Posted: 4:51 p.m. Thursday, July 9, 2015
By Alexandra Seltzer - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

BOYNTON BEACH —
With renderings in hand and officials describing hundreds of apartments, businesses, and a public art piece, it was easy at Thursday’s ground-breaking event to look around a lot full of dirt and picture what’s to come.
The 500 Ocean project will be built in phases, and the first part of the residential area should be ready by late summer 2016, said Tom Hayden, the director of development at LeCesse Development Corp., a real estate firm involved in the project.
Officials, residents and the developers gather at the 500 Ocean site for the ground-breaking event in Boynton Beach on July 9, ... read more
City officials hope the development at Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue and its residents will bring more businesses to Boynton’s downtown, which lacks regular activity. Mayor Jerry Taylor called 500 Ocean a “tremendous development” and said he hopes the project will lead to Ocean Avenue becoming a “walking area for pedestrians with different shops and destinations for people.”
Vivian Brooks, the director of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, agreed and said down the road, Ocean Avenue could become a “quaint walking street.”
The 4.69-acre property has been vacant since 2003 and has three other attempts at development in its history. This was the fourth, and to get it moving, the CRA board, which is made up of the City Commissioners and two members of the public, signed off on $4.39 million in incentives over the next 10 years. The money will come from tax revenue created from the construction.
To get the money, developers agreed to build the apartments to a special green-building certification, include office space, and installment of three electric-vehicle charging stations.
500 Ocean will be a six-story building with 341 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. It will have about 20,000 square feet of commercial space which includes 6,000 square feet for offices and 14,000 square feet for retail, Hayden said.
Also, the development will have a parking garage with enough space for both the residents and the commercial space. Residential units will mainly face Federal and the retail and businesses will face Ocean while also wrapping around to Federal, Hayden said.
Officials, residents and the developers gather at the 500 Ocean site for the ground-breaking event in Boynton Beach on July 9, ... read more

“It’s clear that every resident and council person and staff person we talk to is excited about growing Boynton Beach and for us it’s just exciting to be part of it,” he said.