Monday, April 25, 2016

The rapid growth westward in Palm Beach County and the demand for housing is getting a lot of attention

The two excerpts below from this article are from Dan Weil at The Real Deal (South Florida Real Estate News). Three very large development project are cited: Westlake, Avenir, and Indian Trails Grove:

     "And it’s not as if the developments are overtaking pristine rural settings. 'You’ve got open agricultural land with gnarly trees and cow dung,' Merin [Neil Merin, chairman of West Palm Beach-based NAI Merin Hunter Codman] said. 'The real issue is traffic. We just won’t be able to have the kind of road system to accommodate that kind of development.'
     Indeed, Palm Beach County is growing by 25,000 new residents a year [emphasis added], he said, and given that traditional public transit systems are unlikely in the county, the focus has to be placed on ways to avoid one person per car, such as ride-sharing."


[and. . .]

     "Merin calculates that just in the last five months, the county has approved 15,000 homes, 4.5 million square feet of industrial space, 3.6 million square feet of office space and 2.5 million square feet of retail space on agricultural land about 20 miles west of the Intracoastal.
     Basically, 'growth is moving up from Dade and Broward counties,' Rebel Cook, president of Rebel Cook Real Estate in Palm Beach Gardens, told TRD [The Real Deal]."