Riviera Beach soon expects to solicit ideas from developers on what they’d do with access to 80 acres in the heart of the city.
More than 100 developers and business officials crammed into a conference room at the city’s Marina Event Center on Wednesday, Jan. 24, to hear about the city’s long wish list, which includes a 150,000-square foot municipal complex with a new City Hall, a sports and recreation center with complimentary uses for Inlet Grove High School and mixed-use development with retail, business, education, hospitality and nighttime uses.
Rather than simply borrow to build those facilities, the city wants to partner with developers who would, in exchange for the right to build their own projects on city-owned land, construct the facilities for Riviera Beach.
It’s a novel approach that could lessen costs for a city with vast infrastructure needs, a limited tax base and only $55 million in borrowing capacity.
City Manager Jonathan Evans pitched that approach to those who in attendance Wednesday.