Avenir Update: Palm Beach Gardens OK’s Hospital, Medical Offices, Model Homes

Palm Beach Post, December 9, 2023

Development at the mammoth Avenir planned community is picking up pace with city council approval on Dec. 6 of a hospital, medical office buildings and model homes. Avenir’s 4,750-acre sprawl of land — which was formerly a ranch — is the last undeveloped area of its kind in the city. The hospital approved Wednesday is a combined effort by Jupiter Medical Center and UF Health that will serve about 10,000 residents who are expected to move into the 3,900 homes being built off Northlake Boulevard west of Florida’s Turnpike.

Known in the industry as a micro-hospital for its smaller-than-average number of beds, it will be built at the community’s Town Center. It will be the first place of employment for Avenir, with about 50 workers. The hospital will be one of three buildings to make up 13-acre “Avenir Health Park,” with the hospital on the western side and two medical office buildings on the eastern side. One of the medical office buildings is more than 46,000 square feet and three stories high, and the other is more than 25,000 square feet and two stories high. The neighborhood hospital is “the perfect opportunity” to boost healthcare access in the region with top doctors and the latest advances in facilities, according to Dr. David R. Nelson, senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. Twenty hospital beds in nine patient rooms will sit on the second floor of the two-story hospital, and developers plan to add nine more over time.

How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: 111 townhomes near Avenir win City Council’s OK

A road that will connect Northlake Boulevard and Avenir Drive will give drivers access to the health park. The road will have an 8-foot sidewalk on the west, a 12-foot pathway on the east side and 10 feet of landscaping on both sides. Crews will build three covered parking structures with 412 regular parking spots and 10 spots with electric car charging stations that can charge two vehicles each. Council member Marcie Tinsley questioned why the owners won’t have security on the site. A spokesperson for Cotleur and Hearing, the agent for the project, said a key-card system will provide access to the building. Every council member praised the project and it passed with a unanimous vote. “(The hospital) is in a perfect location. This is a win-win and a great facility,” council member Bert Premuroso said.

‘Anti-monotony’ model homes to arrive at Avenir

Council members approved 10 model homes to be built in a 51-acre neighborhood on Avenir’s western side, where 144 single-family homes will land. Marty Minor with Urban Design Studios, the agent for the project, said that the neighborhood will focus on “anti-monotony standards.” They intend to break away from a cookie-cutter style of homes. Each of the model homes will follow one of three design themes: “tropical modern” with cool-tone colors, “mediterranean” with warm tones or “florida vernacular” with neutral colors. The size of the homes will span from a 1,668-square-foot model with two bedrooms and two bathrooms to a model of 2,800 square feet with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. Each lot will be 65 feet wide and 130 feet deep. As for the landscaping on what is being called “model row” where the 10 homes will lie, Minor said that crews will plant wax myrtle, Japanese fern, Southern magnolia and palm trees.

Council members approved the plan in a unanimous vote. “I love seeing the anti-monotony,” Mayor Chelsea Reed said. “I live in a neighborhood that has monotony and this matters. Hopefully, we will keep seeing more and more of that.”

Home permits, roadway construction underway

Nine residential neighborhoods within the Avenir community are under construction. As of November, the developer received more than 700 home permits and certificates of occupancy for more than 367 homes. Construction for widening Northlake Boulevard from four lanes to six lanes from 140 Avenue North east to the future extension of State Road 7 is underway. Crews installed a traffic signal at Avenir Drive and Northlake Boulevard, which was set to activate by the end of November.

What’s being built in the luxury community of Avenir?

Over the next five years, other projects in the luxury community will include:

• A new Palm Beach Gardens fire station south and west of Coconut Boulevard and Avenir Drive.
• A town center with a supermarket and drive-thru pharmacy, a drug store with a drive-thru window, 55,000 square feet of restaurant space and 250 townhomes, plus 120,000 square feet of office space.
• An 18-hole golf course and training facility designed by Jack Nicklaus and Justin Thomas.
• A 16,000-square-foot clubhouse on the west side of Avenir will have two pools, cabanas, pavilions, a fitness center, eight tennis courts, six pickleball courts, a spa and a kids’ zone.
• A 60-acre site that could have up to 1 million square feet of office space.
• A 600-student elementary charter school operated by Somerset Academy.