Boynton gives final OK for new $118 million downtown

City officials gave the final OK on Tuesday to pay about $118 million to redevelop 16 acres off Boynton Beach Boulevard into a pedestrian-friendly, town center to live, work and play.

The Town Square project calls for the historic high school to become a cultural center with a 500-seat auditorium and restaurant space, a fire station, library and City Hall in a four-story building, an amphitheater, parking garages, apartments, retail space, a hotel and a police headquarters off site.

The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum and Learning Center will remain. Also, a district energy plant will provide cold water for air conditioning for the entire project through a central chilled water plant.

Boynton will use money from a $76,117,844 tax-exempt bond and pay it back over about 25 years with money from the city and the Community Redevelopment Agency. The bond will be obtained through a company called CFP Boynton Beach Town Square LLC, a 501 C3 run by Minnesota-based Community Facility Partners, for tax-exempt reasons. Once the bond is paid off, the land and the buildings revert back to the city. The remaining $42,214,508 will come from sources including city and utility budgets, the CRA, federal tax credits and land value prices.

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