News

On June 4, 2024, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board of Commissioners approved a CRA Development Incentive loan to  Sirrom Commercial, Inc.,  for the 1435 Art Xchange mixed-use project to be located at 1429-1436 Sistrunk Boulevard. The project will replace a vacant commercial building located  along the core of  the Sistrunk corridor and create a critical mass and “epicenter” of new development next to the new L.A. Lee YMCA Mizell Community Center. The six-story, mixed-use development  will provide  seventy-one (71) affordable rental housing units with commercial / community space and covered parking. The high quality, energy efficient housing units will be affordable to households earning less than 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI), with 4 units affordable to households earning less than 100% of AMI, and 4 units affordable to households making less...

On May 21, 2024, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board of Commissioners approved a CRA Development Incentive loan to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County, Inc.  in the amount of $307,633  for the Fred DeLuca Teen Center.  The Boys and Girls Club celebrated the grand opening of the state-of-the-art center in April.  The new facility  serves teenager's aged 13 to 18 and features  a 7200 square foot building with a  recording studio, technology lab and culinary arts kitchen. The Teen Center is located  next to the Nan Knox Club at 832 NW 2nd Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311. The mission of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County is to enable young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. The Teen Club's goal is that all...

As a non-Texan who’s smoked brisket in Dubai, beef sausage in Vegas and pork ribs in London, pitmaster Orelle Young thinks Texas barbecue’s center of gravity is everywhere — especially Fort Lauderdale’s Sistrunk Boulevard. He’s here at B&D Trap early Thursday, sweating despite the shade of a screened-in patio, flipping and pulling glazed ribs from a Primitive Pits offset smoker and 14-hour brisket from an Ole Hickory commercial gas smoker. At his new roadside stop, four blocks west of the L.A. Lee YMCA, Young aims to challenge long-held beliefs about the cult of Texas ‘cue: What it is, where it’s made, who’s allowed to make it. An order of pulled pork is ready to be wrapped up at B&D Trap barbeque in the Sistrunk neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale.  “We get it out of the smoker just before opening, which is 11 a.m.,” he says. “Let’s...

You’d never know that Ronnie Hall would become The Salad Boss. Nothing in the founder’s resume would have given you a clue — as recently as a year ago — that he was going to start working on a health-conscious eatery inside the YMCA in Fort Lauderdale, in the middle of the Sistrunk Boulevard neighborhood. “I was in corporate America for 17 years,” says Hall, who is also a Navy veteran. “I just kind of got burned out with what I was doing. I just wanted to be a boss myself. I never thought I would be here.” “Here” is a brightly hued, fast-casual restaurant that opened in December with a tightly focused menu of salads, wraps, sandwiches and smoothies. There are also breakfast and kids’ menus. Next door is the BSTYLE lounge, a bonus space for patrons with what Hall describes as something more akin to a speakeasy...

On November 7, 2023, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board of Commissioners approved an increase in funding in the amount of $400,000 to V&R Family Enterprises, Corp. for the renovation of a longtime vacant property located at 1227 Sistrunk Boulevard. The total amount of CRA incentives awarded towards this project is $750,000. The proposed renovations will include the modernization and build-out of the  property into a mixed-use development. Once renovations are completed, the two-story building will include five modern one-bedroom/ one bath  apartments with impact windows and doors, central air conditioning, tiled floors and an outdoor patio area.  In addition, the ground floor will consist of  a 1,449 square foot event space with new handicap-accessible restrooms, a warming kitchen and storage. The developer and owner of the property is V&R Family Enterprises (Developer). V&R Family...