Delray Beach and Boca Raton Real Estate and Homes for Sale

Watch as Jeff and Dave, the founders of YourDelrayBoca.com, give you their take on the local real estate market:

There is no more dynamic real estate market in the U.S. than Boca-Delray.

From oceanfront mansions and historic homes to picturesque country clubs and subdivisions the market is vibrant, the choices are endless and the neighborhoods varied depending on age range, price and taste. The area features everything from old Florida to the most modern downtown condo’s and townhomes.

You are sure to find exactly what you want in these two world-class cities.

Buying or selling in the Delray-Boca area and need a recommendation? We can help. Learn more here.

28 March, 2016 2 2 Comments

Place Matters

March 28, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 2 Comments

A long time ago, I had a conversation with a close friend that has stuck with me over the years.
Like many great talks this one began with a question: “is place important to you?”
Could you be happy anywhere or do you have to live in a place that speaks to you in some way?
I’ve been thinking about that lately as I fantasize about a second home somewhere else…Asheville, Portland, Me., New York City (a pipe dream) or Laguna Beach (perhaps an even bigger pipe dream).
I usually have these thoughts a month or so before it begins to get hot and humid in Florida. It’s somehow comforting to imagine to a life where you can escape the humidity for more comfortable climes– at least for a few months.
While this is nowhere near a reality it’s ok for a guy to dream and plot just a little.
When I mention this to friends they say why don’t you just travel and visit different places? But while that’s definitely in the cards, I know in my bones that what I really want is a second home in a place where I care about happens.
Yes, place matters to me. Very much.
So when we travel I often think about what it would be like to live where we visit.
I adore St. Augustine. Would I be happy there?

It’s only four or so hours away, the beaches are beautiful, Jacksonville is close by and the history is amazing.
When we visited Portsmouth, New Hampshire I gobbled up every real estate publication. I thought the downtown was charming, alive and interesting. I loved it.
Asheville’s beauty, craft beer scene and live music is awfully appealing and Maine..well Maine defies description. I just felt happy there. Can’t explain it, but New England is just so comfortable. Like a favorite pair of jeans.
Closer to home I’m passionately in love with downtown Delray. I just love the rhythm, the scale, the energy and the sidewalk cafes. Pineapple Grove is a great street and the nooks and crannies off of Second Avenue are so appealing. Banker’s Row–gorgeous. Third Avenue and Third Street, gritty and cool.
Federal Highway looks and feels great.
In Boca, I enjoy Mizner Park.

Mizner is 25 years old this year and it gets better with age–sure its a “lifestyle center” but it’s a fun place to be. It just is.
Camino Real is a remarkable street and Old Floresta is just beautiful.
Places matter. They feed our soul, impact our mood and can make us think. The best places feel like home, they are warm and inviting. Shelter from the storm, so to speak.
It feels good to be home.

Whenever I’m inside the Crest Theater it just feels good. Memories abound. Same thing when I visit Lake Ida Park and watch the birds. Every great dog I’ve ever had has enjoyed that park so when I visit they are with me. And it feels right.
Yes, place matters. A whole lot.

21 March, 2016 3 3 Comments

Greetings from Delray Beach, Fla

March 21, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 3 Comments

We live in a place where people like to vacation.
That’s far from a revelation, but sometimes I think we forget about that.

We live in a place so nice that others come here to spend their precious time off.
They are here now. It’s Spring Break and you can see families downtown and at the beaches.

We have a short season, a few hectic months where our streets become crowded. A few hectic months–maybe four–where it becomes a little harder to get a seat in a favorite restaurant or a parking spot. But not that hard if we’re honest.

A lot of people worked for a long time to bring traffic to our sidewalks and Main Street. It sure beats the alternative.

If you want to “fix” or eliminate traffic the answer is simple: create a place where nobody wants to go.
We chose the opposite path and we succeeded. Isn’t it marvelous? We live in a place where people vacation.

Those crowds some of us lament actually support a bunch of small businesses we love and jobs that are valuable to those who have them. It’s a small price to pay.
In the past few weeks, we have been fortunate to host friends and family visiting from other locales. All of them marveled at where we live. They love the beaches and the culture, the downtown and the restaurants. They envy the weather and the sheer amount of things to do–festivals included.
As locals we are lucky. We get to live here year round. April is around the corner. It will begin to slow down–just a little.
But isn’t this place just great?

A teacher of mine once said ‘appreciate what you have and you’ll always be happy but if you focus on what you don’t you will be miserable’.

He was right.
Words to live by. Gratitude and appreciation.

9 March, 2016 3 3 Comments

A Congress That Actually Works: Possible in Delray

March 9, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 3 Comments

Building a sustainable place is not a zero sum game.

It’s not a choice between neighborhoods or your downtown or between focusing on residents or business. You can and should focus on it all. It’s a lot of work but it can be done. Check that it must be done.

