Stet News💃🏼 Happy Cinco de Mayo, Stetters!
For you today, exclusive reporting as a convention center hotel deal comes into focus, the president name-checks his favorite locals at the Forum Club, a new hospital in the north county neighborhood, Riviera Beach gears up for All-America City status and Asian fusion in Palm Beach Gardens.
🏨 County’s $1 billion hotel deal
A proposed second convention center hotel built by megadeveloper Related Ross would cost Palm Beach County $26 million up-front but bring in a minimum of $1 billion over 99 years.
Why it matters: The deal would help draw more visitors to the convention center. It seeks to carve out minimum payments to avoid giveaways that often mar county efforts to draw convention center hotels. It also gives the county a cut of hotel revenues but it still must pass the County Commission.
How the deal works:
- Palm Beach County would pay Related Ross $26 million for the vacant 1.8-acre site south of Okeechobee Boulevard next to the county’s convention center. That would save Related a potential $1.6 million a year in property taxes.
- Related Ross would pay the county $1.8 million a year with an annual 3% increase for the site and to use 590 parking spaces in the county’s 2,550-space convention center parking garage.
- The county would be in line for a cut of the hotel’s gross revenues, with payments growing to $4 billion over 99 years if the hotel maintains an average revenue growth rate of 4%.
Catch up quick: Commissioners authorized County Administrator Joe Abruzzo to negotiate solely with Related Ross in February.
- Related’s ownership of the last vacant lot next to the convention center, dating to its 1990s development of CityPlace, gave the company leverage no other hotel developer could match.
- But the county held a wild card. In a past agreement, Related pledged to use the property for 630 parking spaces for the first convention center hotel, limiting Related’s alternatives on the site.
What they’re saying
- Abruzzo said he wanted to avoid handing the developer a sweetheart deal. “I feel the administration has negotiated a deal that’s the furthest thing from a giveaway,” he told Stet News. “The minimum $1 billion is a good return for the taxpayers of Palm Beach County.”
- Related, run by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, confirmed Abruzzo’s account of the deal. “We continue to believe this is an opportunity to craft an agreement that will be a win-win for everyone,” said Eric Silagy, a Related vice chairman.
What’s next: The deal to build the estimated $310 million Curio by Hilton will be presented to county commissioners but the meeting date has not been set. Related recently held private meetings with each commissioner.
Read Stet News’ exclusive account of the hotel deal’s details by clicking here.
— Jane Musgrave and Joel Engelhardt
🍽️ Donald Trump dishes on the Palm Beaches
Desalination of Palm Beach’s water supply modeled on nuclear submarines.
A bigger and better Palm Beach International Airport as it transitions to Donald J. Trump International Airport.
The sanctity of Palm Beach, more secure than ever before with a president of the United States living there.
Those are a few of the points President Donald Trump touched on during his 75-minute speech Friday at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.
Why it matters: While Trump is never shy, routinely making speeches across the nation, his long-standing ties to Palm Beach County where he has owned Mar-a-Lago since 1985 give his appearance here a deeper meaning for the locals.
Catch up quick: Trump knew many in the crowd of 580 at the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion, offering shoutouts to public officials Meg Weinberger, the state legislator who pushed to rename the airport for Trump; Joe Abruzzo, the county administrator whom Trump referred to as a “diamond”; and Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, “A friend of mine, even though he’s a Democrat.”
Trump also recognized a cadre of islanders, including sugar baron Jose “Pepe” Fanjul, former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and Trump’s first-term ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Notably missing from the shoutouts: Palm Beach County Mayor Sara Baxter, a Republican who tried to move the county mayors’ ball to Mar-a-Lago.
Zoom in: Trump’s shoutouts also included former Congressman Dan Mica, who spoke earlier in the evening as the Forum Club honored him for founding the club 50 years ago. Mica, a Democrat, praised the club for making good on its stated objective of delivering bipartisan discourse, starting with the club’s first speaker, then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.
The bottom line: With Trump’s appearance, the club came to the final days of its 50th season by hosting its first president.
Read more from Stet News about what the president told the $225-a-plate audience here.
Watch the video of President Trump’s Forum Club speech here.
Editor’s note: Joel is a Forum Club member.
— Joel Engelhardt
👨🏼⚕️ Say hello to the Miller Medical Center
Although it’s a Fortune 500 corporation with 400 hospitals and $17 billion in revenue, Universal Health Services came across like a family shop last week as officials cut the ribbon on the first new full-service hospital to open in north county since 1979.
Driving the news: The 156-bed Alan B. Miller Medical Center in Palm Beach Gardens’ Alton community off Interstate 95 and Donald Ross Road, the centerpiece of a $430 million medical complex, is named for the UHS founder who lives in nearby Admirals Cove.
What he’s saying: “We are your neighbors,” Alan B. Miller, 88, told the crowd of more than 500 people jammed into a tent outside the hospital. “I expect this hospital, like all our others, to treat patients the way I would want my family treated.”
Miller’s son, Marc, the company’s president and CEO, took responsibility for naming the hospital after his dad, making an exception to company-naming protocols.
Why it matters: The hospital, which is built to expand to 290 beds and could seek approvals for an additional tower to grow even more, is the 30th acute-care hospital in the UHS system, which includes Florida hospitals in Wellington, Bradenton and Sarasota.
