How tall is too tall? Residents balk at 14-story max at former Twin City Mall in North Palm

Maya Washburn, Palm Beach Post
·4 min read

NORTH PALM BEACH — Residents want the shortest buildings possible on the empty Twin City Mall site, but the developer said it’s too soon to make any promises.

The complex would be called Village Place. Its residential buildings could rise as tall as 14 stories and would replace the sandy, weed-infested vacant land at Northlake Boulevard and U.S. 1 where northern Palm Beach County’s first mall once stood until it was torn down in 1997.

Area residents who turned out for a meeting this past week said they were not happy with the towering prospect.

Palm Beach Gardens-based developer Nader Salour with Cypress Realty of Florida fielded complaints from many among the more than 100 people who gathered at the community center gym on Monday to see the conceptual plans.

Rendering shows concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.
Rendering shows concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.

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One resident asked who opposed the development and hands shot up all around the room.

Many said they worried about increased traffic with the additional residents the project would attract. Developers estimate the project could add 2,200 residents to the village.

The room erupted in applause after one neighbor said, “Give us some other plan, something smaller. We don’t want to be the City of North Palm Beach. We want to be the Village of North Palm Beach.”

Palm Beach Gardens-based developer Nader Salour fielded complaints from locals about his plans for the vacant Twin City Mall site on Monday, January 29, 2024, at the community center gym in North Palm Beach, Fla.
Palm Beach Gardens-based developer Nader Salour fielded complaints from locals about his plans for the vacant Twin City Mall site on Monday, January 29, 2024, at the community center gym in North Palm Beach, Fla.

The plans have the potential to pile 1.6 million square feet of building on 13 acres.

Salour said, if approved, the complex will take 10 years to build. He said he wants to find the right balance between building enough homes while still satisfying residents and the council.

He has not yet decided how tall the buildings would be.

“If we were to have six-story buildings, we can’t build parking under them because that would take away a lot of units,” Salour said. “We would have to build surface-structured parking separately, which will use up more of the land and give us less open space. It’s a balancing act we have to do.”

Blueprint shows concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.
Blueprint shows concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.

In 2022, the group that built the 2,055-acre Abacoa neighborhood in Jupiter paid $19 million for the property. A sea of parking spaces and 130,000 square feet of older commercial buildings stand there now.

The property sits within the boundaries of North Palm Beach and Lake Park, so the plan would need approvals from both municipalities.

Next, the developer will present the plans to both councils in hopes of gaining preliminary approval for the project’s concept.

Complex could have shops, apartments, senior living, hotel

Rendering shows concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.
Rendering shows concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.

Salour said the renderings represent architectural design and an idea of what could fit on the site.

He plans to assess what the market might support and adjust the project accordingly before his team submits site plans for approval. This will be a step-by-step process with presentations to council for each of the four parcels.

The possibilities include residential buildings with restaurants and retail on the first floors, a senior-living facility and a hotel. Parking would be under the buildings, with garages on the first two or three floors.

Salour envisions more than an acre of green space in the center of the property as a community gathering place for residents and visitors.

The 14-story buildings would be on the site’s interior, not along U.S. 1, Salour said. Other buildings could be up to nine stories tall.

Rendering shows aerial view of a concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.
Rendering shows aerial view of a concept for Village Place, a complex which could include residential buildings with shops and replace the vacant land where Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach once stood until it was torn down.

Karen Marcus, an interim North Palm Beach Village Council member and former Palm Beach County commissioner, said the project has “a long way to go” before it reaches council.

She hopes the developer will have more meetings with residents before then.

“What I heard last night is, ‘We don’t like the tall buildings,’ ” Marcus said. “I think the developer needs to do a better job of explaining that they're using the height to provide more public benefit. The residents need to decide how much public benefit they want.”

Customers enter the Publix located at the former site of the Twin City Mall, at the southwest corner of US 1 and Northlake Boulevard, in North Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, April 6, 2023.
Customers enter the Publix located at the former site of the Twin City Mall, at the southwest corner of US 1 and Northlake Boulevard, in North Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, April 6, 2023.

Marcus said the Twin City Mall was “the place to be” in its prime — where she used to go shopping and eat popcorn — so she wants a thoughtful development in its place.

“I’d like to see residential with some shops there,” said Marcus, a longtime North Palm Beach resident. “There was no discussion of workforce housing, but certainly everywhere needs it.”

She agrees with the residents who say 14 stories is too tall, but said she would have to review the trade-offs if the developer went shorter.

“No one seems to have an appetite for 14 stories,” Marcus said.

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: First peek at what could go up at former Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach