West Palm Beach city leaders have cleared the way for a 280-unit apartment complex in an office park near Palm Beach International Airport, the latest large residential project planned in a once-sleepy sector of the city.
City commissioners on Dec. 8 unanimously approved a proposal to build the 10-story complex at the District Pointe office site at 1501 Belvedere Road, just west of Interstate 95.
The 5-acre property currently is home to a five-story office building and is zoned for commercial offices.
But under the city’s workforce housing program, apartments can be built there without the land being rezoned for residences if the developer agrees to designate some units as rent-controlled workforce-housing apartments.
To meet that requirement and increase the number of apartments permitted on the site, the project will include 71 workforce housing units.
The approval further hastens the transition of what once was a sleepy sector of office plazas near the airport into a hub of large modern apartment communities.
The project is at least the third major apartment complex to be approved north of Belvedere and west of I-95.
In 2021, the seven-story Indigo West Palm Beach apartments opened at nearby 1500 Centrepark Blvd with nearly 250 residences.
Then in May commissioners approved Oasis Tower at 1415 Centrepark Blvd., which would feature 323 apartments, including 81 workforce housing units, and a nine-story parking garage.
To build the District Pointe apartments, the landowner needed commissioners to waive city rules regarding the number of units allowed on the property, the required distance between the building and property lines, and how much of the lot the building is allowed to occupy.
The owner, District Pointe LLC, also plans a 10-story parking garage on the site, city records show.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New 280-unit apartment complex coming to West Palm Beach near PBIA
Reporting by Andrew Marra, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