Cities are complicated places. There are threads that can create magic if knit together and there can be danger when you mess with success—especially if you don’t know how cities work or have any regard for the principles that produced results.

I watched with great pride as a task force I chaired gave a brilliant presentation to the Delray City Commission on a new future we’ve envisioned for the Congress Avenue corridor. (For the record Mayor Glickstein I didn’t “bail” on the task force, I did my job and stepped aside for the presentation so key contributors could shine. It’s called leadership. I’ll get you a copy of my book).

The presentation was led by Anuj Grover, who made a major investment on the corridor by purchasing and reinvigorating with his partner Mark Corlew, the former Arbors Buildings on Congress south of Linton Boulevard.

Joan Goodrich, the city’s economic development director, was the key city staffer who marshaled a lot of resources and did a fine job collating the task force’s 9 months of work into a 309-page report, with a 16 page executive summary. The report should be available on the city’s website: www.mydelraybeach.com.

Veteran commercial real estate professional Christina Morrison who works and sells the neighborhood every day and Abbey Delray resident Shirl Fields also contributed to the presentation giving their perspectives on what is needed and what it will take to make Congress “Delray’s next great street.”

I was pleased to see universal acknowledgement of the task force’s excellent work. Some commissioners expressed surprise—but they shouldn’t have been. We know how to do this kind of work in Delray; it’s why we have Delray. It’s in our civic DNA.

I read an interesting stat in a Sun Sentinel editorial endorsement in the Boynton Beach Mayoral race: despite being a slightly larger city in terms of population, Boynton Beach’s assessed value is half of Delray’s. The editorial attributed that gap to superior leadership in Delray over the years and while I would agree, I would broaden the definition of leadership to include excellent work by city staff, the CRA (best in the state) and our public safety departments which made it safe for people to invest. At our best, we are civic entrepreneurs. Craft a vision, let the staff innovate and watch places transform.

As task force chairman, it was gratifying to see the work of over 30 volunteers receive recognition from the dais. It’s also important that elected officials do so—because their words matter. They can inspire or they can deflate. They can stoke optimism and achievement or they quell progress by being pessimistic.

In that regard and in others, elected officials have a lot of power. Power to make lasting progress or power to kill momentum. By definition, you cannot be a pessimistic leader.

The task force believes in its work. They believe in the vision and if empowered they will make things happen and be evangelists for positive change. I saw it happen with the Downtown Master Plan, Pineapple Grove Main Street, Visions 2000, Visions 2005 and many other efforts large and small that have created billions in value and a quality of life that is pretty good compared to most cities in America.

But I would respectfully caution about breaking a cardinal rule of how cities work and that is declaring that you are done or finished. If you understand anything about cities or about downtowns, you must understand that you are never done and you don’t want to be. Emphasis may shift elsewhere, priorities and dollars too, but you can never declare victory or get complacent. You also have to implement—relentlessly.

Downtown Delray Beach is a great place, not a perfect place and not without flaws but a pretty good downtown nonetheless. But we never ever envisioned stopping with food and beverage. In order to be sustainable and in order for Congress Avenue to work, we need downtown Delray to thrive and continue to build Delray’s brand. The downtown needs office and employment to complete the picture and keep the heart healthy. If we create a sense of place along Congress, we will leverage downtown’s strength and progress will happen quickly. The task force understands that and if given resources magic will happen. Once more.

7 March, 2016 10 10 Comments

Delray’s Next Great Street

March 7, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 10 Comments

Delray’s Saltwater Brewery is the type of anchor that creates a sense of place.

Tomorrow night, the Delray Beach City Commission will hear a presentation from a 30 plus member Task Force that spent the last year studying ways to rejuvenate the 4.1 mile Congress Avenue corridor.

I was privileged to serve as the Task Force chairman. It was a gratifying experience to see a large group come together and forge a vision.

The issue is personal to me and many others. It’s a continuation of an effort to get something going on Congress Avenue that dates back a decade to when a commission I served on rezoned and re-imagined the corridor in the wake of an announcement by Office Depot that they were abandoning their Delray Beach headquarters for new digs in Boca Raton.

As I told Lois Solomon of the Sun Sentinel last week https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/delray-beach/fl-delray-congress-avenue-20160303-story.html that’s a call a mayor never wants to get.

But we decided back then to make lemonade out of lemons and worked with the Florida Public Officials Design Institute at FAU to craft a plan for a large portion of the corridor. We moved forward and created a zoning district called MROC, which allowed for a mix of uses, greater densities, the maintaining of light industry and the addition of food, beverage, retail, office and a trolley system to connect workers on the Congress corridor to our downtown.

We were termed out, the Great recession hit and before you knew it a decade passed. This effort is aimed to kick start, update, refine and improve on the vision and subsequent efforts. And thanks to a talented, hardworking and devoted task force with a vast array of skill and experience we think we have something special.

