Delray Beach · Tommy Williams didn't want to drive each time he went out for dinner or had to run an errand. So he moved with his wife, Trish, 37, and daughter Savannah, 3, from their apartment in Hypoluxo to a townhouse at the Town Square complex on Federal Highway just south of Atlantic Avenue.
"We wanted to be in town so we can walk everywhere; we like this type of living," said Williams, 37.
Aside from the fact that it lacks a yard for his daughter to play in, Williams enjoys the three-story, two-bedroom townhouse they occupied in 2001.
He isn't alone.
Diana Colonna, executive director of the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, confirmed the national housing trend called new urbanism has taken the city by storm, after decades of suburban sprawl.
"In the '80s, nobody was living in townhouses. I guess as their kids leave home, Baby Boomers don't want to deal with the yard anymore. Townhouses offer you homeownership and a private entrance on the first floor and often a garage. It's the best of both worlds," she said.
According to city statistics, 218 townhouse units have been built downtown since 2000, and a half-dozen other projects are under construction on or near Atlantic Avenue. Virtually no residential townhouse units existed there before.
"We've long been promoting putting residential units up in downtown, and townhouse construction has picked up significantly in the last couple of years. It has a very positive effect on downtown, making it much more recession proof," said Paul Dorling, director of planning for the city.
Tim Hernandez, principal with New Urban Communities, a developer that has three downtown townhouse projects under construction, sees the trend continuing.
"It has become the most predominant housing type in most urban upscale communities in large metropolitan areas, and Delray qualifies," he said. "People are now more concerned about their living environment and seek urban settings. It's typically been that townhouses were a price alternative. Now, they are more of a lifestyle and location alternative."
Land values around downtown have gotten so high that developers have to build a certain density just to recoup their investment, he said.
"If you built four or five single-family homes on a downtown acre instead of 25 to 30 townhouses, each home will be going for well over $1 million," he said.
Cary Glickstein, president of Ironwood Properties, thinks the townhouse construction spree may shift to smaller, mixed-use projects. The developer is building two projects on Federal Highway south of Atlantic Avenue.
"I see it abating. There's not a lot of suitable land available for projects over 20 units, and assembling a project from many small parcels can be difficult," he said. "If the trend continues, it will do so with smaller projects of six to 15 units with retail or commercial components."
Glickstein said the city is pushing for mixed-use projects because the use of parking spaces by residents on nights and weekends, and by businesses during the day when residents are gone, can help alleviate downtown's parking problem.
"Also, people are looking to be part of a community, not an overgrown duplex. When you combine six units with a retail store, you get more of a downtown feel," he said.
So far, the phenomenon has pretty much stayed east of Swinton Avenue.
Seabron A. Smith, executive director for the Technology Enterprise and Economic Development Center, said the trend is unlikely to spill into predominantly black neighborhoods west of Swinton Avenue.
Atlantic Grove, a two-block retail, townhouse and condominium complex going up near the fire station west of Swinton Avenue, is an exception.
"People prefer homes in the southwestern residential neighborhoods and I don't see townhouses going up there," he said.
A proposed project to build townhouse units on Southwest 13th Street in 1996 never materialized due to lack of interest by residents, he said.
"People there are just more interested in owning single-family homes," he said.
With many of the units closest to Atlantic Avenue going for $200,000 and higher, affordability is quickly becoming a concern.
"As Delray gets more expensive, we're really going to have issues of affordability; we're already having it is as an issue," Colonna said.
The 55 units in the Atlantic Grove project originally were estimated to cost around $134,000 but ended up in the $170,000 range. The CRA offered subsidized second mortgages on 10 units there to make it more affordable.
"I'm amazed at the market and the kind of money they've been getting for these units, especially for those that are located right on busy Federal Highway," Dorling said.
He said that in some cases townhouses are purchased as a second home by affluent, part-time residents.
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