Photo Centre delays film school launch 

West Palm Beach exploring options to fill Clematis Street space vacant since January.

The Palm Beach Photographic Centre has pushed back the launch of its proposed film school one year, announcing it will not open in the fall as originally planned. 

The nonprofit center, known for its international FotoFusion event, departed downtown West Palm Beach in January with plans to reinvent itself as a film school. 

West Palm Beach, which evicted the nonprofit in 2022 and, after a lawsuit, paid it $1 million to leave, is moving forward with plans to find new tenants for the 26,000-square-foot space beneath the city library. 

The city is contemplating multiple uses, including entertainment options such as indoor mini-golf, said Chris Roog, executive director of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the property at 415 Clematis St.

The CRA hasn’t announced plans for the site since approving a 2023 strategy to “reimage the design and facade of the space” and work with the city and Downtown Development Authority to find tenants.

The space has storefronts facing Clematis Street and office or classroom space on the building’s second floor. 

Roog told Stet News in an interview that he has interest from several businesses and is working with broker Nikki Traff, an executive vice president at Colliers South Florida in Broward County. The city hasn’t posted a listing online, but refers interested parties to email Traff at Nikki.Traff@colliers.com.

“The street could have a really great entertainment type of use,” he said, citing examples such as an indoor golf facility, restaurants or stores. 

Photo Centre looking for film school home

The city recruited the Photo Centre in 2008 as a tourism lure but said it did not attract enough visitors to enliven the key block of Clematis next to City Hall. Faced with the uncertainty about its location, the center did not hold FotoFusion this year and does not know if it will hold it again next year, Executive Director Fatima NeJame said in an interview.

The center is still looking to secure a permanent home for both its proposed film school and photo museum and store. 

“We’ve got some options,” said Andy “A.P.” Ferullo, a film professional who will be in charge of the school. “But it’s the chicken or the egg. Do we rent space before we have the enrollment?”

The objective is to recruit students this fall for 2026, he said.

The program was designed as an accelerated one-year master’s degree with $100,000 tuition, where students would create and own feature films. From September to August, students will attend classes for 40 hours a week, like a full-time job. 

“If you only have to be there a year, one, you’re spending less money, and two, you’re beginning your career sooner,” Ferullo said, comparing their program to New York University’s three-year film master’s degree program. 

The proposed school’s tuition would be more than state schools, but less than private schools, Ferullo said. By the time students complete the program, they will be given a terminal degree, meaning they can teach without needing a doctorate degree. 

NeJame, who founded the center 39 years ago with her husband, Art, said they are looking to buy a permanent space, likely in Boynton Beach. They would still rent studio space for the film school.

West Palm recruited, evicted Photo Centre

In the early 2000s, then-Mayor Lois Frankel recruited the center to Clematis Street with a 30-year lease as a way to bring visitors to a newly rebuilt block dominated by City Hall and the library. But in 2022, with 15 years remaining on the lease, the city under Mayor Keith James told the Photo Centre it would have to leave. 

In June 2022, when the center objected, the city sued. A year later the city offered $1.09 million to settle the suit, conditioned on the county forgiving a $500,000 grant it provided to lure the center to West Palm Beach from Delray Beach.

After the county agreed, the center had until January to move out. 

While there is no timeline to fill the space east of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, Roog said the city is pushing to secure tenants soon.

“The space is basically ready to go,” he said.