The big ideas are “complete streets”, placemaking, millennial housing, entrepreneurial hubs, connectivity to the downtown, transit oriented development (to take advantage of a nearby Tri Rail station), open space, public art, expedited permitting and brand building to re-position Congress as “Delray’s next great street.”

Delray has a rich history of making key strategic investments in streetscapes that then transform neighborhoods and create value while attracting significant private investment that ends up far outweighing the public’s initial stake. We believe, once the city commits and sends a message that they are serious about attracting investment that the private sector will respond.

Local examples include:

East Atlantic Avenue—a beautification project in the 90s funded by the Decade of Excellence bond spurred the initial revitalization of the central business district. This investment, followed by the 2001 Downtown Master Plan, created one of the finest downtowns in Florida, if not America.

West Atlantic Avenue-The Downtown Master Plan and the CRA’s colossal and ongoing investment and long term focus on the gateway is beginning to bear fruit with projects such as Atlantic Grove, Uptown, the new Fairfield Inn and small business growth on NW/SW 5^th Avenue.

US 1—Another result of the Downtown Master Plan which only recently was completed. The beautification and narrowing of US 1 has converted a tired, high speed, unsafe highway into a neighborhood that is aesthetically pleasing with high property values and intriguing business and residential opportunities.

Pineapple Grove—An early 2000s beautification project that was jointly funded by the city, CRA and property owners, Second Avenue has become a beautiful street alive with restaurants, a growing services industry, an emerging fashion industry, food, art and residential uses. The highlight of the street prior was an old tire store and a self-serve car wash.

We believe a similar effort/investment along Congress will yield results in terms of vibrancy, private sector investment, quality of life, tax base, jobs and a sense of place.

In order for cities to be truly successful and to generate the tax base and economic activity needed to

be sustainable, they need multiple districts to perform well.

Delray Beach has been highly successful transforming its downtown into a nationally renowned

destination. The city has also done tremendous work in several neighborhoods and commercial

districts.

But in many ways, Congress Avenue remains the key piece to long term success.

Congress Avenue’s potential for job creation, increased tax base, business incubation, workforce and affordable housing, transit-oriented development and place making should make the 4.1 mile corridor a top priority for public and private sector investment and attention.

The Task Force believes the corridor is a natural complement to the city’s celebrated downtown and in many ways we see a synergistic relationship between our urban core and what we hope will be a dynamic and successful corridor.

Delray Beach has proven time and again, that place making investments yield tangible and intangible returns.

Here’s hoping Congress Avenue becomes the next success story. Our next great street.

8 February, 2016 0 Comments

On Doc’s, Real Estate & The Importance of Libraries

February 8, 2016 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

Random thoughts on Disparate Subjects…

Real estate prices in Delray Beach and Boca Raton can be mind boggling.
We’ve all seen the headlines regarding Doc’s, the Sundy House, the Green Owl and Huber’s Drugs.
Big prices. Huge bets being made by deep pocketed people.
These are iconic properties and as such important.
Change is also important and inevitable but it’s also critical that a city hold onto to its history, it’s look and it’s feel.
While I cannot begrudge property owners for selling their land for big prices I think there are two concerns that cities can address–they’re not easy challenges and the solutions are imperfect but worth considering.

Those concerns are affordability and design.
Maintaining affordability in a sizzling market is not easy–market forces are strong and difficult to buck. But there are some strategies cities can deploy to ensure that mom and pop merchants can remain viable.
On the residential front tools such as density bonuses can be used to ensure at least some affordability.
Delray has also done yeoman’s work by creating and supporting a very effective Community Land Trust in which a non-profit entity buys land, develops property and places the land in a trust to ensure affordability in perpetuity. Homeowners own the homes but the land remains in the trust and increases in values are capped.
One wonders whether a similar approach can be taken to commercial property–an expensive proposition no doubt but it might be something to explore for culturally important properties.
Other tools include historic designations which would not cap appreciation of values but would control what can happen to a property if it is bought and redeveloped. If properties are not already designated historic, property owners often balk at seeking the designation because it hinders development. This is not a phenomenon limited to developers, we’ve seen single family neighborhoods rebel when the historic word is used.
I always felt CRA’s could be used to strategically acquire properties so that the city can control their disposition.
While there are some constraints and limitations (including the Sunshine law which makes it hard for CRA’s to move on land discreetly) there’s no doubt that CRA’s can and have bought important properties enabling cities to shape the future look, feel and use of land and districts.
I think an opportunity was missed to purchase the warehouses in the Artist’s Alley neighborhood. If the CRA had grabbed that strategic real estate to go along with their wise purchase of the Arts Warehouse there’s no doubt we could have had a sustainable arts district–our version of Wynwood which could have been placed in a trust and managed by another entity.
Instead, the battle between community desires and market forces will persist and we all know the win loss record on that front isn’t good. Delray’s track record is actually better than most cities in this regard as a result of visioning efforts and CRA investments. When you own properties you can control their destiny. The City Commission would be wise to tighten their relationship with the CRA, get on the same page and work together on these types of initiatives.
The other tools available to cities worried about gentrification are to develop design guidelines to stop or mitigate generic architecture and to encourage the development of other shopping districts so that as areas heat up, independents have a place to go.
Delray’s brave decision to narrow Federal Highway has converted that stretch from a highway to a neighborhood street opening up commercial possibilities. South of the avenue and other nooks and crannies may also offer opportunities now that Atlantic Avenue and Pineapple Grove’s prices have soared. Of course, with prices exceeding $1 million on acre on US 1 it won’t be easy.

