In 2022, a Texas-based developer bought the old Twin City Mall property at U.S. 1 and Northlake Boulevard with grand plans to redevelop. Four years later, construction has yet to begin.
The property's fate is tied up in a lawsuit filed in May 2025 by developer NP-Devland Holdings, a subsidiary of Cypress Real Estate Advisors, against the village of North Palm Beach and its Village Council. The developer says the April 2025 approval of its master plan came with the right to build up to 14 stories, but the Village Council took that right away. The village says the developer knew all along that the heights weren't guaranteed.
The legal battle has consumed a year, jumped in and out of federal court, and caused the village manager to plead the Fifth Amendment 25 times in a deposition when confronted with a potential violation of the state's Sunshine Law.
The development requirements at the heart of the lawsuit were put in place when the Village Council voted to approve NP-Devland's master plan for a development called Village Place. NP-Devland proposed 947 apartments, 133 condominiums, a 222-room hotel, a 206-unit senior living facility, a 1.36-acre civic space and 90,000 square feet of retail and commercial space on the 13-acre property.
The new requirements set conditions for development that were not part of the previous zoning approvals governing the property. Those zoning approvals were created in 2023 when the village worked with NP-Devland to hammer out the rules for what can be built on the property, creating a new zoning district, called a C-3 Regional Business District. It allowed buildings up to 14 stories under certain conditions. It spelled out four thresholds for the developer to meet.
NP-Devland claims it met the thresholds and, now that its master plan has been approved, the village must allow up to 14 stories. The village claimed NP-Devland did not meet all four requirements, falling short on an acceptable level of public benefit. And the village insisted that the approval of the master plan does not come with height guarantees.
The proposal drew heated opposition from residents of the village, a town founded in 1956 along the Intracoastal Waterway north of Riviera Beach and Lake Park. Ron Okolichany, who ran for a seat on the Village Council this year, said the project is too big for a village with a population of about 13,000.
"The size and the scope and the density doesn't fit with the character of the village," he said in an interview. "They want to put Manhattan-style density in a village."
Traffic would be overwhelming, he said. "Our roads are overcrowded, and they cannot be expanded. Yet, they are going to dump 3,000 more residents on us and increase our population by 20 percent?" he asked. "We are not ready for that."
North Palm's vision for old mall
The run-down property has long been a target for redevelopment. Twin City Mall opened in 1971, the first enclosed mall in northern Palm Beach County. Its name was derived from its location, which straddles the boundary of Lake Park and North Palm Beach. Anchored by Sears and Roebuck, the mall was a popular north county shopping destination. When The Gardens Mall opened in 1988, Sears moved there, and the Twin City Mall fell into decline. It was torn down in 1997.
In 2015, the village included the mall site in a revitalization plan developed by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. A Citizens' Master Plan suggests "a lifestyle center like CityPlace or Mizner Park" at the old mall with shopping, dining and restaurants in the form of an urban neighborhood. NP-Devland said this is exactly what they envision for Village Place.
Not all of the old mall site is at issue. A seven-story apartment complex is under construction on the west side of the property that lies in Lake Park. Northlake Promenade Apartments will have 279 rental units. An existing Publix and several small retailers on the west side of the property also are not part of Village Place. The businesses that face Northlake and U.S. 1 — a CVS, TD Bank, Wendy's, Helix Urgent Care and a gas station — also are excluded. Two buildings would be razed, one vacant and one that houses the True Treasures furniture consignment store and BurgerFi's corporate offices.
As developers swoop into Palm Beach County looking for prime real estate, the old mall site is a rare opportunity: developable land in a high-value ZIP code.
Enter Cypress Real Estate
NP-Devland Holdings bought the site for $19 million in April 2022 from a company run by car and yacht dealer John Staluppi. The development company is backed by Cypress Real Estate Advisors, a real estate investment and development firm based in Austin, Texas. Cypress' extensive portfolio nationwide includes more than 25,000 apartments, 16,000 homes, plus stores, hotels, senior living facilities and offices. Cypress Realty of Florida developed Abacoa, the 2,055-acre Jupiter development with 6,000 homes, a baseball spring training complex and stadium and a Main Street-style retail strip. Nader Salour is the company's local principal.
Height concerns date to 2023
While NP-Devland saw the chance to transform the site into a large-scale, mixed-use development, residents saw high-rise buildings destroying their town's character. Before she was elected to the council, Lisa Interlandi, an environmental land-use attorney, expressed the feelings of many residents at the July 2023 meeting where the village approved the C-3 Regional Business District.
