Author: CRAStaff

22 Sep

When Blue Tree Café opens in Fort Lauderdale, expected to happen in September or October as a takeout/delivery-only restaurant, the two want to also use their expansive new kitchen as a launching pad for other small food and beverage purveyors. Family as well as business partners, King and chef Sharon Allen say they know the difficulty of developing a food business from the ground up. They initially planned to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant in February 2020, but then the pandemic shut down everything. A timely grant from United Way of Broward County (the Microbusiness Recovery Program) and the pair’s shift to a “cloud kitchen” saved the day. And now mother and daughter want to pay it forward. “We’ve been through so much over the past few years working on this restaurant,” King tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “And it would be...

14:12 / News
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07 Sep

On September 6, 2022, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board of Commissioners approved CRA funding in the amount of $285,000 to Broward Partnership for the Homeless, Inc. for streetscape improvements for the Seven on Seventh mixed use affordable housing project located at 920 NW 7th Avenue. Seven on Seventh is a mixed use affordable housing development that is currently under construction in the City of Fort Lauderdale, specifically targeted for low-income and formerly homeless individuals and families. The development, which is over 50 percent complete, will consist of an eight-story residential tower with  seventy-two (72) rental units ranging from studios to two-bedroom apartments, case management and workforce program offices, ground floor commercial space and a parking garage. The building will also include amenities for its residents such as:  a community room, fitness center, game room,...

14:21 / News
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19 Aug

On August 16, 2022,  the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board of Commissioners approved to award a Development Incentive Program (DIP)  forgivable loan in the amount of $1,125,000  to Food Friends Catering, LLC to renovate a blighted two-story building into a new restaurant on the Historic Sistrunk Corridor. The Board of Commissioners also approved a  resolution waiving the minimum project cost requirements and minimum developer’s contribution requirements under the  (DIP) program. Food Friends Catering, LLC  plans to establish the “Food Friends Southern Comfort Kitchen & Bar” (Food Friends) at 1310-1312 Sistrunk Boulevard. The proposed  restaurant will  focus on Southern comfort foods and feature a catering hub specializing in serving Latin, Asian and Caribbean cuisines. The restaurants menu will entail  traditional dishes such as fried cheese grits with shrimp, lobster mac & cheese, cornbread, pulled porksliders,...

16:33 / News
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19 Aug

On August 16, 2022,  the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board of Commissioners approved a Property and Business Improvement Loan in the amount of $293,000 to Optimal Health Pharmacy, LLC for the build-out of a community pharmacy at the newly opened L.A. Lee YMCA/Mizell Community Center. The Pharmacy will provide customers with convenient access to prescription medications while offering education, resources and counseling services. The pharmacy’s central location in the newly constructed L.A. Lee YMCA/Mizell Community Center makes it easily accessible to all area residents. The top-tier retail pharmacy, will offer quality, reasonably priced, pharmacy products and supplemental health services that promote medication adherence. The pharmacy will  also fill prescriptions under the 340B program which would greatly benefit consumers managing chronic conditions. The CRA’s Property and Business Improvement Program (PBIP) is an incentive used to attract...

14:40 / News
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28 Jul

By Ben Crandell South Florida Sun-Sentinel July 29,2022 Patio Bar & Pizza is finally open at  the historic Progresso Plaza, after a  lengthy renovation of the nearly 100-year-old structure yielding a beautiful new indoor-outdoor space destined to be one of the “it” nightlife spots in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The first of three soft-opening nights on Tuesday drew a diverse crowd — friends of ownership, youthful in-the-bizzers and veteran east Fort Lauderdale tavernistas — dispersed around the 2,500-square-foot restaurant and its walled, turfed-and-tiled terrace. The vibe was decidedly laid-back: Kids and dogs, locals and lost tourists, the tattooed, the gray-haired, a stylish pair of Golden Goose sneakers, one Tupac T-shirt and one poor soul in a Red Sox jersey. Overhead, a muted soundtrack flowed algorithmically: ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” Harry Styles’ “Late Night Talking,” the viral yearning of Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I...

16:43 / News
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