Downtown West Palm Beach
November 19, 2005
With more than $1.4 billion invested in the last decade and dozens of new civic, cultural and residential projects — both public and private — spawning millions more in current and pledged investment, downtown West Palm Beach is indeed at the dawn of a new era.
It’s no wonder the city’s Intracoastal Waterway-front downtown, anchored by two bustling entertainment-retail-residential cores, and is widely regarded as one of the best examples of outstandingly conceived comprehensive urban renewal.
With downtown’s palpable dynamism, a steady stream of new residents and companies large and small continue to relocate to this county seat of Palm Beach County, a city home to an 11-story courthouse, county governmental center, and a 91,000-plus population.
Having undergone a phenomenal rebirth from the sluggish early 1990s to what is now a robust partnership of city and county officials with visionary private developers eager to sow investments, downtown West Palm Beach is on the march.
From new hotels, astounding cultural growth and at least 12 new residential projects underway, to a new convention center across from CityPlace, the $600-million mixed-use project that opened in October of 2000, downtown West Palm Beach is poised for its next exciting phase.
CLEMATIS STREET DISTRICT
Initiatives launched in the mid-1990s in downtown’s 5-block-long, four-block-wide waterfront Clematis Street District — including new streetscapes, crime-prevention programs, a plethora of new public events, and Centennial Fountain, a daily gathering spot for families and children — spurred on more multimillion-dollar enhancements.
Since then, the Clematis area, with 250,000 square feet of retailers, dozens of restaurants and a busy night life, has, year after year, witnessed significant additions — from the $3-million waterfront Meyer Amphitheater to the renovated Cuillo Centre for the Arts. More recently, some 200,000 square feet of Class-A office space was added — in two stunning mixed-use waterfront buildings with retail, dining and residential components, too — and more is on the way.
Currently on the drawing board for the district are an amenity-rich waterfront park and boardwalk and a new governmental and cultural hub called City Center, both through an alliance of public and private investments. City Center, slated to open in early 2007 on the 400 block of Clematis, will include a new 130,000-square-foot city hall, a new library triple the size of the current one and the Palm Beach Photographic Centre and Museum, relocating from Delray Beach.
At least 55 percent of the property will be available for private development — including several hundred parking spaces — which is helping to finance city hall and the library. Enhancements to the Clematis area’s mile-plus-long waterfront call for a city commons, a boardwalk and an expansion of the existing weekly popular Green Markets. Other features identified as key include new boat docks, watercraft rental concessions, kiosks, gardens, and picnic and activity areas.
CITYPLACE
Just southwest of the Clematis area, CityPlace, the four-year-old 72-acre entertainment-retail-residential project — its Northern Italian-inspired architecture unfolding 78 regional and national retailers, 20 dining options, 20-screen movie theater, apartments, town homes and live-work lofts, a historic cultural center and more — has triggered much activity and investment around it.
Across from CityPlace’s southern border, the city’s new 330,000-square-foot regional convention center opened last year and already has been the site of numerous prestigious and popular affairs — from boat shows to the multimillion-dollar International Fine Art Exposition. Currently on the horizon is an adjacent 400-room convention center hotel, among other things, which will be a major boost to downtown’s already robust business-hospitality industry.
CULTURE AS CATALYST
Certainly a stimulus to downtown’s ongoing remarkable revolution is the scope and expansion of culture offerings in the downtown area, which made international news as early as 1992, when the $55-plus-million state-of-the-art Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, across the street from CityPlace, opened debt-free.
Since 2000, nearly $300 million has been invested, pledged and planned for Palm Beach County’s cultural organizations — most in West Palm Beach. From the Kravis Center to the South Florida Science Museum to the Palm Beach Zoo to the Norton Museum of Art, now the largest art museum in Florida, culture organizations’ capital campaigns, largely floundering elsewhere in the country, have reaped tens of millions. Among the newest offerings is Palm Beach County’s first major history museum, which will be located in the now under-renovation 1916 county courthouse.
Culture in downtown West Palm Beach has not only helped cement the community’s spirit, but it also has been cited as a critical factor for companies planning to relocate to the area — including the noteworthy Scripps Research Institute.
PLACE TO CALL HOME
Perhaps a few of the most striking evidence of downtown West Palm Beach’s investment and development momentum is the aforementioned 12 major residential projects underway in both the Clematis and CityPlace corridors. Their total investment is reportedly $500 million or more, evidence of unwavering confidence in what is undeniably a soaring real estate. A March 2004 New York Times article indicated West Palm Beach was one of the country’s hottest real estate markets.
Since the city’s 1996 master plan mandating the addition of 2,500 residential units to downtown by 2008, recent incentives to promote high-quality residential development have included relaxing a former five-story building height and allowing eight stories provided certain conditions are met. Residential developers flocking to downtown join the army of businesses, cultural organizations, new and long-time residents, and visionary civic leaders, including Mayor Lois Frankel, whom are all inspired and intrigued by the city’s present — and its bright future potential.
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