Brelsford and Providencia Park located just north of the downtown area, the Brelsford / Providencia Park area is a mix of residential and commercial property. The area is also now the home of the exiting Nora District, a new mixed-use district that is transforming the old industrial buildings along North Railroad Avenue into vibrant restaurant and retail uses. The CRA has partnered with NDT Development and Place Projects on the transformation of North Railroad Avenue into a pedestrian friendly street to support the district. The projects in the area will include a new hotel and a new multifamily residential.

The Clearlake District can be characterized as a mixed-use area of hotels, offices, governmental uses and residential properties. Future projects for the Clearlake District includes a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that hinges on the redevelopment of a 36-acre site immediately adjacent to the historic Seaboard Train Station. The TOD is envisioned to become a pedestrian-friendly, neighborhood village with a mix of uses including green connections and plazas with pedestrian and transit connectivity. The TOD is integrated with the West Palm Beach Tri- Rail station and includes uses such as multimodal facility, housing, hotel, retail and parking.

General/brief background on Clematis Streetscape

Clematis Streetscape is a project that puts people first. Initiated in 2018, the downtown revitalization project has moved forward with a phased approach to improving the City’s historic Clematis Street. The project uses modern infrastructure and vibrant design elements to create a more enjoyable user experience. Improvements include wider sidewalks, more shade trees, and narrowed traffic lanes to induce traffic calming. It aims to better connect the community by creating an easier to walk, healthier and overall more enjoyable downtown core.

The project was completed in 2020 with only the improvements to the intersection of Quadrille Blvd and Clematis Street remaining for completion in 2023. 

The design won the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Safe Streets Summit.

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Background on Clematis Street/more info on the project

Since 1894, Clematis Street has been the hub of the West Palm Beach business district – and in more recent years, dubbed the “living room” of the buzzing downtown community. The City of West Palm Beach continues to take a proactive approach to maintain and improve the heart of downtown. Known today as the “Main Street,” residents and tourists converge to shop, dine, do business, relax, and have fun along Clematis Street. The authentic architecture along Clematis Street has evolved over the last century, spanning nearly every significant era and style from 1890 to 2009. With a current urban renaissance successfully underway, the City has embarked on a dynamic project to improve the iconic Clematis Street, known as the Clematis Streetscape project.

The goal of the project is to improve the quality of life for people who live, work, and play downtown. With a rich history and vibrant business community, incredible care has been given to inviting community feedback at the start of each phase. The City has reached out to community stakeholders, including Clematis Street merchants, the DDA, DNA, and others, to capitalize on Clematis Street’s strengths and solicit feedback on the overall design of the project. Additionally, the public has also been invited to multiple meetings to provide input and engage in thoughtful discussions with City leaders, project managers, and project designers.

The City has retained visionary urban planning company, Dover, Kohl & Partners to design a polished and professional solution to the next phase of Clematis Street. With a strategy that focuses on smart growth and sustainability, the Coral Gables-based firm believes there does not have to be a trade-off between livability, economic prosperity, and environmental concerns. Victor Dover and Joseph Kohl, who are charter members of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and have worked for many public agencies, developers, and citizen groups, structure their designs with this guiding principle.

Expert engineers Kimley-Horn has been retained to implement the project and ensure quality details and execution.

HISTORY AND REDEVELOPMENT OF CLEMATIS STREET

• The configuration of Clematis Street as it is known today has its origins in the initial settlement of the city by Henry M. Flagler's surveyors and engineers for the East Coast Railroad (1893)

   

• City planner John Nolen surveyed the city and created a general plan for development (1923)

   

• In the early 1990s the street was converted back to a two-way street, travel lanes were reduced, intersections were raised for pedestrians, mid-block crossings were constructed, and the now- iconic palms and live oaks were added

   

• City adopted the Downtown Master Plan, setting the ground rules for the future growth of downtown West Palm Beach as a pedestrian-friendly environment (1995)

   

• The 500 block of Clematis Street listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1996)

