‘The ultimate downtown’: Up to 50 acres could be redeveloped to create Margate destination

The city of Margate, which has long planned to create a bustling downtown, is dreaming even bigger about the possibilities.

It’s starting anew with plans to create a destination that draws people to converge on the city — to eat, shop and play there. And some visitors may like it so much, they decide to move there, enticed by the many new apartments that’d be built there.

Margate’s plan originally called for developing 38 acres on both sides of State Road 7, and a strip shopping center on the southwest corner of Margate Boulevard and State Road 7. But now, the city is offering a developer a larger opportunity — 50 acres to work with. Exactly what would be built remains to be seen.

The land will be a “blank slate of property,” where prospective developers will be encouraged to “give us your best pitch what will match our vision,” Margate City Manager Cale Curtis said. Development in the area can go up to eight stories, or 122 feet in height, and the city is seeking businesses and entertainment “with components of residential to help support it,” Curtis said.

Mayor Tommy Ruzzano, who is also the chair of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, said the city stands to make money from the leases from businesses and apartment rentals. The city will “make it beautiful. We’re going to have the ultimate downtown. It’s going to be top notch.”

Here’s a look at the efforts, years in the making.

Facing delays

The downtown plans have faced years of delay, lawsuits and debate.

Recently, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency formally signed off on a settlement with New Urban Communities, which was the developer previously set to build the future downtown off State Road 7.

The deal with New Urban was to develop 38 acres.

Ruzzano said the last attempt by New Urban soured after an argument over its plans for 968 apartments , the city ultimately decided was a “concrete jungle” and the city wanted it downsized.

After plans for the downtown crumbled after debate over the size of the project, the developer ultimately lost its case in court.

The settlement deal allows for the city’s CRA to keep New Urban’s $150,000 deposit to pay its legal fees, according to the city and developer.

“We’re truly disappointed we were unable to create a truly walkable, mixed-use, transit-oriented downtown on this site,” said Tim Hernandez, New Urban Communities co-founder and principal. “It would have been unbelievable.”

Now, Margate is ready to try again. Last year, the city hired the real estate firm Colliers, which this month will publicly begin to seek “qualified real estate developers and investors to enter into a long-term ground lease” for 50 acres for Margate’s future downtown.

Their ad describes the area as “the heart of Margate,” where “the city is looking to create a place for their residents to live, work and play.”

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To offer as much as 50 acres, the additional parcels for construction could include David Park, City Hall, the police department and a fire station that are right nearby.

“If it makes sense to move City Hall and build a new City Hall, we want to make that all part of (the) blank canvas,” Curtis said. “I would love to have new a (new) City Hall built, police and fire, to accommodate our growth.”

If the shopping plaza were to be demolished in the final plan, businesses would have the option to relocate elsewhere in the downtown.

Stirring debate

Curtis acknowledges the city is in for a long slog of debate regarding the State Road 7 parcel of land, which was once a hopping outdoor flea market.

“It’s polarizing what people want, some people want the old flea market back, there’s talk of affordable housing, which is very polarizing. How many units go in there, which is very polarizing. Some folks want strictly an entertainment area.”

The details for that entertainment area still have to be hashed out. The “entertainment we envision are activated storefront restaurants,” Curtis said. That could include “street vendors and craft fairs and music. But it’s all kind of up for grabs.”

Once Colliers prequalifies developers who are up for the task, they’ll come to City Hall for public presentations, with artists’ renderings at the ready and information, including “what can go where and when and how, what will it cost to build it.”

There is no timetable yet for construction and the developer is not expected to be chosen until the end of the year.

“There are hard decisions that have to be made,” Curtis said. And there will be a “whole lot of horse trading.”

Mayor Ruzzano said he expects the final product to be a showpiece, vowing the city will “make it beautiful. We’re going to have the ultimate downtown, it’s going to be top notch.”

“I’m super excited.”

A walkable downtown

Preliminary estimates are a cost of $750 million to $1 billion to build the downtown, but who will pay what and the financial structure has not yet been decided.

“Now we can have green space, a walkable downtown with green space. It’s not going to be jampacked, we own the property, we can regulate what goes there,” Ruzzano said.

The land is formerly the site of a 50-room motel on State Road 7, a 17-acre Swap Shop flea market , among other buildings.

The empty flea market land has been used for a carnival , which drew headlines through years, either from incidents that drew police responses, or from activists’ complaints about how some animal-related shows were presented.

Once the downtown construction begins, the carnival won’t be allowed to operate there — and it won’t be relocated elsewhere in Margate, Curtis said.

There is “no space for it,” he said.

The history of Margate’s downtown

In 2016, Margate was on track to build its first downtown, a city center of 968 apartments, 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, a hotel and an amphitheater — all along or within walking distance of State Road 7.

The project was supposed to peak at three stories and construction was planned to start the following year.

But in 2017 , plans were scuttled after the city and developer couldn’t agree on the final size. They two sides had been in legal proceedings until the recent final agreement.

The downtown itself has been in the works in some fashion since a 2003 citizen planning session, where residents complained that Margate did not have a recognizable downtown or city center, does not have “any recognizable identity or strong sense of place,” and you could pass through “without even knowing that you had been there,” according to a planning document.

There was a focus on State Road 7 since “this road represents Margate’s front door.”

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com . Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash