19 Oct Fort Lauderdale CRA Receives Statewide Recognition for Best Outstanding New Building
We are proud to announce that the City of Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency was recently awarded the 2022 Roy F. Kenzie Award by the Florida Redevelopment Association (FRA) for Best Outstanding New Building Project for its investment in the newly built L.A. Lee YMCA/Mizell Community Center. This statewide recognition is a great achievement for the City of Fort Lauderdale and the L.A. Lee YMCA / Mizell Community Center.
The FRA Awards are presented each year at the association’s annual conference and recognize outstanding achievement in a variety of categories, from annual reports to cultural enhancement. The entries are examined for effectiveness and completeness – including the narrative, supplemental material and compliance with the submittal instructions. Judges are selected by the FRA and represent various organizations and sectors from around the state.
The L.A. Lee YMCA / Mizell Community Center is the recipient of a $10 million ($10,000,000) incentive from the CRA. Located in Fort Lauderdale’s Historic Sistrunk, the modern facility is a result of collaboration between the YMCA, the Fort Lauderdale CRA and community partners. The state of the art facility replaced an aging building to meet the community’s growing needs for a larger facility and to enhance economic development along the commercial corridor. The new community center features a 65,000 square foot building, with ground floor retail space and offers traditional YMCA programming and community offerings such as: Broward College, a preschool, meeting space, Black Box Theatre, gymnasium/ wellness center, co-working space, and swimming pool.
The development of the YMCA project has had a very significant and positive impact on the community. The transformative development has contributed to the elimination of slum and blight and is serving as a catalyst to spur essential economic improvements along the historic Sistrunk corridor. The projects physical presence on the Sistrunk Boulevard, the areas main thoroughfare, has visually enhanced the area, attracting both residents and visitors to the facility. The project has also sparked private / public investment in keys projects near its location that are contributing to the revitalization of the commercial corridor. Several new businesses / housing projects are planned or underway near the YMCA.
For more information about the YMCA visit https://ymcasouthflorida.org/l-a-lee-ymca-mizell-community-center/.