Libraries are cool
We had an opportunity to attend the 10th annual Laughs With the Library event at the Marriott featuring the terrific Bobby Collins.
If you haven’t seen Bobby perform, put it on your bucket list. He’s a comedian’s comedian.
A large crowd turned out to support our library. That was heartening to see.
Lots of rumors are swirling around the library including making it a city department. That would be a mistake.
The Delray Library has a rich history and it’s location is ideal to serve the community. It also happens to be a beautiful place.
Is there a place for a library in the 21st Century? Yes, as a community hub, intellectual center, lifelong learning facility and a place for children and families to develop and indulge a love of books and reading. That’ll never go out of style.

Real estate buzz at Lynn

A few weeks ago, Lynn University President Kevin Ross convened a round table to discuss the creation of a real estate program at Lynn.
I was privileged to attend the small gathering and encouraged to start spreading the word. So I will. Gladly.
I’m a huge Lynn fan and a big admirer of Dr. Ross who is entrepreneurial and innovative. He’s a leader. And I like leaders.
The idea is not fully hatched yet but there’s a resolve and a commitment to create a boot camp program to teach skills to those passionate about real estate.
Executives from GL Homes, Kayne Anderson, Avison Young are at the table and there is a huge need to train people in all aspects of the profession.
Since growth and development are always at the top of the list in Boca and Delray it’s important to train a new generation in skills ranging from design, transaction, land use, resiliency, environmental sustainability, urban planning and more.
There’s also a screaming need to elevate the dialogue around these issues. Here’s predicting that Lynn will lead the way.

4 February, 2016 7 7 Comments

Mysteries Revealed: The Gateway

February 4, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 7 Comments

Unifying east and west

Editor’s Note: An occasional series in which we go beyond the headlines to provide some needed institutional memory.

Today’s mystery: the origins of the “gateway feature”

Way back in 2000-01, a group of concerned citizens met to discuss the future of downtown Delray Beach.

The goal was to create a Downtown Master Plan—which sounds sinister but really was nothing more than an open process to forge a common vision for how to support a sustainable year-round downtown.

Countless meetings were held. Experts were hired. Data was generated and then shared in an effort to build on work that was done in the 80s and 90s by visionary citizens, city planners and elected officials. While it was a fun process, the Master Plan was conceived in the wake of a bitter debate.

In 1998-99, the city went through a bruising battle over a project called “Worthing Place.” The CRA had aggregated land downtown in what was known as Block 77. Developers were invited to present concepts and a local team was chosen to build condos with ground floor retail or restaurant space. The project was six stories tall—60 feet, the city’s maximum height. And it was 93 units to the acre.

The developers promised to build parking for the project and a separate public parking garage on First Avenue, which would later be named the “Federspiel Garage” after a beloved local attorney—Bob Federspiel– who had died tragically in an accident in North Carolina.

The Worthing Place project led to years of expensive lawsuits, with the city prevailing each time. But what was supposed to be the first downtown mixed-use housing project had actually ended up being among the last built thanks to the delays caused by litigation. The “for sale” condos became high end rentals. Today, when I show visitors the project and tell them the story about how divisive the battle was, they can hardly believe me. Worthing Place has become a valuable residential property and its businesses including Salt 7, a charming market and the wonderful Park Tavern have become local hot spots creating lots of jobs. Opponents feared traffic and said the building would resemble a tenement filled with raucous residents. They were mistaken.

The Master Plan process was designed to avoid future feuds over downtown development. We were a tad naïve I suppose. But the process was inclusive and included lots of opportunities for the community to learn about urban design, how traffic behaves in a downtown and what we would need in terms of uses and densities in order to create a sustainable and complete downtown.

Our major funder for the plan was the wonderful MacArthur Foundation, which at the time was very prominent in Palm Beach County. The foundation was active in our northwest and southwest neighborhoods which around that time were also heavily involved in a master planning/visioning process.

It was decided that it made sense to develop synergies between the various planning efforts and one of the earliest and most important decisions we made was to include the West Atlantic gateway and streets to the north and south as part of our Downtown Master Plan.

