A mystery developer is pitching a multifamily tower under Florida’s Live Local Act in West Palm Beach, The Real Deal has learned.
Urban Design Studio and Arquitectonica submitted a pre-application for a potential workforce housing and condo development at 215 Fifth Street in downtown. The developer behind the project hasn’t been identified, but the property owner is tied to a well-known landlord in Palm Beach.
West Palm-based Urban Design Studio is set to meet with the city Thursday to iron out development plans before a formal application is submitted. That means the building’s details could change based on the city’s recommendations.
But the pre-application outlines a 25-story tower with 40 percent workforce-housing rentals and 60 percent market-rate condos, according to a concept design obtained by TRD.
The Live Local Act, signed in 2023 and expanded this year, offers developers tax breaks and allows them to bypass municipal approval if they set aside at least 40 percent of residential units for workforce or affordable housing.
In this case, 36 workforce housing units are planned on the second and third floors, and 41 condo units on the levels above. That includes an 8,500-square-foot penthouse, and the fourth floor would contain a planned amenity deck and pool.
The site, just off North Flagler Drive near the intracoastal waterfront, last sold in 2005 to an LLC registered to Marsha Stocker and a Boca Raton-based real estate law firm. The entity purchased the land for $5.9 million, property records show.
Stocker is the daughter of the late Palm Beach landlord Burt Handelsman, once known as the “Mayor of Worth Avenue” for his massive control of the luxury Palm Beach shopping strip. The family’s real estate empire fell apart following a messy divorce and lawsuits between Handelsman and his children.
The property, a vacant 1920s commercial space, was listed for rent at $60,000 a month before going under contract. It’s unclear if the property has changed hands or who the developer might be. Gray Welton, a Palm Beach Gardens-based agent with Nicklaus Vance, had the listing and declined to comment on the property.
Major developers are taking advantage of Live Local in West Palm Beach. Billionaire Steve Ross, who owns and developed the city’s central town center of CityPlace, is seeking to raise an eight-story Live Local affordable housing building at 209 North Sapodilla Avenue nearby. Fellow billionaire Jeff Greene has proposed putting up a 25-story apartment tower on South Dixie Highway and Datura Street.
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