Business View Magazine | December 2020

430 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 retail, institutional, medical and research facilities supported by 3,760 housing units. Now that the interchange is open, the City is working with the developer on development agreements and the developer is beginning to secure letters of intent with retailers, hoteliers and other end- users. Preliminary site plans for Emerald Lakes have already been given the stamp of approval, which includes a Crystal Lagoon. “We’re talking about acre upon acre of Caribbean-blue crystal waters,” says Sherman. “Think of a pool, but multiply that several times over. I can’t possibly do it justice. It’s a large Crystal Lagoon surrounded by multi- family commercial and residential buildings, plus a hotel. It’ll be almost a city unto itself when it’s fully built out.” Creating a “downtown district” in the City’s Bayfront area, which encompasses the City- owned Pelican Harbor Marina at the mouth of Turkey Creek off U.S. 1, is also in the cards for the City of Palm Bay. “The City and the Bayfront Community Redevelopment Agency own about 7.5 acres of waterfront marina property in the Bayfront,” Junkala-Brown explains. “This past year, we’ve secured a commercial real estate broker who is actively presenting our marina property to developers for commercial waterfront and retail. We’ve had a lot of interest. Ideally, this would be the catalyst for what would potentially be a downtown commercial waterfront district.” Sustainable stormwater management rounds out Palm Bay’s revival as a City rebuilt around practical, community-minded growth. Sherman describes theirs as a formalized approach: “We’ve strategically aligned our stormwater projects to be stormwater improvements. I’m talking about replacing older pipes, updating the infrastructure, those types of things. All those projects are lined up to happen in advance of each segment of road paving under the GO Roads Bond Program. The priority is those projects that lead the way to making the stormwater system underground safe and