Two 30-Story Mixed-Use Towers to Rise in West Palm Beach

Billionaire developer Jeff Greene has received approval from the City of West Palm to construct a $250 million mixed-use project at 550 North Quadrille Boulevard. The buildings will be shiny modern and massive – and the tallest in the city.

The 829,000-square-foot development, called One West Palm, will include two 30-story towers, retail shops, restaurants, office space, a hotel and luxury condominiums.

The project, which takes up an entire block on the north side of downtown, will be comprised of two modern towers that look like stacked blocks, designed by Arquitectonica of Miami.

The ground level will feature retail shops, restaurants and corner parks. One tower includes 410,000 square feet of Class A office space. The other will feature a five-star hotel with 209 guest suites and 84 luxury condos above that.

The 3.3-acre project also features a day-care center and a 34,000-square-foot fitness center that includes indoor tennis courts — to complement the plan’s outdoor tennis courts.

The residential building also will include a high-end restaurant and bar on the top floor.

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The project, which will be one of the most complex and architecturally advanced developments in the city’s history, will be financed with a construction loan and equity put up by Mr. Greene.

The developer hopes to break ground on the project within three months and finish building it two years later.

“There’s nothing like it in West Palm Beach, maybe even all of Palm Beach County,” Greene says. The development provides one-stop living for upscale professionals.

“There’s everything you can imagine that you’d need, right across the bridge from Palm Beach,” the developer said. The bridge entrance lies on Quadrille, one-and-a-half blocks east of the project.

There is tremendous demand for office space in West Palm Beach, given that the last Class A building to open was CityPlace Tower at 520 Okeechobee Boulevard in 2008 — and that was the first one built since 1989.

The market for rental apartments and condominiums is very strong in West Palm Beach, and as for the hotel, there are none in the area that have the luxury amenities which are planned.

It’s the biggest of well over $1 billion in projects coming out of the ground or about to in West Palm, as one vacant downtown lot after another fills with apartment towers, hotels, shops, restaurants and an All Aboard Florida station to draw 30-plus trains a day.

The old city hall’s being redeveloped, as is the marina property in front of it. The Bristol luxury condo is about to rise from the former site of the Chapel by the Lake, on South Flagler Drive.

Developer Jeff Greene, a Palm Beach billionaire, has quickly become downtown’s biggest landowner, snapping up properties in and around the business district.

Just west of downtown, he recently completed a 548-apartment project called Cameron Estates.

And he just closed on another 11 acres on the Clear Lake waterfront next to it, between Okeechobee Boulevard and I-95. North of downtown, he has assembled land near Currie Park for residential development and possibly a Publix.

The developer recently acquired a 3.21-acre property at 419 Lakeview Avenue, a few blocks east of CityPlace, for $24 million, where he has plans to construct a five-star hotel, luxury condominiums, and a Class A office tower.

He plans to build high-end amenities, such a fitness center, indoor tennis courts, and a food and beverage program by a celebrity chef.

Florida Hospital Plans Major $650 Million Expansion Project

HCA East Florida announced it will spend $650 million for major expansion projects throughout South Florida. The initiative includes building new hospitals and expanding and improving existing health care facilities over the next three years.

The capital improvements are needed to address growing patient loads in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.

The largest project is a $220 million five-story hospital planned at Nova Southeastern University's Davie campus. The new hospital will be part of an academic village that will one day include a hotel, residential complex and retail center.

Relocation of Plantation General Hospital to the new site was approved in May by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. The new hospital, which will be about 7 miles away from its current location, will have five stories with an attached $21 million parking garage.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin later this year and take three years to complete.

Highlights of the other projects include:

• $66 million expansion of Northwest Medical Center in Margate, including two new floors to increase patient beds and ICU capacity and a new six-level, 322-space parking garage.

• $56 million expansion of Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, including private rooms and additional beds.

• Improvements to JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, including a three-story bed tower, emergency room expansion, patient unit renovations and expanded parking facilities.  
Projected cost is $108 million.

• New parking garage and new four-story tower at Kendall Regional Medical Center.  
Estimated cost: $90 million.

• New patient tower, parking garage and emergency room expansion at Aventura Hospital & Medical Center. $61 million is earmarked for the project.

• Enhanced patient rooms at Mercy Hospital in Miami, part of a project that will include additional upgrades and remodeling. 
$26 million project

• New freestanding emergency rooms in Doral and in the Town & Country section of Kendall.  
Estimated cost for both projects is $20 million.

HCA East Florida, a division of Hospital Corporation of America, serves 1.3 million patients annually in the four South Florida counties, plus Okeechobee County. Its 14 hospitals employ more than 16,500 people and more than 6,000 staff physicians.

HCA hospitals include: JFK Medical Center, JFK North Campus, (formerly West Palm Hospital), Palms West Hospital, Northwest Medical Center, Plantation General Hospital, University Hospital & Medical Center, Westside Regional Medical Center, Aventura Hospital & Medical Center, Kendall Regional Medical Center, Mercy Hospital, Sister Emmanuel Hospital, Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, Raulerson Hospital and St. Lucie Medical Center.

In addition, the company operates ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, physician practices, four emergency care centers, a supply chain center and a regional laboratory.

HCA East Florida operations have an economic impact of about $2.5 billion annually, including more than $315 million worth of indigent services and $163 million in taxes.
 

Border States Electric Acquires Shealy Electrical Wholesalers

Border States Electric, based in Fargo, North Dakota, has agreed to purchase Shealy Electrical Wholesalers, an electrical wholesale supply leader in North and South Carolina with more than 350 employees and 17 locations. Shealy Electrical will join Border States on August 1, 2016.

Border States Electric supplies products and services to construction, industrial and utility customers.

The 100 percent employee-owned company is rated the eighth largest electrical distributor in the U.S. by Electrical Wholesaling magazine.

BSE, which has corporate headquarters in Fargo, will have more than 2,200 employees and 97 branches in 18 states after they join forces with Shealy Electrical Wholesalers.

“We spent a lot of time looking at different leadership and ownership transition options, keeping in mind what would be best for our customers, employees and supplier partners,” said Bill DeLoache, Shealy CEO.

“After much consideration, we concluded that an employee stock ownership plan best met these objectives. Border States is a great distributor and an established, top-performing ESOP company.”

Shealy will continue to be led by Bill DeLoache; Brent Spear, COO; and David White, president.

The name will change to Shealy Electrical Wholesalers, a division of Border States. BSE will establish a new southeast region with David White serving as executive vice president. The regional corporate office will be in Columbia, South Carolina.

“We are excited to welcome Shealy Electrical Wholesalers to our employee-owned company. Shealy is a market leader with a proven track record of sustainable growth.

Their values and belief in service excellence, strong vendor relationships and the power of employee-ownership align well with our culture at Border States,” said Tammy Miller, Border States CEO.

“Like Shealy, Border States is an independent distributor and very engaged in our industry,” said White. “Our two companies share similar core values based on doing what’s right for our customers, employees, vendors and the communities where we live and work. We both possess a strong desire to grow and encourage innovation. This is a great fit.”