Related Ross has quietly super-sized its workforce apartment plans in downtown West Palm Beach, reworking the design to plug into Florida’s Live Local Act incentives. The updated Sapodilla proposal now calls for a seven-story building with 164 rental homes on roughly 1.7 acres at the southwest corner of Sapodilla Avenue and 2nd Street, as developers across South Florida race to use the state law to boost affordable and workforce housing totals.
As reported by the South Florida Business Journal, the apartment complex "has grown larger under the Live Local Act" after Related Ross refiled the project to qualify for the statute's density and height flexibilities. The Business Journal noted that the shift reflects a strategy to pursue Live Local benefits instead of taking the longer zoning-variance route.
The city's Plans & Plats Review Committee pre-application agenda confirms the scope. The filing describes a 164-unit multifamily development spanning three parcels, with a seven-story residential building and a three-story parking garage on about 1.7 acres, according to the City of West Palm Beach. The agenda lists Banyan and Sapodilla Acquisition LLC, a Related Ross affiliate, as the applicant and outlines one, two and three bedroom floorplans.
The Real Deal reports that Related Ross intends to reserve 66 units for residents of Ballet Village, a nearby low-income complex the firm bought in 2022, and is targeting a construction start later this year with delivery around 2028. That pledge to preserve housing for existing tenants while adding workforce units is a central selling point in the company’s mixed-income push in downtown West Palm Beach.
How Live Local Opened the Door
Florida’s Live Local Act allows qualifying mixed-use or multifamily projects that set aside a large share of units as affordable to seek administrative approval and to build at higher densities and heights than typical local rules allow. Municipal guidance and legal summaries note that the statute generally requires at least 40% of units to remain affordable for a multi-decade term and preempts certain local limits on height, density and floor-area ratio for eligible developments, according to the City of Sarasota. West Palm Beach has updated its local rules to line up with the statute and to add limited bonus incentives for Live Local projects.
Design, Amenities and Capacity
Renderings credited to MSA Architects and reporting from local development outlets indicate that Sapodilla would feature relatively compact homes, averaging about 640 square feet, along with more than 6,000 square feet of interior amenities that could include a pool, fitness center and co-working space. Coverage from Florida YIMBY also cites roughly 188 parking stalls in a dedicated three-story garage, effectively providing close to one space per unit.
What Happens Next
The developer has already taken the plan through a Pre-Application meeting before the city's Plans & Plats Review Committee in February, and the project must still clear design review and any final administrative approvals under Live Local before it can enter permitting, according to the city's meeting records. Local outlets note that, if approvals stay on track, Related Ross expects to begin on-site work later in 2026 and deliver the building by 2028.
That timetable, combined with the higher unit count enabled by Live Local, is likely to shape neighborhood reaction. City commission materials show that West Palm Beach has amended its land-development rules to add specific processes for Live Local applications and to expand Broadway Mixed Use District incentives, a change intended to streamline workforce housing while preserving limited review of variances and waivers, according to City Commission records. Advocates say the faster path gets housing built sooner, while opponents warn it can quickly reshape the scale and character of downtown blocks.
