at the corner of Banks Road and Coconut Creek Parkway was approved
by the city commission. Now the lot sits vacant and overgrown as it awaits permits
from the County.
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Both City Manager Cale Curtis and architects for Marquesa,
the Palenzuela & Hevia Design Group, told us the project awaits permits from Broward
County. Architects couldn’t speak to a completion date for the project, but
Curtis said developers were asked to maintain the property per
city code while they wait.
A completion date is likely what developers sought long ago when they first brought the 220-unit apartment complex to Margate. After two site plan reviews by the City’s Development Review Committee
(DRC) in
June 2017 and March 2018 the 220-unit apartment
project was sent home for the third time for inconsistencies relating to
Margate’s Comprehensive Plan and Transit Oriented Corridor (TOC) mandates. A
fundamental concept of the TOC is mixed-use zoning; a land-use concept that
enables businesses and housing to coexist next to each other. Marquesa was all
housing, no commerce. The problem since has been rectified.
After sitting on the property during the pandemic,
developers got final approval by the DRC, the city’s Planning & Zoning
Board and the City Commission in 2022. The project is four stories high and
sits on eight acres a portion of which was an obsolete strip mall that since
has been demolished.
The multi-family project (concept drawing right) will feature
a pool, clubhouse, and parking, and will generate upwards of $968,000 in
property taxes—up from $121,000 now. The Margate Recreation Trust Fund benefits
with a payment of $440,000 or 5% of the appraised value of the project ($8.8
million) and so does the Margate Underground Utility Trust Fund for nearly
$400,000 because Marquesa opted to pay into the Fund instead of burying its
power lines.
The last action we can find on
record is an approval of a plat amendment for the project by the Broward County
Commission in November of last year.
In response to what looks like an
abandoned property, we suggested to City Manager Curtis that developers may
have walked off the property. He assured us that was not the case.
We have calls and emails into engineers
of record, SunTech, waiting for comment.