   

• Downtown Master Plan Update created a conservation district to preserve the scale of the existing buildings and protect the character of the street (2007); transfer of development rights was allowed to compensate property owners for the preservation of the buildings

   

• A library located at the east end of Clematis Street was demolished in 2008 and a new waterfront park and pavilion opened to the public in February 2010; provides access and connection to the waterfront from Clematis Street

   

• New library and city hall complex built on the Clematis Street Corridor, adding life to the street and replacing an old building that had been vacant for 10 years (2009)

   

• In 2018 the City initiated the Clematis Streetscape project to revitalize its downtown core. The phased approach started with improvements to the 300 block and the remaining blocks were completed by 2020.

The Downtown CRA has a number of partners to assist in implementation of its redevelopment strategies. The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) gets a significant portion of its annual operating budget from the Downtown CRA and it assists the Agency by creating effective marketing programs for economic development and the maintenance of certain key streetscapes, among other things. The Downtown CRA also provides funding to provide incentives to attract business to the CRA's downtown core through the City's Economic Development fund.

The Waterfront and City Commons embarked on a major transformation with the demolition of the old Library and the creation of a new City governmental complex on Clematis Street. The redevelopment of a high quality string of waterfront parks and assets is being developed, funded by a coalition including the CRA, DDA and the City Parks and Recreation Department. A shade covered promenade, three new public docks, water gardens, arcades, a floating walkway, piers, a lake pavilion, an amphitheater and a beach were designed to create a harmonious experience for residents and visitors to the Downtown Core.

The new City Center includes a state-of-the-art library, City Hall, Photographic Centre and plenty of on-site parking. Dining and nightlife options add to the downtown experience earning Clematis Street a 2014 award as one of America's Ten Best Streets.

Major CRA initiatives include the redevelopment of the old City Hall/Helen Wilkes site and the aging Banyan Street Garage and the infrastructure work to support the All Aboard Florida train station on Quadrille.

The Historic Northwest district is perfectly positioned for rebirth. Located just north of downtown, the neighborhood boundaries extend from Banyan to Palm Beach Lakes, west to Tamarind Avenue and east to Rosemary Avenue. The Northwest is rich with history and culture.

Predominantly residential, the majority of the area is designated as a historic district. Two commercial north-south corridors, Rosemary and Tamarind, form the borders of the neighborhood. In 2011, the CRA and a group of stakeholders collaborated to create an Action Plan that focused redevelopment activities in six areas; business development, transportation, residential development, marketing and branding, security and capital improvements. The improvement program includes new street-scape along the 7th Street corridor. In addition, the entire Tamarind Corridor will be realigned and resurfaced from Banyan to Palm Beach Lakes.

The Historic Northwest is ideally positioned to become a cross-cultural destination with the planned historic restoration of the famed Sunset Ballroom and Lounge (8th Street and Henrietta) and the development of a related Jazz Park and other assets.

The Okeechobee Boulevard Corridor is the major east-west thoroughfare and gateway into downtown West Palm Beach. One of the earliest Downtown CRA public/private partnerships, CityPlace, now called The Square, with its trendy mix of eclectic and upscale stores as well as restaurants and nightclubs, calls a portion of the Okeechobee Corridor its home. A mix of hotels, offices, residential condominiums and the Palm Beach County Convention Center can be found along the Okeechobee Corridor. The Kravis Center hosts several cultural amenities adding to the quality of life for residents and visitors.

The Okeechobee corridor is also the site of several potentially significant parcels of real estate, destined for redevelopment. Related’s “triangle site” was recently redeveloped with a 50,000 square foot Restoration Hardware. The CRA owned "tent site" at Okeechobee and Quadrille will soon be under construction with a new 400,000 sf office building  A third parcel, the "opera site" is a northern adjacency to the tent site and is available for development proposals.

In 2014, the CRA co-sponsored (with the City and DDA) a Jeff Speck walkability study to begin work on connectivity across the corridor.