A half-empty Winn-Dixie plaza on South Federal Highway could become the site of 736 apartments, two eight-story towers, and 24,000 square feet of new retail, if Deerfield Beach's Planning and Zoning Board signs off on a rezoning request this week. JBL Asset Management, the Hollywood, Florida-based firm that bought Rivertowne Square Shopping Center for $18.8 million in 2022, wants to tear down the long-vacant Bealls building and other small-business storefronts to make way for the project, while keeping the anchor grocery store and two outparcel restaurants in place.
The Rivertowne Square proposal is one of two major development pitches moving through Deerfield Beach at once, according to The Real Deal. JBL, led by Managing Partner Jacob Khotoveli, is asking the city for height, density and rezoning waivers to redevelop the 13-acre shopping center, which was built in 1980 and sits at 1015, 1017 and 1019 South Federal Highway. The center is currently only about half occupied, and JBL has said it is working to keep its remaining small-business tenants in place as long as possible during the transition.
What Would Replace the Aging Plaza
Under JBL's plan, the Winn-Dixie building would be remodeled rather than demolished, while the Tijuana Taxi Company and Buffalo Wild Wings outparcel buildings would also survive. Everything else, including the former Bealls space, would come down to make room for two new eight-story buildings holding 736 apartments, a fitness center, clubhouse, pool, and 1,232 combined parking spaces spread across two garages. Of those apartments, 106 units would be reserved for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income.
The project is planned in two phases, with construction slated to begin next year pending city approval. Deerfield Beach's Planning and Zoning Board is scheduled to weigh in on the rezoning, plat and site plan applications on Thursday, and any final approval will ultimately require sign-off from the Deerfield Beach City Commission.
A Separate Deal for the Old DOT Parcel
A few miles away, a different development fight is playing out over a 3.75-acre municipal site at 1045 SW 11th Way, land the Florida Department of Transportation deeded to the city in 1999 and which sat leased to the Florida Atlantic Research and Development Authority for nearly two decades, according to City of Deerfield Beach records. That arrangement ended in February 2022 when the City Commission declined to renew the lease a further eighth time, following a $6.5 million appraisal of the property.
Boca Raton-based MBA Development Partners of Florida LLC, headed by Mario Caprini of Capital Group Enterprises, is now under contract to acquire the 3.8-acre parcel for $6.5 million and is working with the city to finalize a closing date. Caprini's proposal includes three 14-story buildings holding 150 residential units, with 30 of those set aside as affordable housing, alongside 132,500 square feet of office space, a 120-key hotel, 1,050 square feet of retail, restaurants, event space, a public park, a public green roof, a parking podium and 533 parking spaces.
Referendum Rules Face a November Test
The MBA deal traces back to a citywide referendum held in March 2023, in which voters approved the $6.5 million land sale as required under Section 7.09.2 of the Deerfield Beach Charter — a provision that mandates voter authorization for any municipal property transaction over $750,000, according to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections. But in May, local legal counsel and community members raised concerns that the project as now envisioned had expanded beyond what voters approved, pointing to a proposed 120,000-square-foot City Hall sale-and-leaseback arrangement that would make the city a long-term tenant of the developer, per posts reviewed on a local community Facebook group.
That referendum requirement itself is now on the ballot. In August, the Deerfield Beach City Commission voted 3-2 on second reading to place nine charter amendments before voters on November 3, with Mayor Todd Drosky, Vice Mayor Michael Hudak and Commissioner Tom Plaut in favor and Commissioners Ben Preston and Daniel Shanetzky opposed, as reported by the Boca Post. One of those measures would repeal the requirement for voter referendums on city land sales or leases over $750,000, while another would eliminate floor area ratio maximums on barrier island properties, though it would preserve the existing 45-foot commercial and 55-foot residential height caps.
Roots in the 2002 'Save Our Beach' Fight
Deerfield Beach's referendum protections and strict development guidelines trace back to a 2002 grassroots campaign known as Save Our Beach, in which residents gathered petitions and passed charter amendments with 75 percent voter approval specifically to prevent high-density overdevelopment, according to the New Pelican. That history helps explain why the November ballot questions, which also include lifting limits on certain mixed-use developments between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, have drawn scrutiny from longtime residents wary of loosening those decades-old protections.
The city commission had already preliminarily voted in July to loosen waterfront building guidelines, and city officials say Deerfield Beach is working to accommodate more housing and mixed-use projects as it weighs relaxing some of its development restrictions. Proposed rule changes under consideration would also remove floor area ratio maximums on commercial and multifamily properties more broadly, not just along the barrier island.
State Law Adds Another Layer of Pressure
Local control over these decisions is also being shaped from Tallahassee. Florida's expanded Live Local Act, updated as of July 1, allows developers to administratively bypass local zoning and land-use restrictions on commercial, industrial or mixed-use land, provided at least 40 percent of residential units are designated as workforce housing for 30 years for households earning up to 120 percent of area median income, according to the Florida Housing Coalition. That state-level leverage gives developers like JBL an added incentive to fold workforce housing into projects like Rivertowne Square, regardless of how the local charter questions shake out in November.
The push to convert aging strip malls into dense residential towers is not unique to Deerfield Beach. Rivertowne Square's transformation mirrors a broader Broward County pattern of converting 1970s and 1980s-era retail plazas into mixed-use developments, a trend that includes the multi-tower redevelopment of Fort Lauderdale's Galleria Mall, as noted by The Real Deal. Before JBL's purchase, Rivertowne Square had been held for 26 years by RPT Realty, which bought the center in 1996 for $8.6 million — a sale price that had more than doubled by the time JBL closed its 2022 deal.
Both projects now sit at the intersection of private development ambition and a city electorate that has, for more than two decades, insisted on having the final say over major land decisions. With the Planning and Zoning Board taking up JBL's applications this week and voters set to decide the fate of the referendum requirement itself in November, Deerfield Beach residents are being asked to weigh in on two fronts at once: what gets built, and who gets to approve it going forward.
