"It
really takes the stress off that store. Some of the clients
have moved here with us, and we get a lot of business from the
area," said Barbalaco, who lives in Boynton Beach.
The
store has been busy since it opened Nov. 9. Barbalaco said he
gets one or two new customers each day, and the proximity to
city and county businesses, such as the expanding courthouse,
the new library and the police station, brings in a steady
stream of business.
Business owners such as Barbalaco
who have opened or expanded into Atlantic Grove, in the 300
and 400 blocks of West Atlantic Avenue, say they are happy
with the city's first mixed-use redevelopment project of shops
and condominiums, which opened more than a year and a half
ago.
The complex consists of two, three-story buildings
with shops and a restaurant on the ground floor, offices on
the second floor, and 10 residential lofts on the top floor of
each building. It was built to stretch the allure of downtown
from east of Swinton Avenue into the minority neighborhoods
west of Swinton.
But Shirley Ervin Johnson, who
describes herself as a civic activist and lives in the nearby
Paradise Heights neighborhood, said she rarely sees
neighborhood residents shopping in the stores in Atlantic
Grove.
"I don't want to say that the mixed-used project
isn't working when it may be. But I just don't see it," she
said.
She said the only business that caters to the
local residents is Tony's Market & Deli, and many of the
other shops are too high end. Neighborhood people wouldn't
necessarily be able to afford to shop there, she
said.
The commercial space is sold as condominiums,
with 46,000 square feet available in a range of
configurations, according to the city's Web site on the
project.
Both the residential and office space are at
about 90 percent occupancy, and the retail space about the
same, according to Annette Annechild, president of the
Atlantic Grove Condo Association.
A pizza business
recently left and will make way for a bar, she said.
A
small number of the businesses are owned by minorities, she
said.
One of them is Salon 301.
"Before, we had
been leasing, and we always wanted to own our place," Evelyn
Jones said. "When we heard about Atlantic Grove, we jumped at
the chance."
The beauty shop opened in November, after
moving from another location in Delray Beach and more than
doubling its space to 4,000 square feet, Jones
said.
She and her husband, Kelvin Jones, owned the
former Jones Hair Design for years, and Kelvin is known around
town as the man who used to cut hair in his mother's back
yard, his wife said.
The salon employs nine people, up
from three at its former site.
"We've got clients all
the way from Miami to Vero Beach," she said. "We've been so
fortunate, and we thank God every day."
Tony Hamdan has
had equal success. He owned a convenience store across the
street from Atlantic Grove and always dreamed of having a more
upscale eatery with chefs and sit-down service.
When
the city started planning Atlantic Grove, Hamdan knew it would
be perfect for him, he said.
His Tony's Market &
Deli became Atlantic Grove's first tenant. The market also
does catering and has about six employees.
"We're busy
all day long," he said. "We get a nice mix of people, workers
from the area, people from the courthouse."
Rosalind
Murray, the former West Atlantic Avenue project manager for
the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, said it took about
10 years to acquire the property needed for the
development.
"The CRA provided some supplement in order
to keep 10 units affordable," she said. "It is unique because
it is so multicultural. There are Haitian tenants, Thai,
Italian, African-American, white. The whole world is
represented. That is what is so exciting. The possibility is
endless on West Atlantic Avenue," she said.
Hamdan, a
former president of the Delray Merchants Association, calls
Atlantic Grove a "nice success story."
Similar CRA
projects are planned along Southwest Eighth Avenue and
Atlantic Avenue in the next three to four years.
They
will be larger and have a bigger affordable housing component,
Murray said.
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