This was an historic; some might say landmark decision, to redefine the geography of our downtown to extend from I-95 to the ocean. Historically, and rhetorically when we referred to downtown Delray it was always East Atlantic Avenue—from Swinton to A1A. As a result of the master plan, downtown’s borders would expand and we would try to erase the Swinton dividing line; a major goal of race relations which was a front burner effort at the time.

Once the decision was made to expand the downtown to the Interstate, we (the hundreds and hundreds of citizens who participated) decided that we needed to make a design statement to signal to visitors and residents alike that when they exited I-95 they were entering a very special place—downtown Delray Beach.

That’s an important distinction to make. And it needs to be said. Because over the years, the bean counters have failed to grasp that important nuance. We. Wanted. To. Make. A. Statement.

We thought it was important to do so. We thought it would change the look, feel and brand of our downtown gateway and I think it has. We also wanted to unify the east and the west.

Great cities and great businesses don’t become great by accident or because they declare themselves so. There’s a moment—or a series of moments—when communities say “go”. Let’s go for it. Let’s be special. Let’s be different. Let’s be great. And then they plan, strategize and execute. That’s what happened in Delray Beach and what hasn’t happened in so many cities. They never say go…instead they waffle, they wring their hands, they hedge or they simply pronounce but lose the courage to follow through. And make no mistake, it takes courage to follow through. There’s always opposition, always controversy and obstacles to overcome.

Delray made a decision to “go” way back in 1984 when Mayor Doak Campbell formed the Atlantic Avenue Task Force, they doubled down on that decision with Visions 2000, Visions 2005 and the Downtown Master Plan.

Now back to our story…

After trotting out various design schemes, including a building in the median (which was rejected by the Department of Transportation), it was decided to move ahead with a large public art installation to be mostly paid for by the CRA. Total cost: about $1.2 million, with about $980,000 coming from the CRA and the rest from a state grant.

A team of residents and city staff worked with an artist (Michelle Newman) and eventually a design was chosen.

But the project didn’t happen right away. A lot of other stuff did—like the beautification of Northwest/ Southwest Fifth Avenue, the addition of paver bricks, decorative lighting and landscaping from Swinton to 95 and more–about $60 million invested on the West Atlantic corridor from 2000 forward by our CRA.

Still, the gateway came a little later but only after the CRA and citizens went back to commissioners to make sure they were still OK with the project. They were repeatedly assured that the gateway project was an important one and so it was built.

You may like it (I do) or you may loathe it. That’s what happens with art…I remember when the Public Arts Advisory Board commissioned a large piece on South Federal Highway and people went ballistic. I’m talking about the red noodle like sculpture near Knowles Park. I think it’s Ok, others don’t like it. Art is meant to be discussed and that piece certainly sparked conversation.

But the larger point is, the gateway is a statement. It says welcome to downtown Delray and it also says that this city is willing to invest west of Swinton which it has, largely through the unsung efforts of its CRA in partnership with neighborhoods and groups such as WARC. And largely as a result of the master plan, West Atlantic visioning, the Southwest Plan and the West Settler’s Historic District initiative we are beginning to see returns on that investment in the form of private development and new businesses. This is how it works, folks. Cities say “go” and execute and investors know its safe to make bets on your town.

Are more sidewalks needed? Certainly. Nobody is arguing that point. But come on, look around and take some time to enjoy the investment that has been made—plazas, a water park, a library, Spady Museum and yes a gateway feature.

Great cities—and Delray Beach is a great city—invest and reinvest in themselves. The return on that investment is quality of life, quality of place, quality of community and the spurring of private investment, which the West Atlantic corridor is getting (Atlantic Grove, Fairfield Inn, the Equity Project).

So when I see a suit stand up and take political pot shots at the gateway and moan about how poor and broke we are ($30 million plus in reserves, double digit property value increases, at least a half billion in investment dying to come here) I chuckle. As my beloved late mom used to say “we should all be that broke.”

If only we didn’t spend on the gateway…

If only we didn’t have a library…

If only we didn’t build that tennis stadium and try to put something in the place…

If only we didn’t have our own fire department…

If only we didn’t have an Arts Garage or festivals or an Old School Square or a CRA.

If only we would just pick up the trash and make sure the toilets flush—then our “problems” would be solved but we wouldn’t be Delray would we?

No, we would not.

21 January, 2016 1 Comment

On Teaching, Walkability & The Future

January 21, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 1 Comment

Streets like this one in Denver, just feel good.

I’ve always had a desire to teach.

I think it correlates with a strong yearning to learn.

My early career was in the newspaper field, where your job boils down to learning about subjects and then sharing (reporting) what you’ve learned with your readers.

Working at a community newspaper is a dream job—if you discount the long hours, low wages and dim prospects for the future. As a young man I did—because the job itself is fascinating.

