$100 million question

You could argue that the county saved downtown West Palm Beach.

The downtown resurgence of the 1990s started with county decisions to invest in downtown in the 1980s, drawing the public and office workers to a center that had been depleted by suburban growth.

What happened: Downtown is so popular, packed with nightlife, storefronts and new apartment and office buildings, that traffic clogs the roads and the city ended decades of cheap parking with prices as high as $4 an hour.

• Downtown may be a victim of its own success. It’s difficult now for residents to obtain county services or attend county meetings.

It got County Commissioner Mack Bernard thinking. 

Before embarking on a $100 million upgrade of a 40-year-old administrative building on North Olive Avenue downtown, he asked county commissioners last week, why not consider moving?

With the renovation cost jumping from $70 million to $100 million, he fears eventually commissioners would be paying $150 million to fix an aging building.

“My thought process was as we’re making decisions on renovating a building, let’s take a look at something else,” he said in an interview.

In a six-point memo, he suggested moving into the low-income Westgate neighborhood just west of Interstate 95 between Belvedere Road and Okeechobee Boulevard. 

• Westgate would offer the public easier access to government offices that include the tax collector and the property appraiser. 
• It also would boost a struggling neighborhood, as the county did downtown.

Yes, but: His suggestion coincides with movement toward a huge redevelopment project along Belvedere Road in Westgate. The Palm Beach Kennel Club is under contract to Palm Beach-based builder, the Frisbie Group, The Palm Beach Post has reported. Under consideration: a mixed-use village with 2,000 residences.

Bernard also suggested moving the car rental center just west of the Kennel Club across Belvedere Road to the airport property and building another hotel at the airport. 

The county’s two blocks near the waterfront downtown? It could be worth $100 million for residential towers, commercial real estate broker Neil Merin calculated. 

• That could pay for a new admin building, Bernard said.