Developer Quiet Regarding Plans For PBC Land

Keeping quiet can deflect attention.

Or it can prompt people to wonder what you’re up to.

Such is life for EB Developers, a Boca Raton developer that quietly bought up 1,288 acres of citrus land in the middle of Palm Beach County in early 2003.

Nearly four years later, the company has said nothing about what it plans on doing with that prime real estate in the middle of the fast-growing South Florida housing market, saying only that it will stick to the density that county rules call for.

At this point, that means 2,600 homes.

EB doesn’t expect to submit a proposal until the county hammers out a working sustainable development plan, which would dictate allowable density, with officials.

That might be a while.

Negotiations have gone on for more than a year, and the state said weeks ago that the county’s newest submission could merit starting from scratch. One thing is clear: EB leans toward new urbanism, a planning method that pushes for integrated, mixed-use development where folks rely less on their cars and more on their own two feet. In other words, community residents work, shop and enjoy recreational activities — all in the same area.

This isn’t how the company — which built rental complexes and single-family homes for much of the 15 years of its existence — always cast itself. But that was the old EB, according to John Markey, the company’s COO.

A Harvard-trained architect, Markey joined EB six years ago. Elie Berdugo founded the company after relocating to Boca Raton from Israel, where he oversaw construction of high-rise apartments and single-family homes.

Even as Florida mortgages are looking more appealing to buyers than six months ago, building an expansive development on citrus groves would constitute a big step for the company.

Its only completed project here is The Belmont at Boynton Beach. In 2004, it had a deal to buy 55 acres from boxing promoter Don King and redevelop it, but couldn’t win approval.

Finally, it has proposed a mixed-use project running through the approval process in Palm Beach Gardens: Central Park, 176 condos and 100,000 square feet of retail and office space on about 40 acres.

The logical reasoning of EB Developers was to look toward the groves farther west because that area seemed the next plausible place to grow.

“You need to have places for people to live,” Markey said.

State population estimates show that the county will grow from 1.2 million to 1.9 million by 2030. The concerns of where to put those people grow, as does the problem of affordable housing for the county’s workforce.

The counter argument is that, if you don’t build these homes, people will find somewhere else to go — and that’s what many residents would prefer. Many are nervous because developers have submitted plans for a whopping 35,000 homes in the central-western communities on Vavrus Ranch, Indian Trail Groves and Callery-Judge Grove.

And then there is the home builder’s land.

The company bought the citrus groves for an average $16,970 an acre in ‘03. That spawned a bidding war for Indian Trail Groves, 4,900 acres surrounding the parcel. Markey said he’d like to see more transit-oriented designs for the projects proposed out west: rail lines, for example, which would help with woeful traffic predictions. But that hasn’t garnered much support.

“People look at me like I have two heads. We have to plan for it now,” Markey said.