boca dunes – West Boca News

Boca Dense: 211 Townhomes Coming to Boca Dunes

Developer K. Hovnanian has been approved to add 211 townhomes in the middle of the Boca Dunes community, replacing roughly 41 acres of golf course in the process. The new buildings will have about six units each, as depicted in the above image.

As you can see from the images above and below the new structures will be built right in the center of the current area.

According to Hovnanian:

Homes will range in price from $314,000 – $380,000. Spacious 2-story townhome designs will offer living space between 1,600 and 2,500 square feet and 2 – 3 bedrooms. This new residential development is planned for 2016.

We’re not sure how realistic that pricing is. In the past year in Sandalfoot Cove (south of Palmetto Park between 441 and Boca Rio), only six townhomes sold for more than $200K around 1600 square feet. Closer to Boca Dunes the highest price in the past year was $161,000, about half of the low end in the proposed project. Condo sales in the community top out around $150K for 1600 square foot units.

Looking at recently built townhomes in Boca and Delray, ones in the Centra community southeast of Military Trail and Yamato sell for more than this project. The lowest we see for that is $290K for a 1400 square foot 2-bedroom unit, but most were 3-bedrooms selling for over $350K. Four of them sold for over $400K with one over $490K.
In Delray Beach there are two similar developments. 1800 square foot units in Drexel Park are selling for around $300K while similar units in Gramercy Square are generally less with 1900 square footers as low as $255K. All of these have 3-bedrooms.

Crash Update at SW 18th and Lyons

Looking north at intersection of SW 18th and Lyons; image and map data from Google

The Palm Beach Sheriff released some details from the bicycle-SUV collision at the corner of SW 18th and Lyons. According to their report, the bicycle was traveling in the crosswalk from the northeast corner to the northwest corner (right to left in the picture above) when it was struck by a 2009 Chevy Equinox, indicating an address in the Kings Point community in Delray Beach. That vehicle drove off but was found a short distance away, unoccupied.

The bicyclist, Beth Jamine (44), was initially reported in critical condition. That has apparently been upgraded to serious. It is our understanding that Ms. Jamine suffered from some fractures, a pneumothorax, and may need surgery, but she is likely to recover well.

Ms. Jamine’s reported address is in the Isle of Boca Dunes on the west side of Lyons Road at SW 8th, not far from the accident scene.

PBSO indicated the driver is unknown. The address they attribute to the vehicle is owned, according to property appraiser records, by Richard and Harriete Birnbaum. That record shows a Brooklyn mailing address for them.
If any readers have leads on the driver please let us know or contact PBSO Investigator Sean Ramsey.

Fire in Boca Dunes Condo

Update: If we understand correctly, two occupants suffered minor burns.

Black smoke poured out of a Boca Dunes condo earlier this afternoon. We learned of the incident from readers and from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue on Twitter.

As best we understand it, this incident occurred in one of the condo buildings on the west side of Lyons Road near SW 8th Street, south of Palmetto Park Road.

Readers sent us several images including the one at the top of this article. Here are a few of the Fire Rescue team in action:

A couple of readers sent us pictures of the scene from other angles:

Fire Rescue posted a close-up of the aftermath of the fire on Twitter:

As best we can tell there were no serious injuries from this incident. We haven’t seen any reports suggesting otherwise. Fire Rescue was ready with a stretcher:

We know our readers appreciate the quick and thorough response from the Fire Rescue team. We do too.