Boynton Beach officials have agreed to fast-track $7 million to the builder of a long-delayed $100 million apartment complex in anticipation of voters approving a statewide property tax cut in November.
The city’s elected officials on July 14 approved granting the tax money to Fort Lauderdale-based Affiliated Development for its 300-unit apartment building with restaurants, shops and offices at Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue called The Pierce. Officials have been trying for years to build what they call a downtown in the area.
The Pierce will be built in an area overseen by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which is tasked with rejuvenating blighted neighborhoods. Its district’s boundaries encompass much of eastern Boynton Beach along Federal Highway.
City commissioners, acting as the CRA’s governing board, unanimously approved the deal. Affiliated proposed it to the CRA staff. City Manager Dan Dugger, serving as the CRA’s interim director since April 21, recommended the deal’s approval.
Construction will start this fall and finish in 2028, Affiliated CEO Jeff Burns said on July 16.
Boynton to pay $7M contribution for The Pierce apartments in two installments
The city will pay Affiliated $4 million within 40 days of the company building the apartments, followed by $3 million a year later. The rest of the financing is privately funded, Affiliated has said.
Under the original deal, signed in 2022, the CRA would have paid Affiliated with taxes levied on The Pierce over the course of 15 years.
The CRA staff recommended the bigger, faster payments in case voters across Florida in November approve raising the homestead property tax exemption to $150,000 from $50,000 in 2027 and then to $250,000 in 2028.
If approved by more than 60% of voters, the move would cap what Boynton Beach can collect in property taxes. Dugger told commissioners on June 2 that the city stands to lose between $18 million and $22 million in 2027. These exemptions do not apply to most apartment complexes or commercial buildings.
“Staff would recommend, through a budget exercise, that we would allocate funds sooner rather than later because of pending homestead tax implications,” Deputy City Manager Adam Temple said at the CRA’s June 9 board meeting.
Former CRA Finance Director Vicki Hill spoke against the deal at the CRA’s July 14 meeting.
“It looks really bad that they couldn’t even wait until after the vote in November,” she said. “It looks greedy. It looks like somebody owes somebody something.”
Hill pointed out that the CRA had already given Affiliated the land in the city block where The Pierce will be built. The agency sold it to Affiliated for $100 in 2025 after buying it for $3 million in 2018, property records show.
Affiliated originally planned to start construction in 2024, but then the company and the city were sued by rival real estate developer F. Davis Camalier, claiming the city failed to follow its own code in approving The Pierce.
Affiliated countersued, claiming Camalier’s lawsuit was an attempt to extort the city into buying his property at an inflated price. The courts dismissed both cases in September 2024.
The Pierce in Boynton Beach will include affordable apartments
The approved deal requires The Pierce to rent about 4% of the apartments to tenants earning incomes that are up to 20% lower than the area’s median income, 24% to tenants with incomes matching or below the median, and another 24% to those making up to 20% more than the median income.
Palm Beach County’s median income in 2026 for a family of four is about $108,000, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates.
The Pierce’s apartments will include amenities such as a coffee bar, free bicycles for residents’ use, a rooftop bar and outdoor areas for cooking, relaxing and playing games, Affiliated has said.
The popular restaurant Hurricane Alley is slated to move into a two-story space in The Pierce when Affiliated demolishes the eatery’s current home at 529 East Ocean Ave., which the developer owns.
“East Boynton is going to be totally different in five years,” Burns said. “It will be a place where people can live, work and play.”
Email news tips to Chris Persaud at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boynton fast-tracks $7M in city contribution for apartment complex
Reporting by Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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By Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
