Delray approves CityScape condo project

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Delray approves CityScape condo project By Dianna Smith Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 10, 2005 DELRAY BEACH - More housing is coming to Delray Beach. Not necessarily the affordable, workforce kind, but the kind that offers such perks as a pool, gym and barbecue area on a deck atop a three-story parking garage.  The development, called CityScape, will include 75 condominiums with prices beginning in the mid-$400,000s. Plans also include 21,000 square feet of retail space and a restaurant that Lennie Smith, vice president of operations for Porten Cos., hopes will attract people who already visit downtown Delray Beach for meals and entertainment. City officials tout Delray Beach as an urban downtown, a place where people can live and play. Developers such as Porten Cos. are attracted to Delray because the city encourages a walking environment - walk to the store, the bank, the restaurant. "We have buyers from West Palm and Boca Raton moving to Delray because they want to be part of the urban experience," Smith said. CityScape will be built on the west side of Northeast Fifth Avenue, between Northeast Third Street and Northeast Fourth Street. The vacant Scobee-Ireland Funeral Home building sits on the property, but will be demolished. Construction is expected to begin later next year. The city's community redevelopment agency gave Porten Cos. its blessing Thursday when developer Scott Porten presented his site plans to the board. The project still has to be reviewed by several city boards before going to the city commission for final approval. The company, based in Deerfield Beach, is also building City Walk, a 40-residential unit building with 16,000 square feet of retail, in the Pineapple Grove area. The project sold out within one year, the developer said. Porten is also responsible for the Estuary, a townhouse community off George Bush Boulevard. That community sold out last year. Harbour House, four luxury townhouses along the Intracoastal Waterway, is also Porten's project. Townhouse prices start out at $2.75 million, the developer said. Three of the four are still available. CRA Executive Director Diana Colonna said the pedestrian-friendly downtown definitely works for Delray Beach. "It's a huge improvement over how it was in the 1980s. There was nobody in the streets," Colonna said.