5 things to know about Nora: West Palm Beach's future dining destination

Warehouses sit there now, but developers aim to create a new West Palm Beachhotspot for trendy restaurants, bars and businesses. They've started calling this district 'Nora' and here are five things you should know about it:

1. The name, Nora, comes from the district’s location in West Palm Beach

When you have a destination whose "Main Street" is North Railroad Avenue, you tap those first letters acronym-style and call the area it defines 'Nora'.

Bounded to the west by North Railroad Avenue, Nora is a broad swath of properties north of downtown bounded to the north by Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, to the east by North Dixie Highway and to the south by Seventh Street.

2. Nora timeline: Work is just beginning and it won't end for a while

Here’s what we know now about the timeline:

• Work on the underpinnings — the infrastructure — of this hot destination is just  beginning.
• The conversion of the endless warehouses into places to shop, dine and hang out is slated to happen inlate 2022 or early 2023.  
• The creation of Nora's "Main Street" is due to be completed by early 2024. 

3. This West Palm Beach development isn’t just big; it’s one of the biggest

Nora is made up of 72 parcels of land amassed by one of the developers over the past four years. Remaking that swath will cost about $520 million.

Not since the fall of 2000, when CityPlace opened, has West Palm Beach seen a planned redevelopment of this scope.

This project is spearheaded in part by the same developer who brought Wynwood to Miami. That area too began as an industrial district before it was reimagined as an entertainment mecca with restaurants, breweries, art and entertainment.