Palmetto may consider proposed housing development

The Palmetto City Commission on Monday may take another look at a seven-story-high, 150-unit residential building it approved last month.

Beneficial Communities has proposed a $37.5 million senior affordable housing development that would have less density than the project the commission approved Nov. 7 for the 700 block of Haben Boulevard. Beneficial’s project would be built on the same land.

Beneficial’s Ken Bowron Jr. will ask the commission to reconsider the prior approval and for a $37,500 contribution toward strengthening a tax credit application with the Florida Housing Finance Corp. Beneficial’s proposed project would include 90 three-story town homes and would need $15 million in tax credits to make the project financially viable.

Beneficial has been active in Manatee County with other tax credit projects that have yet to come to fruition. Only one tax credit project in Manatee County has been funded to date — the 72-unit Grand Palms senior housing development now under construction on 14th Street West in Bradenton.

Palmetto has yet to entertain projects relying on the complex tax credit process, but Bowron said that’s a good thing.

“I noticed there was no Florida Housing Finance funding in Palmetto,” Bowron said. “In looking at the need in the area, within a 4-square-mile radius of the property, there are over 5,000 income-qualified residents for this development.”

All of the units would be geared toward those seniors, 55 and up, who are making less than or up to 60 percent of the area’s median income, which in Manatee County is about $43,000 a year. Units would range in size from 800-950 square feet, and rents would be about from $400 to $750 a month.

“It’s a call to action for this type of housing need in the community,” Bowron said.

Maryland-based Riviera West LLC, with offices in Sarasota, owns the 6.28 acres on Haben Boulevard and received the Nov. 7 approval. The company purchased the acreage at the height of the housing market in 2006 for $4.2 million, but it is currently valued at $777,730. While Riviera West owns the property, ZNS Engineers’ Rachel Layton said the land and site plan are “currently being marketed.”

As part of the Nov. 7 approval, the commission added a stipulation that the site not include affordable housing. Bowron will need the commission to rescind that stipulation in order to advance Beneficial’s proposal.

Beneficial’s conceptual plan includes several amenities, from emergency push buttons, patios and balconies, a common area with kitchen, a fitness center, computer lab, pool, patio area, pond, walking trail and free classes to the residents in health, nutrition and finance.

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Palmetto may consider proposed housing development."