North Palm Beach's Biggest Redevelopment Is Waiting on a Landscaping Clause

How tall can a building get at the southwest corner of U.S. 1 and Northlake Boulevard? The answer under North Palm Beach's zoning code runs from 50 feet to 175 feet. Acreage doesn't decide where in that range Village Place ends up, and neither does retail square footage. Both are already settled. What's left is a clause about enhanced landscaping, awnings, seating and architecture, and a Palm Beach County circuit judge has been scheduled to hear that question this fall.

Under Ordinance 2023-06, the developer's plan meets every threshold that comes with a number. The one test without a number is the one being argued in court.

A 13-acre site with a long memory

Twin City Mall opened in 1971 as the first enclosed mall in northern Palm Beach County. Its name came from where it sat, across the line between Lake Park and North Palm Beach. When The Gardens Mall opened on PGA Boulevard in 1988, Sears moved there, and Twin City was torn down in 1997. The village included the site in a 2015 revitalization plan developed by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. A Citizens' Master Plan in that process suggested a lifestyle center like CityPlace or Mizner Park.

In April 2022, NP-Devland Holdings, a subsidiary of Austin-based Cypress Real Estate Advisors, bought the property for $19 million from a company run by John Staluppi. Cypress also developed the 2,000-acre Abacoa community in Jupiter, according to The Real Deal.

Stet News reported the proposal for the 13 acres, called Village Place:

• 947 apartments and 133 condominiums
• A 222-room hotel
• A 206-unit senior living facility
• 90,000 square feet of retail and commercial space
• A 1.36-acre civic space, with renderings by Gensler

The Real Deal described the plan as two 14-story residential buildings and a nine-story senior living building. The Palm Beach Post cited court documents giving the retail figure as 100,000 square feet. Either figure matters for the next section.

The measurable tests are already met

In 2023, the village and NP-Devland worked out a new C-3 Regional Business District for the property, and the Village Council approved the land-use changes 4-1. The text of Ordinance 2023-06 sets the district's ordinary maximum building height at 50 feet. Anything taller goes through a special planned-unit-development pathway, with heights that step up by size:

Rooftop amenities don't count toward those height caps. With 13 acres, Village Place is well past the 10-acre line. Its retail figure lands right at the 90,000-square-foot minimum on one count and above it on the other.

Before a project can use that height ladder at all, the ordinance requires four eligibility thresholds:

1. At least five contiguous acres
2. At least one-half acre of civic space
3. At least 50,000 square feet of nonresidential uses
4. Additional public benefits

The first three are measurements, and the plan's 13 acres, 1.36-acre civic space and retail program meet them. The fourth has no number attached.

The one test without a number

The ordinance gives examples of what counts as public benefit: landscaping beyond what the code requires, pedestrian amenities like awnings, canopies, art and seating, environments where living, shopping and working actually work together, and innovative architecture. The Village Council may also approve alternatives.

That is where the two sides split. According to WLRN, the village's position is that NP-Devland did not show an acceptable level of public benefit. The developer, led by founding principal Nader Salour, says it met the criteria. The Palm Beach Post reported that NP-Devland objects to conditions about landscaping and walkways that it says it never agreed to, and that the lawsuit accuses the village of acting "in bad faith" by letting the developer spend on a planned-unit-development application and then adding conditions. The village declined to comment to the Post.

So the distance between a 50-foot building and a 175-foot one on this corner depends on whether a design meets a qualitative standard.

What the 2025 approval settled, and what it left open

On April 10, 2025, at second reading, the Village Council approved the Village Place master plan 5-0. The minutes show the approval did not lock in any height, and the developer still has to submit a site plan for each phase. The Real Deal reported that without a height guarantee, the developer couldn't move forward with construction.

NP-Devland sued the village and its council in May 2025. As of WLRN's August 26, 2026 report, the judge had not yet ruled on a July 15 hearing over the developer's challenge to a condition binding it to its oral and written representations. The Palm Beach Post reported that Circuit Judge James Sherman issued an order in August scheduling a nonjury trial between October 12 and November 20, 2026, if the parties don't settle first. That window is open now, and it runs through November 20.

The village's regular council agendas for October 8 and October 22 did not list the case. No result has been publicly reported. Whatever comes out of court, the phase-by-phase site plans required under the 2025 approval come after it.

The edges are fixed no matter who wins

Some parts of this corner won't change with the verdict. The ordinance says that even under the special provisions, buildings fronting U.S. 1, Northlake Boulevard and Palmetto Drive can't go above nine stories or 120 feet within 50 feet of the right-of-way. Any 14-story tower would sit back from the road, behind a lower street wall.

The Village Place footprint also leaves out much of what people know at that intersection today. The Publix and several small retailers on the west side aren't part of it, and neither are the CVS, TD Bank, Wendy's, Helix Urgent Care and gas station facing Northlake and U.S. 1. Two buildings would come down: one vacant, and one that houses True Treasures furniture consignment and BurgerFi's corporate offices.

Across the municipal line, the old mall site is already being built on. Northlake Promenade, a seven-story building with 279 rental units, is under construction on the Lake Park side, separate from the lawsuit. In April 2025, Florida YIMBY reported a target of first units in the first quarter of 2027. About a mile south, also in Lake Park, the 24-story Nautilus 220 towers are the tallest buildings on this stretch of the U.S. 1 corridor. The Post reported that some North Palm Beach residents who oppose 14 stories at the mall site would rather keep heights at 50 feet, or four stories, and point to Nautilus as an example of overdevelopment.

For anyone comparing North Palm Beach with nearby towns, this corner shows how the village's zoning works. It allows height through a discretionary test, the council has used that discretion, and the code's 50-foot base still applies on every site where the larger thresholds aren't met.

A few questions worth asking directly

Does the approved master plan mean Village Place will be built?

The April 2025 approval adopted the master plan without locking in any height and requires a site plan for each phase. Construction had not started as of August 2026.

If the developer loses, does the site stay empty?

The ordinance's ordinary C-3 height limit is 50 feet. The six- and ten-story tiers each have their own acreage and square-footage thresholds, but every special tier still requires a project to meet all of the eligibility criteria, public benefit included. What any later plan would look like hasn't been reported.

Where can I read the rules myself?

The full Ordinance 2023-06 sets out the C-3 district, the four thresholds and the height ladder. The village's Village Place project page follows the proposal.

This post is general information about public records and news coverage. It is not legal advice, so please confirm how any zoning provision applies to a specific property with a qualified land-use attorney.

The Reback family has watched this intersection go from Sears anchor store to empty lot over five decades. If you own a home near U.S. 1 or are considering one in North Palm Beach and want to talk through how the Village Place outcome fits into your plans, Reback Realty can have that conversation with you privately. Request a Confidential Home Valuation and we will start with the facts on your street.