Billionaire Jeff Greene has just unveiled one of the most ambitious mass timber developments, filing plans for a 25-story Live Local Act building that would become the tallest wood-framed building in Florida, and one of the tallest in the United States.
Designed by Carlo Ratti Associati in partnership with Nexus Systems — the development would rise on a 0.87-acre site at 120 S. Dixie Highway, 321, 324, 325, and 333 Datura Street. Current plans call for a 25-story tower with up to 399 apartments, 7,557 square feet of retail, and 236 parking spaces. The historic 1915 fire station currently on site will be incorporated into the first floor of the building.
The unit mix currently runs from studios to three-bedrooms, ranging from 505 to 1,320 square feet, with workforce-housing units stacked on floors two through four and six through 11 and market-rate units on floors 12 and higher. A fifth-floor amenity deck will feature a pool, fitness room, lounge, yoga room, private dining area, and grilling stations.
The project is filed under Florida's Live Local Act, which permits developers to build multifamily projects to the maximum height and density allowed within a one-mile radius in the same municipality, in exchange for designating 40% of units as workforce housing for residents earning up to 120% of area median income — a threshold Palm Beach County currently sets at $104,000. Roughly 160 of the apartments would carry the workforce designation. The Live Local pathway routes approval through city administration rather than a board vote, giving Greene the entitlement to reach 25 stories.
Greene's tower would become the tallest mass timber building in Florida. The clearest U.S. precedent is the 25-story Ascent tower in Milwaukee, completed in 2022 as the world's tallest mass-timber building at the time.