Wednesday marked another milestone for an evolving Oakland Park, as the city officially cut the ribbon on its new city hall.<\/p>\n
The commission chambers and city offices are now housed within the brand-new Sky building on Dixie Highway. City hall is connected to an apartment high-rise that is about one-third full.<\/p>\n
“I gotta tell you Oakland Park has been on the move,” said Mayor Tim Lonergan.<\/p>\n
Public-private partnership anchors downtown growth<\/p>\n
Besides Sky \u2013 which is a public-private partnership \u2013 the city has a 15-year lease with the developer. Oakland Park has also built a new firehouse and dog park. The old city hall on Dixie Highway is being demolished to make way for another apartment building with retail space.<\/p>\n
“We are turning into a destination versus drive-through city,” Lonergan said.<\/p>\n
Downtown split by Dixie and rail tracks<\/p>\n
The new downtown is split on either side of Dixie Highway and the railroad tracks. The city’s goal is to secure a Brightline rail station.<\/p>\n
Units in the new Sky apartment building start at $2,200 for a studio, but reduced-cost workforce housing is available.<\/p>\n
Residents and businesses drawn to city<\/p>\n
Makayla Williams, who moved here two years ago, was spotted dropping off r\u00e9sum\u00e9s at new downtown businesses.<\/p>\n
“It’s cheaper to live here. Gas is cheaper. And the people are fun,” she said.<\/p>\n
The city is attracting new businesses and residents. The population is now more than 45,000.<\/p>\n
Housing and business options expand<\/p>\n
Houses are often cheaper than in nearby Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors.<\/p>\n
Mainstays like Funky Buddha Brewery in the downtown business area continue to bring in weekend crowds.<\/p>\n
West Side residents will see a new library and community center in the future. There are also plans for another public-private venture to build a firehouse combined with a storage facility.<\/p>\n
Centennial celebration on the horizon<\/p>\n
All the change comes in anticipation of the city’s centennial celebration set for 2029.<\/p>\n
“This is our vision and we are unique Oakland Park,” Lonergan said.<\/p>\n
\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday marked another milestone for an evolving Oakland Park, as the city officially cut the ribbon on its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[553,1540,143,145,144,29283],"class_list":{"0":"post-50598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-oakland","11":"tag-oakland-headlines","12":"tag-oakland-news","13":"tag-south-florida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}