New Boynton Beach Apartments Boast Green DesignSunday, November 23, 2008
By LONA O'CONNOR
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Most upwardly mobile homeowners would be tickled to move into a new home built by one of the biggest developers in the area.
If that home were also built to federal environmental standards with
plantings designed by a Harvard-trained landscape architect, that would
be just "green" icing on the cake.
In one of those delicious twists of fate, the
lucky residents are 20 farmworker families in suburban Boynton Beach.
Their new two- and three-bedroom apartments, scheduled to be completed
next summer, will be considerably smaller than the average suburban
estate, but comfortably bigger than the units they are living in now.
The project, called In the Pines North, was long overdue for a
rehab. In the Pines co-president Jerry Goray figures that the one-story
units were built in the 1950s, then suffered damage during Hurricane
Wilma in 2005. Those units will be torn down when four new buildings
are completed next summer.
Maria Lopez has lived for seven years in a tiny two-bedroom unit at
In the Pines North with her college-student daughter, Diana, 18, and
sons Raul, 16, a high school student, and Daniel, 2. She is cooking
chicken in a kitchen so small that she can span it without fully
extending her arms. The bedrooms are dwarfed by their double beds.
Their new apartment will have larger rooms and new energy-efficient
appliances and carpets that don't leach harmful chemicals into the air,
said Steve Maguire, co-president of In the Pines which provides
services and support to farmworkers. Their windows will be made with
impact-resistant glass for hurricane protection.
The Lopez family can hardly believe its good fortune.
"People are desperate for housing; they are living in trailers,"
said Goray, who never has any trouble filling a unit in the rare event
that someone moves out. "They find us," he said.
Turnover is very low. About 30 families have left In the Pines as part of a savings program that helps them buy their own homes.
The successful bidder for the project was GL Redevelopment, a new
subsidiary of GL Homes, which built many high-end neighborhoods west of
Boynton Beach, including Valencia and the Canyons. GL Redevelopment
specializes in workforce housing.
Goray has been involved as a volunteer leader with the two In the
Pines communities, west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, since 2003.
In the Pines was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1978.
To pay for the $3.65 million project, Goray obtained grants from
Palm Beach County and the federal government, supplemented by private
donors, including the Junior League of Boca Raton, the Schmidt Family
Foundation, the Forrest C. Lattner Foundation, banks and retail
companies.
The rehab at In the Pines North is aiming for "gold" status
conferred by the federal Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
program, said GL Redevelopment vice president and project manager Misha
Ezratti.
On the In the Pines property, water use is expected to be reduced by
more than half, from a combination of irrigation design, reclaimed
water and landscaping.
Harvard-trained landscape architect Leo Urban arranged trees on the
property to make use of sun and shade in winter and summer and lower
energy costs.
"Residential homes don't do this unless they're in the million-dollar-plus range," Ezratti said.
Though GL Redevelopment expects to make a profit on the project,
Ezratti also hopes to position his company as a leader in new
home-building techniques.
"This is where construction is going, and we want to be pioneers in
terms of what the next step will be. This is a home run for us, and
hopefully, the homeowners."
As Goray walked out the Lopez family's door, he could hardly contain
his excitement. Good housing, he said, provides the stability that
allows families to get ahead in other ways.
"Their daughter has a scholarship to FAU; their son is learning
finance," Goray said. "All in one generation. This is why we do this."
For more information, visit www.inthepines.info.
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