You get to write. You get to satisfy your curiosity by researching things you’re interested in. You to get meet interesting people and cover fascinating subjects; no two days are the same.

I’ve always liked the excitement of deadlines, it focuses you and you have to produce, which is a cool way to work. When everybody around you is on a similar deadline, there’s an energy in the room that is hard to describe.

I would imagine that teaching has a similar adrenaline rush. If you’re in the flow and connecting with your audience there’s just nothing like it. My daughter is a brand new teacher in Tampa—I plan to talk to her about what she feels when she’s working with students.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that when a friend called and asked if I would speak to his urban planning class at FAU—I jumped at the chance.

Still, it’s nerve wracking to walk into a room full of strangers; most especially young people who are beginning to look even younger to me with every passing year.

Can you connect? Can you relate? Do I have anything to teach them? And what can I learn from all these young minds?

We talked about how cities evolve and transform– one of my favorite subjects.

I love to tell the Delray story, because I think we are a good case study and that past leaders and city staff used sound strategies for over 20 years to achieve success. Success, not perfection.

For example, we went from 35 percent vacancy and little going on downtown in the 80s to a glowing feature story in the Wall Street Journal last week.

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/a-sunny-escape-3-perfect-days-in-delray-beach-florida-1452796534-lMyQjAxMTE2NzExNjIxMzY0Wj

We talked a lot about Boca too.

But the best part is to hear from future planners, urban designers, developers and architects.

What do they see? What do they expect and want from cities? Here’s a few takeaways from an admittedly small sample, but the sentiments seem to match surveys I’ve seen.

Affordability—not just in housing but also reasonable costs for food and entertainment.

Mobility—The young aren’t car centric. Study after study show that millennials are delaying getting driver’s licenses, don’t feel a strong desire to own a car and appreciate and seek out walkable environments. They also believe in services such as Uber and Lyft and understand that driverless cars will change our urban environments.

Environmentally Sensitive and Realistic—They know that Florida is a popular place and that even if “they want their own slice of heaven” i.e. a suburban home on ½ acre they know sprawl is bad for the environment and that we may need to grow vertically rather than sprawl to accommodate a growing populace.

Design Savvy—My small sample of future urban professionals were keen on good architecture and design. They appreciate art and culture, good looking buildings and a mix of uses.

They also talked about wanting their cities to be safe, diverse and chock full of amenities.

A few of the students have been interning in Delray. I hope that many end up staying here after they graduate FAU.

As for me, I kind of wish I was 20-something again, so I can experience it all again. The future is exciting indeed.

14 January, 2016 5 5 Comments

The Big Short

January 14, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 5 Comments

Lessons for us all

We finally got around to seeing The Big Short.
It was not only a great movie: entertaining, funny in spots, creatively directed and wonderfully written, it’s an important movie as well.
When the credits rolled the movie hit you with stats about the damage the housing collapse took on America–$5 trillion in wealth erased, 8 million jobs lost, pensions and 401k plans devastated, families losing homes etc. It was gut wrenching to read and we in Florida lived it. We got hit and hit hard.

As the stats wash over you, Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” blasts out of the speakers. A perfect song for a movie that essentially indicted our financial markets, banks, regulators and government as a giant fraud.
For a comedy, we left the theater feeling pretty lousy. Like the movie “Spotlight”– which chronicled sexual abuse in the church– you felt like screaming and crying. Yes, The Big Short is quite a movie.
Parts of the movie talked about how the housing crisis impacted South Florida with a few characters venturing down south to see first hand some of the craziness we all experienced as a result of wild price increases and rampant speculation.
It’s a must see.
The world economy crashed and the results were devastating. In our community, we witnessed foreclosures and economic pain.
Not much changed though.

The banks were bailed out and many executives took the taxpayer money and gave themselves bonuses. Financial “reforms” enacted by Congress were flawed and then whittled away by lobbyists armed with special interest money. Exactly one banker went to jail. One.

But even if the movie surmises that we learned nothing from the experience, what are some of the lessons? And how can we protect ourselves and our communities from these devastating economic events fueled by fraud and foolishness?

2016 is certainly off to a strange start. Many of the assumptions we have based trillions of dollars of investments on seem to be questionable. Examples: China has an inexhaustible appetite for natural resources, home prices never go down, Saudi Arabia will never let the price of oil crash, Eurozone countries will never default on their debt.

As an optimist, I hate to be doom and gloom.

But my dad taught me a lesson in life and in business. It was a lesson I was very conscious of during my days as a policymaker in Delray Beach. He said every day–even when things were going well–you should wake up just a little bit scared. He warned against complacency and smugness. Even if you were succeeding, never take your eye off the ball.

If we apply that thinking to Delray Beach and Boca Raton, it means that we can feel good about what has been achieved: vibrant commercial centers, rising property values, wonderful and diverse amenities, culture, art, events, strong recreational opportunities, parks, beaches, tourism, good hospitals etc.

