The Royal Palm Beach Planning & Zoning Commission granted a site plan modification approval on Tuesday, July 23 for a new office and medical building on Belvedere Road just east of State Road 7.
George Missimer of the architectural firm Cotleur and Hearing spoke on behalf of applicant Belvedere Road LLC regarding plans for the new Building C at University Centre, which will be home to professional and/or medical offices.
Located at 9701 Belvedere Road, the building under discussion is the eastern-most building on the University Centre site. The other buildings there are part of the adjacent South University campus.
“We are not adding any building area,” Missimer explained. “What we are doing is including medical office as an allowable use within the development. It was originally not included as part of the plan.”
He noted that the site has enough parking for the use, and additional amenities will be included, such as a playground area added for a potential user to the facility.
“This building will be a beautiful addition to the village,” Missimer said of the new 30,000-square-foot building under construction.
Other amenities will include an electric vehicle charging station, benches and bike racks, and modified landscaping. The playground area will remove one parking spot and 10 feet of loading space.
Resident Richard Cutler, who lives near the subject property, spoke during the time for public comment. He owns the first house in the Sand Drift Villas community near the gate off Belvedere Road in the Breakers West neighborhood.
“My major concern is what kind of noise level this is going to make, especially with a playground in there,” Culter said. “Is there going to be a noise increase from kids playing all the time? Everybody always thought that was going to be another college building, but it is turning out not to be.”
Missimer said that it will not be a public playground, nor a playground associated with a daycare facility.
“It is a very small playground facility that is an accessory to a user,” he said, explaining that the client is a physical therapy practice for children. “It will not be going all day long, and it will not be a noise generator at all.”
According to a June press release from the commercial real estate firm Katz & Associates, the first floor of the building (13,341 square feet) has been leased to ABA Centers of Florida, an autism testing and therapy center. Slated to open in December 2024, it will be ABA Centers of Florida’s fifth location, along with existing centers in Boca Raton and Jensen Beach, and soon-to-open Orlando and Tampa sites.
Culter also questioned if the electric vehicle charging station will be open the public, concerned that it might bring additional traffic.
Missimer said that it will be open to the public, but they expect only users on the site to regularly take advantage of it.
The building will operate during standard business hours, and the developer accepted a condition stating that it will not be used as a daycare facility, which would require a special exception use.
The site plan modification was approved unanimously by the commissioners and will now head to the Royal Palm Beach Village Council for final approval.
In other business:
- The commissioners approved a plan to modify the existing building façade at one of the buildings in the Villages Shoppes commercial center a 10469 Southern Blvd. The building in question is part of Phase 4, which includes several restaurants and retail operations off Southern Blvd. between the Taco Bell and Access Specialty Animal Hospital.
Michael Rem spoke on behalf of owner JBL Development.
“When we hired a contractor to do the previously approved work, we realized that this building was very similar to the Access building, which is also on our property. The previous approval was a bit of a mismatch,” Rem explained. “We are using the same kit of parts, but we are deploying them in a manner that is more consistent with the Access building, rather than some of the other buildings on site.”
The change was approved unanimously.
- The Mazda car dealership at 9305 Southern Blvd. was granted unanimous approval to construct a new car wash and detail building behind the existing dealership building.
According to Josue Leger, senior planner for the village, the proposal adds the car wash to the existing sales facility on a 33-acre parcel in a limited industrial zoning district. The overall site was approved as part of the three-dealership development in 2005.
The new building will be 3,225 square feet with no changes to access. The owner noted that the other two dealerships have car washes, which is a growing trend in the industry as part of car service departments.
- Finally, the board approved a series of changes to the Paint Lux Autobody property at 6846 Seminole Palms Drive. Included were a plat approval, special exception approval and site plan approval. The changes added an additional .235 acres to the overall 1.821-acre site.
Paint Lux recently bought half of an available piece of surplus property on Seminole Palms Drive from the Village of Royal Palm Beach. As part of the sale, the village required them to bring the land they purchased into their existing development, Leger said.
He explained that the goal is to enlarge the existing Paint Lux facility parking lot. The special exception granted the site approval for automobile and/or watercraft repair/service. Should Paint Lux cease operations, the special exception will expire and doesn’t go with the property.
