09/20/2021
FLORIDA TODAY publicly revealed the North American Properties apartment proposal in February, obtaining preliminary drawings and Melbourne City Hall emails via a public records request.
Last week, NAP filed a site plan application, updated artist's renderings and a public-private partnership application at City Hall.
"It's this kind of redevelopment — eliminating blight — which is one of the missions of the downtown (Community Redevelopment Agency)," said Shawn McIntyre, NAP managing partner.
"We're bringing in quality-style apartments for people to be able to live downtown and take advantage of the walking distance of the retail and the great location, with all the employment centers of the airport and L3Harris's headquarters down in Palm Bay," McIntyre said.
No site plan hearings have been scheduled yet before the Melbourne Planning and Zoning Board or Melbourne City Council, Planning Manager Cheryl Dean said.
McIntyre said the downtown Melbourne apartment complex may cost $47 million. By comparison, Hotel Melby was a $42 million project. And the eight-story, 171-unit Highline apartment complex cost $31 million.
NAP has developed more than 26 million square feet of commercial space and 22,000 residential units in 84 cities and 15 states. The firm opened its 35th Publix this month.
The firm is building the two-block, $160 million Cascades project in downtown Tallahassee featuring an eight-story AC Hotel by Marriott and 330 luxury apartments.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, NAP opened a full-time regional office in July in downtown Melbourne. That's the month the company finalized the purchase of the 2-acre Orange Court Apartments property.
Tenants have since moved out of the long-dilapidated Orange Court Apartments, where plywood sheets are now nailed atop exterior doorways. McIntyre said his company offered tenants free rent for up to 60 days while they found other places to live.
"These structures have decayed the point of continuous code violations and urban blight," the NAP development team wrote in the site plan application.
"With the resurging growth of the Space Coast and high employment rates being experienced by the aerospace, defense and private employers, the demand for appropriately located dense urban projects is rapidly increasing," the team wrote.
Demolition crews could raze the seven-building Orange Court Apartments in 60 to 90 days, McIntyre said. That project will involve asbestos abatement — the buildings date to 1965 and older.
To offset costs, the developer is requesting a 100% property-tax abatement for the first five years after the project is completed. NAP also requests that the city reimburse $475,398 in projected public-infrastructure upgrades, such as intersection improvements, sidewalks, utilities and stormwater structures.
However, City Hall planners have not yet vetted the proposal, and no decisions have been made.
Elsewhere in Brevard County, NAP is building Luna, a similar $57 million concrete-and-steel apartment complex with a four-level parking garage at the Viera Town Center. A crane is on site, and exterior walls are taking shape.
At six stories, Luna will be the tallest building in Viera. The complex will also be Viera's first mixed-use building that incorporates structured parking.
When finished in about a year, Luna will contain 245 apartments and ground-level retail space across 2.4 acres.
The Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville market area shows housing demand for 1,189 new multifamily units per year, according to a market study cited by NAP in its City Hall documents.
Source: Florida Today