"I have concerns about the height," Interlandi told the council. "You all should look very closely at whether or not approving this development on that site is going to take us down the road of allowing higher density, high-rise development along U.S. 1. That is a serious threat to the village."
Then-Mayor David Norris asked village attorney Len Rubin for assurances that the code for the new business district did not automatically entitle the developer to height guarantees, that the village would determine what building heights would ultimately be allowed later in the approval process.
"I want to make sure that the language is such that no developer is going to come through and say 'I met those four thresholds so now I get 14 stories,'" Norris said, emphasizing that the business district allows a maximum of 14 stories but the developer doesn't automatically get the full 14 stories. "I want to make sure that Mr. Rubin agrees that we will have the authority to determine whether we want 10 stories, 12 stories, 14 stories or eight stories."
Rubin replied: "There is language in a couple of different places where we are clear this is not entitlements. You have to meet the criteria. … It is not a permitted height."
With these assurances, the council voted 4-1 to approve the new business district and its building requirements for the mall property.
Approving the master plan
By the time NP-Devland came forward with its master plan in 2024, Interlandi had been elected to a Village Council with three new members.
NP-Devland first presented its master plan in May 2024 at a joint meeting of the North Palm Beach Planning, Zoning and Adjustment Board and the Lake Park Planning and Zoning Board. Attorney Harvey Oyer addressed height early in NP-Devland's presentation. What he said would soon become a central issue in the lawsuit.
"A master plan is not the height of the buildings. It's not how many units are in it. It is not the color of the drapes or the carpet. Those all come at a later time in a site plan approval," Oyer said.
Oyer outlined how Village Place complied with the four thresholds for approval: The developer has to own at least 5 acres, provide a minimum of half an acre for civic space, dedicate 90,000 square feet to nonresidential space and include public benefits, such as enhanced landscaping and innovative architecture.
The North Palm Beach planning board voted 7-0 to approve the master plan with the clarification that approval did not entitle the developer to any heights. Lake Park's board voted 4-1 for approval.
When NP-Devland next presented to the Village Council in August 2024, Oyer had a different approach on the all-important height issue.
"The master plan shall also include intensity of each use, maximum floor-area ratio and building heights, which we would like to discuss with you further," Oyer told the council.
Interlandi spoke up. "I think you would be in a better place with us if you had presented this need that you have to identify the height at the planning and zoning advisory board meeting," she said, referring to the May 2024 meeting. "You fully sidestepped that issue. This is an entirely different presentation."
Oyer said that approval of height was "implicit" in the village code and NP-Devland had complied with the four thresholds needed for approval. "Your code says if you do those four things, you get nine and 14 stories of height," he said.
Council members disagreed, but voted on first reading to grant seven stories with the possibility of 14 stories only if NP-Devland's project delivered sufficient public benefit in return.
'Hoodwinked'
When NP-Devland next appeared before the council in April 2025 for final reading, the council reversed that decision.
"NP-Devland is asking us right now to go beyond what our code requires and to vest them at a certain height," Interlandi said. "At this point, I don't think we should vest them at any height."
Interlandi told NP-Devland she wanted "assurances that we were going to have everything the village wanted to see in order to grant you the density you are looking for." Those assurances include 37 conditions spelling out precise development terms the village says NP-Devland agreed to in negotiations.
Council Member Susan Bickel also objected. "I am uncomfortable approving this with the developers seeming understanding that we would grant certain heights. That was not the intention of the code when it was written, and I feel like it has been abrogated."
But with no indication of what heights would be acceptable, the developer found itself in the unenviable position of moving forward on a multimillion-dollar project without knowing what could be built, Salour told the council.
"We've designed the plan with certain heights and densities in mind. If those heights and densities change, the master plan will change," Salour said. "We have been losing money for four years. We need a vote tonight so we know what we have to do."
The council voted to approve NP-Devland's master plan without any height guarantees.
Around that time, NP-Devland sent village residents a mailer. "Hoodwinked," it read in bright red letters with the definition "to deceive or trick someone." It blamed the council: "We've been hoodwinked by the Village Council — they approved a plan without development parameters so nothing can be built."
One month later, NP-Devland filed suit.
Suit aims at two key provisions
NP-Devland is asking a judge to throw out the new development requirements and force the village to adhere to the original C-3 Regional Business District zoning requirements. The developer objects to two of the 37 conditions.
