Like many residential developments planned prior to the housing collapse, Seabourn Cove in Boynton Beach, Fla., was not immune to the ills of the economy. Originally planned as a community of luxury condominiums, the project was shelved in 2008 when the for-sale market tanked in South Florida.
But instead of playing the wait-and-see game with the market, Seabourn Cove’s developers — Charles Funk, Rick Lococo, and Jeff Meehan — made a bold move and remade the condo development into a mega green rental community. The developers are aiming to have the entire 23-acre, 456-home rental community gold-level certified through the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) ICC 700-2008 by the NAHB Research Center. If they achieve their goal, Seabourn Cove would be the largest NGBS gold-level multi-family community in the nation.
To help make this happen, the developers are allocating resources from a 10-year series of property-tax rebates from the city for retooling the community to incorporate cutting-edge green technologies. They include:
• An exfiltration system that retains all stormwater on-site
• High-speed electric-vehicle charging stations in each garage of the community’s 300 townhouses, in addition to two shared charging stations for the remaining units
• Pervious concrete in select parking spaces
• Energy Star-qualified solar roof vents
• Impact-rated, double-pane, low-e 366 argon-filled windows
• Energy Star-rated appliances
• High-efficiency HVAC systems (16 SEER)
• Programmable thermostats
• Enhanced insulation in the roof and walls.
As a result, the rental units are expected to achieve a 30-40 percent reduction in individual residential energy bills, and an estimated 25 percent reduction in water bills.
The apartment homes will range from one-bedroom, one-bath apartments with 888 square feet of living space to two- and three-bedroom townhomes (with 1.5 and 2.5 baths, respectively) providing 1,417 and 1,718 square feet of living space. The townhomes have one-car garages, and all other homes have covered parking.
For more on the project, click here.
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