Two South Florida CRAs are handing builders free lots. The terms.

Two South Florida redevelopment agencies put builder-scale land deals on their agendas this week, and between them they show the real terms of the public-lot infill pipeline: free dirt, a capped sale price, a two-decade covenant and a clock. Pompano Beach votes Tuesday. Delray Beach meets Thursday with a live RFP on the table.

Why it matters

Small and mid-size builders keep asking the same question about CRA land: is a donated lot actually worth taking. The answer is in the covenants, and they are rarely published in one place. These two agendas make the arithmetic legible. The land is genuinely free, but the exit price is fixed, the buyer is pre-qualified by income, and failure to build is not a write-off, it is a reconveyance. That is a very different risk profile from a market lot, and it suits a builder with cheap crews and slow capital far better than one underwriting margin.

It also matters as pipeline. Both agencies hold more inventory than they are disposing of this month, and a builder who learns the template on one deal is positioned for the next several. This is the kind of work a general contractor or homebuilder can bid without a land basis at all.

The numbers

Pompano Beach Resolution 26-457 authorizes a property disposition and development agreement with Parrish & Associates covering two vacant CRA lots at 801 NW 18th Avenue, folios 484234040580 and 484234040590. The CRA donates the lots, which the Broward County Property Appraiser currently values at $152,420. Parrish must build a three-bedroom, two-bath, one-car-garage home of 1,754 sq ft under air and 2,055 sq ft under roof, and sell it to a pre-qualified buyer at a proposed $475,000, or about $270 per sq ft.

The covenant runs 20 years and restricts buyers to 120 percent or less of Broward County area median income. A $150,000 deferred loan-to-grant sits behind it, declining 1/120th each month so it is fully forgiven in 10 years absent default. If the home is not built within 16 months of the effective date, the CRA pursues reconveyance. The agency accepted the unsolicited proposal at its May 19 meeting.

Delray Beach’s Thursday agenda carries the companion pieces: a first amendment to a purchase and sale agreement with the Delray Beach Community Land Trust for four CRA-owned vacant lots at 250, 256 and 260 NW 8th Avenue and 259 NW 9th Avenue, all for affordable and workforce housing, plus discussion and direction on an RFP for the disposition of a vacant lot at 216 NW 8th Avenue for the same purpose.

What’s next

The Delray RFP at 216 NW 8th Avenue is the open door, and Thursday’s discussion sets its terms. Builders who want the template should read the Pompano agreement first, because the pricing and covenant structure is the template most Broward and Palm Beach CRAs are converging on. Note that the cost of building in Delray is about to change: the city votes Tuesday on six new impact fees. Track the market at the South Florida hub.