Delray CRA lifts Synalovski fee to $676,790, still no GC on 600 Block

The Delray Beach CRA approved a second amendment to its architecture and engineering agreement with Synalovski, Romanik & Saye on July 23, adding $25,840 and taking the contract to a not-to-exceed $676,790. The site it buys drawings for, a CRA-owned assemblage at 34 NW 6th Avenue and 9-31 NW 7th Avenue, still has no general contractor, and by the architect’s own schedule it will not have one until May 2027.

Why it matters

The amendment exists because Delray’s land development regulations forced one project into two. The CRA now files two site plans, two applications, two sets of construction documents and two building permits, one residential and one commercial. But the architect’s proposal carries a line general contractors should read before the others: it assumes the two projects “remain combined for bidding and construction phases,” and warns that separating them would require a new fee proposal.

That is the procurement signal. Two permits, one bid package, one contractor carrying both a 12-unit townhome row and a small office building. It also tells you the delivery method. The CRA issued a notice of cancellation against RFQ 2025-01, its progressive design-build attempt on the NW 800 Block. On the 600 Block it is finishing drawings first and hard-bidding them, which favors open-shop GCs with self-perform trades and offers nothing to firms selling preconstruction.

The numbers

The base agreement, approved November 16, 2023, was $639,000. A first amendment on February 26, 2026 added $11,950 for surveys, traffic statements and county concurrency letters. Add the $25,840 and the total ties exactly to $676,790, up $37,790 or 5.9 percent from the base. Funding comes from CRA account 5123.

Inside the $25,840: architecture $13,940, landscape architecture $7,000, civil engineering $3,750 and an arborist report at $1,150. Billing runs from $250 an hour for the principal architect to $100 for administrative staff. The residential program grew to 12 contiguous townhomes from 10 noncontiguous ones after the CRA bought a single holdout parcel on NW 7th Avenue in January 2025. Each unit gets a two-story main building, an internal courtyard, a detached garage off the rear alley and an accessory dwelling unit above it.

What’s next

Site plan review reaches the planning board October 19, board approval is assumed in November, construction documents land at the end of January 2027 and construction starts summer 2027. Separately, the 2026 amendment to the redevelopment plan, the first rewrite since 2014, goes to planning and zoning in August and the City Commission twice this fall. More coverage on our South Florida hub.