The first states that the developer is not entitled to any approvals of height or density in the master plan. They can't know their maximum development until they submit a site plan and spell out what public benefits they will provide.
The second one, the subject of a recent court hearing, says: "The applicant (Devland) shall be bound by all oral and written representations both on the record and as part of the application/approval process."
NP-Devland argues that this sentence means the village can make approval of its project conditional on any statement anyone from NP-Devland ever made or will make on or off the record. By creating new rules after NP-Devland's application was approved, the village "acted in bad faith," the suit says.
The village contends NP-Devland attended numerous meetings during which the new conditions were discussed and never voiced an objection; therefore, the developer has no right to complain now. The village also argues that NP-Devland's suit is based on the assumption that the village will deny the project, a hypothetical scenario the court cannot rule on.
Critics doubt North Palm's position
Residents who have long opposed the project say the conflict was inevitable. Chris Ryder, a real estate broker who served on the village's code enforcement board, warned council members in 2023 that the way the C-3 code was written was going to come back to bite them.
Ryder said the 2023 council's understanding that master site approval did not entitle the developer to heights was incorrect. "They opined that we still have the (zoning) process to go through and normally that would be correct," Ryder said. "But, in this particular code where the entitlements are granted at master plan approval, all (NP-Devland) has to prove is that they have met all the objective requirements of the code. By granting approval, the village certified that the proposed development did meet the objective thresholds of the project."
Norris, who ran for council this year and lost, took issue with the council's approach as well. The C-3 code required the village to determine allowable heights during the master plan phase, he said in a recent interview.
"The village is not complying with its code. The master plan is supposed to provide for height and density," Norris told Stet News, objecting to the village's decision to defer the height decision despite approving the master plan. "The developer cannot create a plan if he is guessing at height and density."
Developer says village violated Sunshine Law
In February, NP-Devland amended its complaint adding an allegation that the council violated Florida's Sunshine Law. The allegation stemmed from an email chain discussing revisions to the clause about oral and written representations.
In a January deposition, NP-Devland attorney Ethan Loeb pressed Village Manager Chuck Huff about the email he sent a year earlier to then-Vice Mayor Interlandi. In the email chain, Rubin suggested alternative language to the clause. Interlandi responded that the new language sounded good and Salour suggested additional changes. With everyone's comments in the string, Huff forwarded the email to Mayor Deborah Searcy with an "FYI" message.
Loeb asked Huff if he was aware his actions could be considered "daisy-chaining," in which elected officials avoid the Sunshine Law prohibition against communication outside of public meetings by communicating through an intermediary, in this case Huff. The attorney for the village, Eric Stettin, stopped the deposition. After a short break, the deposition continued and Stettin advised Huff that he had the right to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself in a criminal matter. Huff proceeded to plead the Fifth 25 times.
In his June 2026 deposition, Rubin said he advised Huff afterward not to forward emails from one council member to another. "That is not a good practice," Rubin said he told Huff. Rubin testified that he did not know the term "daisy-chaining," but the email exchanges would be a Sunshine violation only if Searcy responded. He said he didn't know if Searcy responded and NP-Devland has not introduced anything into the court record to say she did.
Interlandi is next in line for a deposition after Palm Beach County Circuit Judge James Sherman denied the village's request to shield her from a deposition about the email exchange.
Proving a Sunshine Law violation would make the new regulations invalid, NP-Devland argues.
The amended complaint also included another new claim, one that prompted the village to petition to move the case into federal court. The developer asserted that the village violated the U.S. Constitution by "coercively withholding permitting approval" unless NP-Devland forfeited some of its rights and complied with the village's new "conditions." U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected the village's petition, and three weeks later the case was back in Circuit Court.
'We'll know whether we want to approve something when we see it'
During a July 15 hearing, NP-Devland argued that the requirement binding it to all of its oral and written representations be thrown out. The clause is too vague and should be deemed unconstitutional, attorney Stephen Gieseler said.
The village has no record of every statement NP-Devland has ever made, Gieseler pointed out, referencing Huff's acknowledgment in a deposition. "Nobody has any record of what these oral representations were as part of the approval process," Gieseler said, calling the village's approach "we'll know whether we want to approve something when we see it."
The village pointed out that the developer always knew about the language and had never objected. "There is not one word, not one objection at any of the public meetings from any representative from NP-Devland objecting to this specific condition," Stettin said. "In fact, to the contrary, they expressly agreed on the record to the language we are here to talk about."
Stettin also argued that the challenge to the code was premature. Judge Sherman has yet to rule.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
