Fort Lauderdale officials approve new $1.5 million loan to developer

During their Oct. 1 meeting, and with little discussion, members of the Fort Lauderdale City Commission unanimously approved additional funding for a proposed six-story building at 1217-1233 Sistrunk Boulevard. The vote, which was made while the mayor and commissioners sat as board members of Fort Lauderdale’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), increased the CRA’s total funding for the project to $5 million.

The proposed project consists of 27 apartments with oversized balconies, 3,582 square feet of retail, and a two-level parking garage with 58 parking spaces. Its developer, Wright Dynasty, LLC, received a forgivable $3.5 million loan from the CRA back in 2020.

Wright Dynasty, headed by Dennis Wright, applied for additional funding from the CRA because the project’s estimated cost of construction increased from $7.12 million to $14.93 million, a memo from Susan Grant, Fort Lauderdale’s acting city manager and CRA executive director, stated.

The loan increase means that the CRA will contribute 33% of the project’s financing. The developer has secured a $6.4 million loan from New York-based nonprofit Grow America. Wright Dynasty is also seeking $1.5 million from Broward County and $700,000 in State Housing Incentive Partnership funds directly from the CRA.

The project is being built within Fort Lauderdale’s Northwest-Progresso-Flagler Heights (NPF) Community Redevelopment Area, which was created in 1995 to eliminate slum and blight. To encourage more economic development in that area, including Sistrunk Boulevard, the CRA has provided low-interest loans and grants to several developers, property owners and entrepreneurs. Those incentives primarily come from property taxes collected within the NPF redevelopment area.

Wright Dynasty LLC’s application for additional funds note that the Wright family “make up four generations of business and property ownership in the Historic Sistrunk community.” Dennis Wright is the grandson of the late Helen Morris, who founded a nursery and daycare center in the Sistrunk area in 1953, which she operated for 42 years.

The proposed project will be built on 18,071 square feet of land owned by Wright Dynasty LLC. Three of the proposed building’s apartments will be reserved for households making 80% of the area’s median household income. The rest will be market rate. Wright stated in his application that the project “aims to attract young professionals and entrepreneurs to the area.”

The additional funds should enable Wright Dynasty LLC to start construction in the fourth quarter of this year, Grant stated. The project is expected to take 18 months to build, she added.

South Florida Business Journal