Palm Beach County commissioners put shovels into the ground Thursday, May 30 to launch The Park at Delray, a $121 million warehouse project to be built on what once was a nursery in the Agricultural Reserve off State Road 7 west of Delray Beach.

“This is a game changer,” said County Commissioner Gregg Weiss, praising BBX Logistics Properties for developing a project that meets a need in the region’s economy. He also praised the builder for a design that minimizes negative impacts on the surrounding area.

BBX, based in Fort Lauderdale, has already cleared nearly 40 acres in preparation for three large warehouse buildings, each about 200,000 square feet. Also planned are nearly 700 parking spaces. The initial building will front State Road 7, from which access to the project will be. A bridge will be built over a Lake Worth Drainage District canal to make that happen.

Units are expected to be rented to pharmaceutical and medical companies for them to store their products. Other clients could include air-conditioning firms.

“We are talking about businesses that already service the growing area of the western end of the county,” said Mark Levy, president of BBX Logistics Properties.

He said several businesses have already expressed an interest in leasing at The Park at Delray. The first building is expected to be completed in about a year. The entire project is expected to take about three years to complete.

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Creation of ‘commerce’ category in Ag Reserve made warehouse project possible

It was one of the first approved under the new “commerce” category in the Ag Reserve, a 22,000-acre area west of Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton. It allows for much larger commercial projects if they are built near the major east-west highways of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue. The Park at Delray is just north of Atlantic Avenue on State Road 7.

BBX paid $25 million to buy the tract from the Mulvehill family, a legacy farming family that had been trying for years to sell the property.

“This was a difficult and arduous process, and I assume that other developers were discouraged with the time and effort needed to obtain approval. The creation of the commerce category helped to make this work. We saw value in building warehouses here,” said Levy, who thanked commissioners at the groundbreaking for making the change.

The warehouses can accommodate tenants seeking spaces as small as 25,000 square feet or a tenant could lease an entire 200,000 square-foot building, Levy said. The project received a $31.3 million construction loan from City National Bank.

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Warehouse space shortage in Palm Beach County helped win support for project

Levy noted that The Park at Delray will include a 12-acre preserve area and ecologically enhanced landscaping to minimize impacts on surrounding areas. The buildings also will be oriented so they will not be visible outside the property. Sound experts also will work to ensure there will be no noise impacts, Levy added.

BBX had to overcome the opposition of county planners who urged that the project not be approved, arguing that it would be an isolated industrial use inconsistent with the other developments along State Road 7. Some nearby property owners said the project would create hardships for them.

But the commission voted 6-1 this year to approve the project, concluding the warehouse project would help to meet a need for storage space for area businesses. BBX, arguing in support of the project, said there is little, if any, warehouse space available in Palm Beach County, forcing companies to rent space as far away as Orlando. He called the State Road 7 site ideal since it is within a few miles of Florida’s Turnpike.

The county also has endorsed plans for a warehouse park off the Beeline Highway west of Jupiter at the site of the former Palm Beach International Raceway.

Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and transportation. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Warehouse project on ag land west of Delray Beach called ‘game changer’