By Sage West | MediaLab@FAU
Jan 27, 2025
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Just off of South Florida’s A1A is Atlantic Avenue, a popular street filled with upscale boutiques and pricey restaurants – a hub where tourists and locals can be found wining and dining with friends and family.
Yet, separated by just a letter, the Avenue shares two worlds. The street, divided by a police station and a courthouse, transitions from “W Atlantic Ave” to “E Atlantic Ave.” This seemingly harmless addition reveals much more than a label for a changing intersection.
To the east are lofty apartments and upscale restaurants. Just one block west is home to small businesses owned and occupied mainly by Black residents, many of whom have been here for decades. The buzz over Delray Beach, while exciting for many restaurateurs and entrepreneurs, has others questioning whether the rush to develop has led to a gentrification trend, in which many local residents cannot afford their neighborhood.
For years, the Community Redevelopment Agency of Delray Beach has worked to redevelop many areas across the city of Delray Beach, with Atlantic Avenue being a prime location. Their mission, said Renee Jadusingh, Executive Director of the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, is “to eliminate slum and blight,” a notable statement to address a long-standing community with primarily minority residents.
“We do that through different initiatives such as acquisition, purchasing property, selling property for redevelopment…we have a lot of different avenues,” Jadusingh said. “We talk about the development of Atlantic Avenue; we’re like a piece of that puzzle.”
According to the CRA website, the current property map encompasses 1,961 acres with eight sub-areas ranging east of I-95 to the ocean with Atlantic Avenue at the center. Given The Ave’s popularity and premium space for capital investment, it is no surprise that this plot of land has been the main focus of those at the Agency.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 report, 30% of Delray Beach residents were Black and African Americans and 11 % were Hispanic or Latino. In vibrantly colored homes along W. Atlantic Ave. are Black and brown residents and business owners, whose faces are not represented by the individuals traversing popular attractions built to the east, signifying the rampant gentrification surrounding the area.
Consider Ivet Henry, the owner of Sweet’s Sensational, a Jamaican restaurant that has fed her community for 11 years. Many businesses like Henry’s are being lost to high rent prices. Numerous owners, many of whom were hesitant to comment or declined altogether, share their concerns about the potential loss of customers to the more upscale restaurants to the east.
“Tourists, they have the money, but where are they going to spend it? On the Ave, or with me? But you can’t answer those questions, no, you can’t,” Henry said. “It is good that they are building it up, and it’s also good to cater to tourists. But as for me, a business owner, I have to think about what is going to happen for me.”
The CRA claims that community is the essence of the city and wants to expand on this value, not take away from it. Yet, the sky-high markets and neglected acres of land in the west suggest otherwise. Ten of these lots are owned by the CRA.
As part of their plan to combat gentrification, they have worked to provide low-income affordable housing and rentals on their property, the CRA said.
“Unfortunately, what happens is there are times when people might get priced out, like some of the smaller businesses, which is where the benefit of having the redevelopment agency is. We are right now developing properties to have low office rent spaces,” said Jadusingh. “There’s one building we just renovated on NW 5th Avenue…and we developed that for the purpose of having affordable rental space. Right now, all the rents in that building are between $900 to $1,200; there are five spaces there,” Jadusingh said in an interview.
There are also plans to build a container park village on the west side of the street. The idea is to turn repurposed containers into small shops and restaurants for communal use and rental. Similar parks have been achieved in cities like Wynwood and Las Vegas, explained Adam Frankel, the Delray Beach City Commissioner until March 2024.
“On West Atlantic Avenue, there are plans for a container park village. Basically, they’re repurposed containers where you can have a restaurant, you can have retail, you can have offices, and it’s more inexpensive than building from the ground up, but it is beautiful,” Frankel said. “It’s more affordable to a small business owner.”
However, they have received complaints from residents about the plan. It is also questionable whether present businesses will be interested in moving into the new park.
“We have a handful of people that complain; they complain about everything,” said Frankel.
Laura Simon, executive director of the Delray Beach Downtown Authority (DDA) of 14 years, also said the city has received much feedback from local residents.
“The residents around that community development were really vocal throughout the entire process. They really wanted to have their voices heard,” Simon said. “I think there are a lot of voices out there that are not really happy with all the growth that’s here and perceive it to be too busy, but there is a lot of positive, too.”
Frankel denied any suggestion that their plans might displace local residents, arguing that has never been their goal.
“We’re certainly not looking to displace any local businesses that have been there and wish to remain. I am a very big proponent of our downtown businesses, but I also see some of the issues that have occurred,” Frankel said.
“I hope to see more development on the vacant parcels on Atlantic Avenue that are respectful of what the community is looking for and wants because it is a very involved community right where a lot of these parcels are, and that they’ll consider having some of the local people in these spaces to keep that ecosystem going,” Jadusingh said. “I think that Delray really is built by that strong local ecosystem of people living here, working here, wanting to have their business here.”
Simon, of the DDA, hopes to connect the West and East, finding a compromise between new developments and preserving the core of Delray, which is its local residents.
“My hopes for our community and from our organization, I think, is really looking to focus on connectivity with West to East. That’s been a big focus for us for a really long time, and I think bringing a lot of the plans into place for that area to life will make a big difference,” said Simon. "I hope that our community, our city leaders, and our city boards will all continue to work with our community and work together to collaborate and move forward, both in a more unified way.”