But we should never declare victory and take our eyes off the ball.

The housing crash resulted from a myriad of fraudulent beliefs and irrational behavior. But smart communities seek to become as resilient as possible. So you dig in and work hard to improve schools, create jobs, fight crime and blight and develop amenities that create value. You support assets like Old School Square and the Boca Museum, you bring the Festival of the Arts to Mizner Park and you work hard to land corporate headquarters and new investment. It does not mean you sacrifice standards or allow unfettered poor quality development, but it does mean you develop a vision and you have the political will to get things done.

Value creation is your primary responsibility as a policymaker–it helps you endure the inevitable downturns and fraud we experience in a turbulent and unpredictable world.

While we suffered real and enduring pain during the great recession, Boca survived and downtown Delray Beach weathered the storm without major vacancies. In fact, sales data from the Florida Department of Revenue said sales grew and far outpaced neighboring communities during the crisis. The central business district survived because it was well-planned, the vision was sound, the value created was real. When it’s real, you’re the last to suffer and the first to recover.

It’s an election year, go see the movie. It’s a good one.

16 December, 2015 1 Comment

The Attraction of Walkability

December 16, 2015 By Jeff Perlman 1 Comment

There was a great article posted recently in the Huffington Post by noted urbanist Kaid Benfield.

The article talked about the increasing desire of home buyers and renters who want to live in walkable neighborhoods near urban amenities.

But Benfield, who interviewed several real estate brokers lamented that in many communities, there simply wasn’t enough product to meet the demand and more worrisome is that many cities fight policies that would promote more walkable neighborhoods. They really shouldn’t.

If you think that a desire to live where you can walk to stores, offices, services, restaurants and cultural amenities is going away—guess again.

Millennials prefer urban amenities more than their predecessors: 50 percent consider it “very important” to be within an easy walk of places “such as shops, cafes and restaurants,” according to the results of a nationwide survey released earlier this year by the National Association of Realtors and Portland State University. Among baby boomers, the portion considering walkability to be very important is 38 percent.

According to Benfield: “Earlier survey research has found that 31 percent of millennials want to live in a core city, as opposed to only 15 percent of baby boomers and 18 percent of generation X. (Forty-two percent of millennials prefer living in a suburb, and 25 percent prefer living in a small town or rural setting.) But, even if they want to live in a suburb, most millennials still want walkability; 71 percent of all millennials reportedly want their home neighborhood to be walkable. Moreover, seventy-eight percent are looking for diversity; this is a generation that grew up with more diversity than its predecessors and has come to expect it where they live, in housing types and in the incomes and ethnicity of their neighbors.

It’s not just millennials who are driving demand for walkable neighborhoods, of course. In addition, a large number of baby boomers – the second largest generation in American history – are seeking new places to live as they downsize, and many of them, too, want to be able to walk to shops and amenities.”

Writing in the Washington Post reporter Ylan Q. Mui put it this way: “Roughly 10,000 baby boomers are retiring each day, and recent data show that half of those who plan to move will downsize when they do. Many are seeking the type of urban living that typically has been associated with young college graduates — so much so that boomers are renting apartments and buying condos at more than twice the rate of their millennial children.”

So what is a walkable neighborhood? Benfield says it has three characteristics:

Well-connected streets: The smaller the block size, and the more intersections, the better. This makes potential travel routes shorter, more direct, and frequently safer, since well-connected neighborhood streets can provide quieter alternatives to walking along high-speed arterial roads
Things to walk to: Simply put, people walk more when they have places they want to go within walking distance. Research has also shown that people who live in neighborhoods where homes are accessible to shopping walk more and actually weigh less, on average, than residents of automobile-dependent neighborhoods, even when other potentially relevant factors such as age, income, and ethnicity are discounted in the analysis.
Good infrastructure for safe walking: Sidewalks are important, as well as safe street crossings and nearby motor vehicle traffic moving at nonthreatening speeds.

Sadly, Benfield says these types of neighborhoods are scarce, mostly found in inner cities and there are not enough of them being built to meet demand.

Benfield recommends using form based codes and LEED for Neighborhood Development to foster walkable neighborhoods.

Form based codes de-emphasize the regulation of building uses and focus instead on the size and positioning of buildings and their physical relationship to each other and to public spaces such as streets and sidewalks. As the Form-Based Codes Institute puts it, building form standards regulate things such as “how far buildings are from sidewalks, how much window area at minimum a building must have, how tall it is in relation to the width of the street, how accessible and welcoming front entrances are, and where a building’s parking goes.”

