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PALM BEACH POST
New Boynton Beach apartments boast green design
Most upwardly mobile homeowners would be tickled to move into a new home
built by one of the biggest developers in the area.
If that home were also built to federal environmental standards with
plantings designed by a Harvard-trained landscape architect, that would
be just "green" icing on the cake.
In one of those delicious twists of fate, the lucky residents are 20
farmworker families in suburban Boynton Beach. Their new two- and
three-bedroom apartments, scheduled to be completed next summer, will be
considerably smaller than the average suburban estate, but comfortably
bigger than the units they are living in now.
The project, called In the Pines North, was long overdue for a rehab. In
the Pines co-president Jerry Goray figures that the one-story units were
built in the 1950s, then suffered damage during Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Those units will be torn down when four new buildings are completed next
summer.
Maria Lopez has lived for seven years in a tiny two-bedroom unit at In
the Pines North with her college-student daughter, Diana, 18, and sons
Raul, 16, a high school student, and Daniel, 2. She is cooking chicken
in a kitchen so small that she can span it without fully extending her
arms. The bedrooms are dwarfed by their double beds.
Their new apartment will have larger rooms and new energy-efficient
appliances and carpets that don't leach harmful chemicals into the air,
said Steve Maguire, co-president of In the Pines which provides services
and support to farmworkers. Their windows will be made with
impact-resistant glass for hurricane protection.
The Lopez family can hardly believe its good fortune.
"People are desperate for housing; they are living in trailers," said
Goray, who never has any trouble filling a unit in the rare event that
someone moves out. "They find us," he said.
Turnover is very low. About 30 families have left In the Pines as part
of a savings program that helps them buy their own homes.
The successful bidder for the project was GL Redevelopment, a new
subsidiary of GL Homes, which built many high-end neighborhoods west of
Boynton Beach, including Valencia and the Canyons. GL Redevelopment
specializes in workforce housing.
Goray has been involved as a volunteer leader with the two In the Pines
communities, west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, since 2003. In the
Pines was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1978.
To pay for the $3.65 million project, Goray obtained grants from Palm
Beach County and the federal government, supplemented by private donors,
including the Junior League of Boca Raton, the Schmidt Family
Foundation, the Forrest C. Lattner Foundation, banks and retail
companies.
The rehab at In the Pines North is aiming for "gold" status conferred by
the federal Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, said
GL Redevelopment vice president and project manager Misha Ezratti.
On the In the Pines property, water use is expected to be reduced by
more than half, from a combination of irrigation design, reclaimed water
and landscaping.
Harvard-trained landscape architect Leo Urban arranged trees on the
property to make use of sun and shade in winter and summer and lower
energy costs.
"Residential homes don't do this unless they're in the
million-dollar-plus range," Ezratti said.
Though GL Redevelopment expects to make a profit on the project, Ezratti
also hopes to position his company as a leader in new home-building
techniques.
"This is where construction is going, and we want to be pioneers in
terms of what the next step will be. This is a home run for us, and
hopefully, the homeowners."
As Goray walked out the Lopez family's door, he could hardly contain his
excitement. Good housing, he said, provides the stability that allows
families to get ahead in other ways.
"Their daughter has a scholarship to FAU; their son is learning
finance," Goray said. "All in one generation. This is why we do this."
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