Palmetto ready to create affordable housing

Palmetto’s Community Redevelopment Agency is acquiring property near Sutton Park that Director Jeff Burton said is ideal for a new mixed use development that would potentially launch the CRA into a role of landlord.

Palmetto officials on Monday authorized the CRA to purchase two parcels on the corner of 10th Avenue West and Eighth Street West that include one house and a city-owned parking lot for $148,000. The home and the parking lot will be demolished to make way for a two-story mixed use project with commercial on the ground floor and housing on the upper floor.

CRA intern Nicole Tremblay conducted a financial feasibility study of the proposed project.

“We are looking at 18 housing units with six units of commercial that could either be a restaurant or retail space,” Tremblay said. “It depends on the interest we get, but for the housing we will try to get some Florida Housing Finance Corporation development and technical grants. If we do, then that would mean 20 percent of the units would be classified as affordable housing.”

Whether that route is successful or not, Tremblay said, “All of the units will be mixed income and obtainable. We’d like to start this as quickly as possible because it’s kind of a pilot project that could set the tone for downtown redevelopment and revitalization.”

Burton said a portion of the parcel would be sold to the property’s neighbor, R Cubed Engineering, a drone production company, which in April of 2015 purchased the former schoolhouse used to educate veterans returning home from World War II. That building is currently under renovation.

The mixed use structure would be set back from 10th Avenue West in order to make room for the eventual expansion of the Florida Department of Transportation’s multi-modal trail through the city, as well as the city’s 10th Avenue Complete Street project. Both projects are scheduled for 2021.

“We are proposing a little plaza out front with possible outdoor seating, so it’s not going to be a zero front to 10th,” Burton said. “This would be owned and built by the CRA and would also fall in line with the city’s waterfront plan, which calls for mixed use projects in that area.”

The CRA has been looking to partner with the Palmetto Housing Authority, which receives no outside funding because it is not part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Burton has tried to launch the partnership where the CRA would own affordable rentals managed by the PHA, creating a revenue stream for both entities.

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Palmetto ready to create affordable housing."