The idea is to create rather than inhibit a walk-friendly environment. A Form Based Code is less concerned with separating uses and shies away from prescriptive rules in favor of a how a neighborhood should look and feel. Delray Beach’s Downtown Master Plan came close to this ideal, but the most recent effort to update the downtown land development regulations—while originally sold as a form based effort—actually took a step back by becoming more prescriptive. Its failings were painfully evident when a new Aloft Hotel on US 1 proposed a 600 foot wall (two football fields) and it fell within the new code. A form based code would have prevented that scenario; unless of course you hoped to design a canyon.

LEED ND establishes criteria for development that prioritizes things like access to shops and services, streets and sidewalks that interface with buildings to create a comfortable walking environment, transit access, efficient use of land, affordable housing, and environmentally sensitive building practices. Planned or built development meeting the system’s set of prerequisites and optional credits are “rated” and, if they qualify, rewarded with certification at the certified, silver, gold, or platinum level.

While scores of cities are using form based codes and LEED ND, there are many, many others that are not despite the market demand for walkable neighborhoods.

According to the Land Use Law Center, there are about 40,000 local governments and most have at least a few polices that serve as barriers to walkability.

Clearly, there is a lot of work to do, but an amazing market opportunity for cities and developers to identify neighborhoods where walkable communities can be created.

So where do we stand? Well, downtown Delray Beach is a “walker’s paradise” with a Walk Score of 91 on a scale of 1-100.

Overall, the city as a whole rates a 36, which means that if you live outside the downtown you are car dependent.

Boca Raton also scores a 36 overall, according to Walk Score.com. Boca’s most walkable neighborhood is the Villa Rica apartments, which scores a 64 meaning residents of this eastern neighborhoods can access four restaurants within five minutes on foot.

We can do better.

7 December, 2015 0 Comments

#Motivation Monday: Quotes That Make You Think

December 7, 2015 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

At YourDelrayBoca.com, we love quotes. Here’s a few we hope you’ll enjoy with some limited commentary.

“People make cities, and it is to them, not buildings that we must fit our plans.” – Jane Jacobs

“Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how.” – Edward T. McMahon, the ULI Fellow not the Prize Patrol guy.

“I have affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who would have embraced community policing.

“What is the city but the people? “- William Shakespeare

“He who tells the truth must have one foot in the stirrup.” – Old Armenian proverb

“A leader is someone who cares enough to tell the people not merely what they want to hear, but what they need to know.” – Reubin Askew. We met Gov. Askew once, he was so very impressive.

“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” – Yogi Berra not, we repeat not, referring to Atlantic Avenue.

“How is a village a village? By including young & old, white & black, rich & poor, churches & shops.” – Anonymous.

“How many of you here think housing should be more affordable? (almost all hands rise) OK, now how many of those own your own home?’ (most of the same hands stay up) OK. How many of you want the value of your own home to go down? (lots of blank looks, and hands creeping down) You see the problem?” – Anonymous

“NIMBY reactionaries don’t stop change in the long run. They simply help to insure that it happens in the worst possible way.” – David Brain. Note his last name.

“The second shortest code in the world: Diverse, walkable and compact.”—Peter Calthorpe

“Anyplace worth its salt has a ‘parking problem’- James Castle. You’d rather have one, than not.

“Increasingly, we live in a world where cities compete for people, and businesses follow. This trend has largely been ignored by many cities, which are still focused on business climate and tax incentives. But I think the big question businesses will ask in the years to come is going to be ‘Can I hire talented people in this city?’ Cities need to be able to answer ‘yes’ to succeed.” -Carol Coletta. Carol worked on the Delray Cultural Plan. She’s amazing.

“Parking is a narcotic and ought to be a controlled substance. It is addictive, and one can never have enough.” –Victor Dover. Mr. Dover is a fan of Delray Beach. We are a fan of his work.

“The problem with planning is that it has been overtaken by mathematical models… traffic, density, impact assessment, public costs etc. discarding common sense and empirical observation.”—Andres Duany.

“I’ve always described Density in terms of dollars: The more you have of it, the more you can buy with it — referring to amenities, of course (cultural, entertainment, dining, etc.). When I get asked what’s the single most important thing that can be added to a city to help revitalize it (they are always waiting for the latest retail or entertainment thing…), I always say housing. “ Seth Harry.

“If buildings are beautiful, higher density compounds that beauty. Conversely, if buildings are ugly, then higher density compounds that ugliness.” – Vince Graham

“What kills a city are people who want only low taxes, only want a good deal and only want cities to be about . . . pipes, pavement and policing. “ Glenn Murray. It’s all about design, not numbers.

“You can measure the health of a city by the vitality and energy of its streets and public spaces.” – Holly Whyte.

“The opposite to bad development is good development, not no development.” – Padriac Steinschneider.

“If you are an elected official lacking in courage and leadership, and you face even a peep of opposition to a project, fall back on perfectionism to find a flaws so that you can shoot down the project. Perfectionism leads to paralysis.” Dom Nozzi. It also leads to disinvestment, a bad reputation, loss of jobs and lawsuits.