg’s thriving downtown social scene. Now Tampa is poised to launch its own monthly social happening, focused mainly on the museums and theaters that run the length of the city’s Riverwalk. Fourth Friday starts Friday in downtown Tampa with nine cultural venues…
ST. PETERSBURG — Preservationists say they will prolong their battle to save a historic downtown block earmarked for demolition and redevelopment. St. Petersburg Preservation, which works to save historic sites and structures, will file an application this week asking that the “cheese-grater” buildings in the 400 block of Central Avenue be designated historic, said its…
Branding a blighted downtown as an arts and entertainment district, making streets more pedestrian-friendly and luring new restaurants helped redevelop the urban cores of Delray Beach and West Palm Beach, according to two former community redevelopment leaders who have turned their experience into a book. Christopher Brown, former Community Redevelopment Agency director in Delray Beach,…
A new four-story, 521-space parking garage to bolster access to St. Armands Circle received its first endorsement from the City Commission on Monday night. The $15 million project would add another 334 parking spaces by the end of 2018 to the city-owned lot at North Adams and Madison drives on the northeast side of the busy…
MADEIRA BEACH — The Tom Stuart Causeway is the gateway to this beach city, taking motorists over the Intracoastal Waterway past a vacant lot, condo complexes and a 1950s-era strip mall with aqua awnings that is home to a tattoo parlor, nail spa, e-cigarette shop and other small businesses. The entrance to Madeira Beach could…
JUPITER — Climb the 104 steps to the top of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and the past, present and future of the town are in plain view. There’s DuBois Park, where Jupiter’s first residents built on land once occupied by Native Americans. Nearby, $8 million in upgrades are ongoing on A1A. Waves along the Jupiter…
Salt-life residents in Jupiter are stunned at the pace of new construction in their city. The new Harbourside shopping center, with its walls of concrete towering over the Intracoastal bridge on Indiantown Road, is the surest sign their city no longer is a sleepy fishing village. Indeed, Jupiter’s once laid-back vibe now is a selling…
This oceanside enclave is brimming with a funky vibe, a vibrant energy, a lively spirit like no other in Palm Beach County. But what do you expect from a city filled with colorful characters that could easily fill an Elmore Leonard novel? Lake Worth is … different. But in good way. Residents will tell you…
There’s the historic train depot with peeling, yellow pant that stands near a rusty real line. Sidewalks empty of runners, strollers or dogs. A few vacant, city-owned lots populated by palm trees and the occasional lamp post. The area around Station Street and Central Avenue in downtown Apopka doesn’t look like much now. But to some, it’s…
DAYTONA BEACH — The most expensive private beachside development in the city’s history is planning to break ground this spring. The key players behind the Daytona Beach Convention Hotel & Condominiums, a $130 million project located at the eastern tip of Oakridge Boulevard, say they just need to go through the final steps of securing a building permit…
