Largest Development in West Palm Beach to Move Forward

The latest vision to turn 6 acres in downtown West Palm Beach into a transit village will feature a staggering 1.1 million square feet of hotel, retail and dining.
 

At $400 million, Transit Village will be the largest new development in West Palm Beach, which has seen an influx of major project applications this year.

West Palm Beach city planners and the board that runs Tri-Rail have voted unanimously to approve the project.

Located at 150 Clearwater Drive, it would connect to both a Tri-Rail passenger rail station and a county bus station.

The city approved it for 420 apartments, 300,000 square feet of office space, a 300-room hotel with a fitness center and conference/meeting rooms, 33,000 square feet of retail, 2,000 parking spaces, and a rooftop entertainment space. The largest tower will be 25 stories tall.

Michael Masanoff is president of a group of investors selected by Palm Beach County commissioners to develop the $400 million retail, dining and entertainment hub surrounding the station at the CSX Railroad track that houses Tri-Rail, Amtrak and buses.

The station is on the west side of Tamarind Avenue, just south of Banyan Street.

In 2012, commissioners agreed the investment group he heads could buy the county-owned triangle-shaped tract for $3.6 million.

The project, which will construct 1.1 million square feet of transit-oriented development surrounding the rail station on the west side of Tamarind Avenue, south of Banyan Boulevard, will include:

•    A 13-story, 300-room hotel
•    A 21-story building with 308,000 square feet of top-end “Class A” office space
•    A 25-story apartment complex hosting 420 residential units.
•    At least 38 "affordable” residential units.
•    A separate building with 12 “live-work” townhouses.
•    33,000 square feet of neighborhood and transit-themed retail.

Plans for Transit Village have been in the works for two decades.

City, county and state government officials have spent years laying groundwork for the Transit-Oriented Development, a project that aims to transform the largely unused expanse next to the city’s Tri-Rail stop as a neighborhood with offices, condos and government buildings.

While CityPlace, Clematis Street, and the planned complex at the All Aboard Florida station could be considered a single destination, it’s a dead zone in between those areas and the transit village.

The developers of Transit Village hope to break ground in the first quarter of 2017.