Page 25 - Magazine 1-winter 2017

Habitat Container Magazine Smart and Sustainable Habitats Winter 2017
Habitat Container Magazine November 1, 2017
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Greene said he is moving forward with his One West Palm office/hotel/condo towers at 550 Quadrille Blvd., a two-building, 30-story project that would include the city’s biggest Class A office tower.(Contributed).Those aren’t “micro-apartments.” But TBCG Capital Group’s five-building project on the west side of Northwood Village is planning some. The 3.5-acre tract dubbed the “anchor site” will also include offices, retail space, townhouses and apartments — including workforce housing. Whether Greene’s decision to cut bait is just a Jeff Greene thing or a competition thing, there’s no denying that the city’s and county’s issues with affordable housing for a burgeoning young white-collar workforce is at crisis levels. Not only can 75 percent of the county’s households not afford the median price of a single-family home, but rents north of $1,800 per month for a typical 1,100- square-foot, one-bedroom apartment have kept many young professionals from moving out of their parents’ homes. That’s why Greene’s decision, though understandable, is disappointing. Aggressive ideas like micro- apartments are needed if West Palm Beach and other local municipalities are going to make a dent in this burgeoning crisis. In fact, West Palm Beach has staked the future of its downtown on shelved projects like Greene’s, which had the added bonus of a pedestrian passageway on its east side, connecting Banyan to Clematis Street through the courtyard of popular Subculture Coffee. That 20-foot-wide strip of land currently dead-ends, preventing any connection between the boulevard and the popular entertainment street.