Emerging Neighborhoods: Pompano Beach

Pompano Beach is on the brink of a transformation decades in the making.

It’s a new day for the sleepy beach town as an Innovation District springs up beside its retirement communities, bringing trendy startups, hip restaurants and breweries along with it.

“The Pompano Beach Innovation District is one of the most exciting development opportunities in South Florida,” said Emily Marcus, a project manager with the Pompano Beach CRA. “The Innovation District already has anchors and assets including three major cultural facilities, a culinary and tech industry presence, proximity to the Pompano Beach Airport, and contiguous access to over 30 million square feet of industrial space.”

The neighborhood has been overlooked for years by developers. Now, it has community redevelopment agency-initiated plans sprouting on two sides of the city that would bring new residents, businesses and tourists to the area. Developers are taking notice, following up with their own project proposals in the city.

“We did our first vision study with [Florida Atlantic University] in ’98 or ’99 about that east side of I-95 that has now gone through all of the zoning changes for the Innovation District,” said David Hasenauer of The Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). “We’re finally at that point.”

The city’s Innovation District is within a 38-acre area that includes 15 acres owned by the CRA. Its zoning would allow 750,000 square feet of office space, 165,000 square feet of retail, 35,000 square feet of restaurants, 1,500 residential units, and two hotels with a combined 420 rooms.

Although plans for the District were 20 years in the making, construction officially kicked off last year with the groundbreaking of the City Vista project. It includes 111 apartments and 3,800 square foot of ground-floor commercial space at the northeast corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Northwest 6th Avenue, within walking distance of the Ali Cultural Arts Center, Bailey Contemporary Arts and the the Pompano Beach Cultural Center and Library.

Article credit South Florida Business Journal

Photo Credit : Visit Florida http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/pompano-beach.html