Stet NewsFor you today, accusations fly in Juno Beach, looking for a new chamber boss, know your property values and Tiger Woods golf arena, Take 2.
🛝 Juno Beach politics go to court
A 79-year-old Juno Beach Town Council member will go to trial July 30 on a battery charge, the culmination of a feud between her and the former mayor and his wife.
Town police charged Councilmember Marianne Hosta in March after the wife of then-Mayor Alexander Cooke said the retired high school math teacher grabbed her cell phone when she was taking video of her husband at a candidates forum.
In a video shared on Nextdoor, Bianca Giancoli Cooke, the mayor’s wife, can be heard saying as Hosta approached, “Don’t touch me. Are you crazy?”
While police said they didn’t see any marks on Giancoli Cooke, the 44-year-old said ligaments in one of her fingers were sprained.
See the video through the Nextdoor app here.
Flynn Bertisch, who represents Hosta, said he suspects the charge was political payback for ongoing animosity between his client and the Cookes.
Regardless, he said, Hosta’s not backing down.
Hosta rejected a plea deal that would have made the charge disappear if she completed probation, he said.
“She didn’t accept it because she didn’t do anything wrong,” Bertisch said. “She said, ‘I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do.’”
But wait, there’s more: Giancoli Cooke also filed a libel lawsuit against Hosta. In the suit filed in February in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, she claims Hosta falsely accused her and her husband of abusing their children. Hosta encouraged people to report them to the Florida Department of Children & Families, the suit says.
In Hosta’s online blog, the source of much angst in the small seaside community, Hosta flatly denies the accusations.Subscribe
Her civil lawyer predicted the suit would be thrown out. “Whatever they are saying, it’s not actionable,” said attorney Philip Valente. “This goes nowhere.”
Yes, but: The Cookes have a different view. During a January meeting, Cooke railed against Hosta, calling her attacks on his family “disgraceful.”
He said he took the unusual step of berating Hosta from the dias for good reason. “This must be made public and our broader residents must be made aware of the increasing liability Marianne Hosta has become to the safety and sanctity of our town,” said Cooke, who was voted out of office in March.
Why all the drama? Hosta’s blog, “Marianne’s Eyes on Juno Beach,” fueled much of what Hosta called “ill will.” But, plans to upgrade a children’s playground in the town of wealthy retirees, also figured prominently into the strange dispute.
The rest of the story: How a playground catapulted the dispute, click here.
— Jane Musgrave
💼 Chamber back to the future
This week begins a new chapter for the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beacheswith the departure Friday of its CEO and the return of longtime chamber leader Dennis Grady.
Outgoing CEO Donald Burgess left to run the chamber of commerce 4,800 miles away in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Why it’s important: In line with West Palm Beach’s renaissance, the county’s oldest business organization is raising its aspirations, said Michael Davis, who will take over as chair of the chamber board in November.
In an interview Friday with Stet, Davis, a senior vice president at the design and engineering firm WGI talked about the next iteration of the chamber. “We believe it’s time to up our game,” he said.
- The search for a new CEO, expected to take three to six months, will be guided by the chamber’s just-completed strategic plan.
- “I think Palm Beach County deserves a chamber like Miami or Tampa,” Davis said.
Does that mean he wants the chamber to be more powerful? “More effective,” Davis replied.
Catch up quick: Grady, 73, retired from the chamber in 2021 after 35 years as CEO. He’s kept his hand in West Palm Beach business as a consultant for the chamber and the Economic Council of Palm Beach County.
“I will help set the table,” Grady said, “but then I will take a seat in the back.”
This item was corrected to show Grady retired in 2021.
🍳 Property values sizzle
The taxable value of property in Palm Beach County grew by 10 percent last year, a slowdown from last year’s 14 percent rise but the third straight year of double-digit gains, tax rolls released last week by the property appraiser show.
For the first time, new construction topped $5 billion countywide.
Why it’s important: The figures, which reflect property values as of Jan. 1, will be used to determine budgets and how much landowners will pay in property taxes. As values go up, tax rates set by cities and countywide agencies would have to be reduced to avoid tax hikes.
Stunning stat: A Stet analysis shows that since 2020 cities in the county’s coastal center, from Hypoluxo to Mangonia Park, grew the most in value — by 59 percent. Cities in the Glades grew by the second most at 54 percent. West-central cities grew by 50 percent with north county at 49 percent and south county at 47 percent.
