By BILL DIPAOLO
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 19, 2009

JUPITER — Harbourside, a $127 hotel/restaurant waterfront complex approved last December, is closer to breaking ground following approval tonight to make the 10-acre parcel a taxing district.

“This makes us more credible when we apply for financing. It shows the town is behind the project,” said Nick Mastroianni, manager of Allied Capital & Development, the developers of the project on the current site of the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum.

The district allows the developers to set up a five-member board to levy taxes on Harbourside property owners and issue tax-exempt bonds.The next step for Harbourside developers is winning town approval for using tax dollars to fund the project. If approved by the town Community Redevelopment Agency, about $350,000 in tax dollars could be spent annually for up to 15 years on the project.

No date has been set for the CRA meeting.

Harbourside, which will take about two years to build, includes a hotel with a rooftop pool, shops, amphitheater, offices and restaurants with outdoor seating. Three parking garages, along with 30 private and public boat slips, are planned at the site at the northwest corner of U.S. 1 and Indiantown Road.