Joe Mulvehill and his siblings have been working to get their 40-acre wholesale plant nursery west of Delray Beach rezoned for about a decade so it could be sold to a commercial developer.

Now that dream is on its way to fruition.

The Palm Beach County Commission has proposed warehouse development at the site at the northeast corner of State Road 7 and Happy Hollow Road in the county’s Agricultural Reserve. BBX Logistics Properties, based in Fort Lauderdale, plans to build three warehouse buildings and offices totaling 672,533 square feet and 687 parking spaces.

“The entrance and exit to the project known as State Road 7 Business Plaza will be on S.R. 7, instead of Happy Hollow, where the nursery entrance is now,” said Mark Levy, BBX president. “The property was put under contract in August 2021 and the company will close on it after site plan approval. Obtaining final approvals to build is expected to take several months.”

Construction will likely begin in the first quarter of 2024 with a total project cost of more than $100 million, Levy said. The average tenant, such as plumbers, electricians, companies which supply hospitals and schools and others, will rent from 25,000 to 60,000 square feet. Offices will be in the front, with storage areas in the rear.

Nursery Operation In Southern Palm Beach County Dates To 1980s

Mulvehill, 60, owns the property with his siblings Diane, Suzanne and James. He began working for his nurseryman father, the late Joe Mulvehill Sr., at age 17 when he was still a student at Coral Springs High School in Broward County.

Mulvehill, who is the nursery operations’ sole owner, has been in business for 42 years and has run the nursery from the current location since 1995. He said he was grateful the county commission understood that the nursery was “left out of the Ag Reserve Master Plan. We are one of the few remaining property owners who bought our property before the Ag Reserve land use restrictions went into effect in the late 1990s.”

“That heavily restricted our property rights. We have worked with the prior commissions for nearly a decade bringing this issue to their attention and finding equitable solutions,” Mulvehill said.

Mulvehill and other small landowners in the 22,000-acre Agricultural Reserve west of Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton, have said for years that the county’s development rules for the area have depressed the value of their land by limiting what a potential purchaser could do with it. The Ag Reserve was formally created in 1980.

Despite hurricane damage and losses, insects, diseases, labor shortages and other issues Mulvehill has faced over the years, he wants to stay in the business. He ships foliage and interior plants throughout the continental U.S. and Canada and sells locally to landscapers.

“My father started with a 5-acre nursery in 1976 and expanded it to 20 acres when I started working there during high school. This parcel was sold to develop what is now called Four Seasons, a residential community off Atlantic Avenue and S.R. 7. In fact, you will see Mulvehill Road off of Atlantic Avenue that still shows up on Google Maps. That was the original road to our first nursery,” Mulvehill said.

Mulvehill said this year has been especially difficult as he lost all his entire crop of mandevillas, a flowering vine, to a pest called pepper thrips.

He said he will continue to operate Mulvehill’s Nursery on 15 acres off Smith Sundy Road, an arrangement that “will be less stressful and give me more time to enjoy life,” Mulvehill said.

Some Concerns Warehouses Won’t Fit With Agricultural Area

At the May 25 hearing before the county commission, nearby residents who support the project and those who oppose it spoke and submitted comment cards. Those opposed expressed concerns about noise, lights and increased traffic that could impact residential developments and horse farms.

The commission took two votes, the first was a 6-1 approval, changing the property’s future land use designation from Agricultural Reserve to Commerce with an underlying Agricultural Reserve.

Vice Mayor Maria Sachs opposed the land use change, as did the county’s staff, which said it will be an isolated industrial use inconsistent with the other development along that portion of S.R. 7.

Sachs said she wants to work with the legacy farmers to find ways for them to get out of the business, and for the highest and best use of their land. However, she said Clint Moore Road and Congress Avenue, about 12 miles to the southeast in Boca Raton, is a more appropriate location for warehouses.

Sachs also said that the Florida Department of Transportation said that the project may generate more traffic than allowed under the Commerce designation.

Next, the commission voted 7-0 to rezone the property from the Agricultural Reserve Zoning District to the Multiple Use Planned Development Zoning District.

Commissioner Marci Woodward said she met with neighbors in the immediate area of quiet roads next to a canal and said they are happy with the entrance being moved to S.R. 7 because there will be less traffic on Happy Hollow and Smith Sundy.

Joseph Starkey owns a 60-acre horse boarding farm, Irish Acres of Florida, near Lyons Road and Atlantic Avenue, also in the Ag Reserve west of Delray Beach. He said that the warehouses do not belong in the Ag Reserve.

“I believe in landowner’s rights and in developer’s rights. I truly believe in the rights of the existing land owners. They are in the Ag Reserve for protection,” Starkey said.

Mike Atchison, owner of Atchison Exotics at 9625 Happy Hollow Road, and president-elect of the Palm Beach County chapter of the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association, said he supports the rights of the Mulvehills and other farmers to have their property rezoned and to sell their property.

“The industry is tough between bugs, labor and government overreach. I am here before you to express support for the code change. The Mulvehills’ property is not designated as a preserve or a reserve,” Atchison said.

Suzanne Mulvehill, Joe Mulvehill’s sister and a former Lake Worth Beach city commissioner, also spoke before the commission.

“We are the legacy farmers. We have been here before every GL Homes development. We have been here before Lyons Road went through. We were here before the county bought the 1,000-acre dairy at the end of Smith Sundy Road. We were here before the Ag Reserve rules were put into place,” Suzanne Mulvehill said. “We been coming here for 10 years, you have heard farmers get up and share about being here since the 1970s. Our rights were restricted when those rules went into place.”

Commissioner Mack Bernard noted that the Mulvehills had worked with the county on the site’s future for several years.

“Joe and Suzanne, I have been here for 7 years, and you have been coming here in front of us for 10 years,” said Bernard. “I said we would try to be fair to you if you came with the right project. I believe this is a good project for Palm Beach County.”

Entrance To Warehouse Complex Will Be Off State Road 7

The approval includes a requirement for an 8.9-acre preserve and a 4.26-acre water management tract with a 2.86-acre wetland designed to provide enhanced environmental features.

BBX’s Levy said the extraordinary population growth in southwestern Palm Beach County proves the need for more warehouses, and right now no space is available. He said the Mulvehill location is ideal because it is on the U.S. 441-S.R. 7 corridor and close to Florida’s Turnpike. Some companies could not find space in Palm Beach County, and had to locate as far away as Miami and Orlando.

The loading docks will be in the project’s interior, with the buildings serving as a noise buffer, and Levy said he expects most of the trucks coming in will be vans and box trucks, not semi-trucks.

Levy said that he will reach out to homeowners in the nearby Four Seasons residential development after a homeowner stated at the meeting that the group had not heard from the developer. The buildings might be built in phases, and once they are occupied, Levy estimates that 250 to 300 people will be working there.

“So many companies have expressed interest. We can’t build this fast enough,” Levy said. “It will be such a great thing for the community. We worked so hard to integrate it into the community. We feel really good that we did this the right way.”

 

Source: Palm Beach Post