Four of the five cities with the highest value also had the most new construction. They are West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens and Delray Beach.
Yes, but: One city to buck the trend is Riviera Beach. It had the fifth biggest gain in new construction but is the ninth most valuable city.
The city with the second-most value — and fewer than 10,000 full-time residents — Palm Beach, had the seventh-most new construction.
The top 10 cities by value as of Jan. 1, 2024, their new construction total and their rate of growth over last year are:
- Boca Raton, $37.5 billion total; $575 million new; 8.5 percent.
- Palm Beach, $32.1 billion total; $198 million new; 11.3 percent.
- West Palm Beach, $23.3 billion total; $667 million new; 11 percent.
- Palm Beach Gardens, $19.9 billion total; $515 million new; 11 percent.
- Delray Beach, $18.1 billion total; $389 million new; 11 percent.
- Jupiter, $17.3 billion total; $124 million new; 9 percent.
- Wellington, $12.5 billion total; $58 million new; 9 percent.
- Boynton Beach, $9.9 billion total; $118 million new; 9 percent.
- Riviera Beach, $8.8 billion total; $324 million new; 14 percent.
- Royal Palm Beach, $4.6 billion total; $53 million new; 8 percent.
Big picture: The countywide total is $313 billion. The Palm Beach County School District, free of some exemptions that apply to the county, had the largest tax base at $351 billion.
- Countywide valuations earlier this century rose by double digits for six straight years, a run that ended in 2007.
Of note: Oceanfront South Palm Beach had the lowest amount of new construction among the county’s 39 municipalities at $903. No, that’s not a typo, the Property Appraiser’s Office said. That’s $63,502 less than the next lowest, Briny Breezes.
🎆 The juice
Five years after The Palm Beach Post sued to make public the secret transcripts of the 2006 grand jury proceedings that resulted in one charge against Jeffrey Epstein, the court made them public on Monday. They showed, as The Post reported in 2019, that prosecutors treated a 14-year-old girl lured to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion to give a massage as if she, not Epstein, was the criminal. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
👮🏼♂️ Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra retirement pay to his top brass as they departed in recent years, some topping $400,000. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
Tri-Rail’s first express train from West Palm Beach to Miami was disrupted Monday morning when the tracks were closed in Hallandale because another train hit a person. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚜 The Riviera Beach Planning and Zoning Board approved three changes to allow twin, 25-story towers called Oculina on the city’s north end. As first reported by Stet News, Forest Development would build Oculina at the tip of a strip center featuring a Goodwill thrift store. The 3.3-acre site overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway next to the nearly complete Nautilus 220 twin towers, also built by Forest Development. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🦉 Florida Atlantic University is borrowing $117 million to build 670 housing units. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🐢 The Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach is No. 1 in a reader poll of the best free attractions in the United States. (USA Today)
⛳️ Quoted
“In clubs that have memberships, there’s a lot of rules. [At] Everglades Club, you can’t bring a cell phone in.” The Park “makes you feel like you’re at a nice club without the rules.”
Payton Smith, a real estate agent in Palm Beach, in an interview for Air Mail on why he thinks the über-wealthy have taken to West Palm Beach’s municipal golf course.
🐯 561 insider: Tiger Woods golf arena rises — again
After a yearlong delay and a redesign, the new-look Tiger Woods-backed golf arena is rising again on the Palm Beach State College Palm Beach Gardens campus.
TMRW Golf, the league backed by stars Woods and Rory McIlroy, is scheduled to draw up to 1,500 fans to the new venue for its ESPN-broadcast opening night on Jan. 7, just six months from now.
Yes, but: First they need to build the arena and outfit it with $30 million worth of technology.
- Construction is on pace, a spokesperson said.
Why it’s important: In the 150,000-square-foot facility, professional golfers will compete in a new indoor league relying on simulated long shots shown on a giant screen and actual short shots and putting on one of three real-life indoor greens, drawing worldwide attention to Palm Beach County.
Of note: Gone is the air-inflated dome that deflated during a power outage and was destroyed by a daylong wind and rain storm on Nov. 15. The league had planned to start in January 2024.
When the TMRW Sports partner Mike McCarley appeared before them for approval of a metal-clad building in February and March, state college trustees extracted promises of revenue sharing, about $440,000 a year and rising, in exchange for a 20-year lease on 10 acres off of PGA Boulevard.