Zoom out: UHS, based in King of Prussia, Pa., considers itself the nation’s largest provider of behavioral health care hospitals, with 346 inpatient facilities including 16 in Florida. It owns SandyPines Residential Treatment Center in Jupiter/Tequesta.
What’s inside: The Miller center features 35 emergency room beds, 30 intensive care rooms, 30 medical-surgical suites and six posh, VIP rooms on the hospital’s seventh floor that include a family lounge and kitchen area clustered next to the patient’s bed.
It will offer robotic surgery, orthopedics, radiology, stroke and heart care, advanced imaging, emergency and critical care, gynecologic and surgical oncology and spinal surgery.
What’s next: The hospital officially opens May 19.
See photos of the new hospital at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🇺🇸 All-America finalist
Riviera Beach is one of 20 finalists for the All-America City Award presented annually by the National Civic League.
The Riviera Beach Youth Councilapplied for the award, Vice Chair KaShamba Miller-Anderson said during the April 15 City Council meeting.
Why it matters: According to the National Civic League, All-America City finalists and winners often experience stronger economic growth.
- They tend to find it easier to attract businesses that create job opportunities and strengthen the tax base.
- Finalists and winners also have seen an increase in tourism and grants.
Catch up quick: The All-America City Award was created in 1949 to provide municipalities with a space to share their efforts to make change and to learn from other cities how to implement these ideas.
- Delray Beach is a three-time winner.
What they’re saying: Miller-Anderson said the factors in the application that earned the city its top-20 status were the city’s Reimagining Riviera Beach capital improvement plan, the Riviera Beach Citizens Leadership Academy, and the Community Development Authority’s Neighborhood Reclaim home stabilization program.
What’s next: The city is invited to a three-day meeting and competition in June in Denver. Representatives will share 10-minute live presentations of their stories to a jury of civic engagement experts. The panel will select 10 winning communities, which will be announced during the closing ceremony.
Who wrote this story: This story was reported by Community Voices writers Mikala Graham, Abigail Guillaume, Micaja Etienne and Kelvin Verhovlyak.
What is CV: Community Voices is a partnership between Stet News and Inlet Grove High School. Stet News is underwriting the pilot to train and pay students to cover Riviera Beach.
Inlet Grove journalism teacher C.B. Hanif and Stet’s Liz Capozzi contributed to this story.
🍊 The Juice
✈️ Hours after the collapse of Spirit Airlines on Saturday, JetBlue Airways announced plans to add 11 routes this year from its primary Florida hub, Fort Lauderdale. They include Charlotte, Indianapolis and Nashville. (Business Insider)
🚔 Vastly different terms shape the cost of sheriff’s coverage in 12 Palm Beach County municipalities. “It is like a code that is impossible to break, no matter how hard you try,” said Jamie Titcomb, town manager of South Palm Beach. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
⚖️ Former MorseLife Health System CEO Keith Myers sued the nonprofit over his termination, claiming he was made a “scapegoat” for its challenges. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
5️⃣ The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area ranked fifth in the nation for office space under construction in CommercialCafe’s latest annual Office Pipeline report. As of January, nearly 1.6 million square feet were in the pipeline here.
- Only Boston, Manhattan, Dallas and Los Angeles had more office space under development. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🔥 Former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has joined the Ambition Accelerated campaign as a senior adviser. Ambition Accelerated was launched by billionaires Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin to recruit more companies, CEOs and founders to Florida’s corridor between West Palm Beach and Miami. (Axios)
🌊 Boynton Beach is resurrecting the idea of widening the nearly 100-year-old Boynton Inlet and replacing its fixed-span bridge on State Road A1A with a drawbridge. (The Coastal Star)
✉️ Riviera Beach City Council Member Bruce Guyton ordered City Manager Jonathan Evans last year to “deal” with the city’s chief financial officer or face consequences, according to a letter to the city from the CFO’s attorney.
- Guyton successfully pushed for Evans’ removal last week. (WPTV Channel 5)
🛍️ A retail plaza at Belvedere Road and Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach has sold for $11.4 million after an abandoned plan to put luxury housing there. The new owner said the plan is to keep it a shopping center for now. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🔎 An examination of Armor Health and health treatment in county jails. (Florida Trib)
⛱️ The Beach Club, the municipal golf course restaurant known for affordable food, a casual vibe and spectacular water views, could soon be entering its final round at Lake Worth Beach Golf Club.
- Seeking competitive proposals for a new restaurant there “is our opportunity to move our city forward,” City Commissioner Sarah Malega said. The Beach Club’s operator was encouraged to apply. (Lake Worth Beach Independent $$$)
🚊 Auditors for Brightline say there is “substantial doubt” that the private train company can avoid bankruptcy because of a lack of cash needed to pay off debt.
- DePaul University professor Joseph Schwieterman — an expert in urban planning — said bankruptcy isn’t likely to threaten Brightline’s operations because the service is generating a “positive cash flow.” (Axios)
- A Miami Herald-WLRN investigation of Brightline’s fatality rate was honored Monday as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local news reporting. (WLRN)
📣 The Equal Ground on the Ground: 2026 Legislative Session Debrief Tour comes to West Palm Beach this week. The nonpartisan event outlines what happened during the legislative session for everyday Floridians at 6 pm Wednesday at the Palm Beach County Main Library at 3650 Summit Blvd. Equal Ground is a nonprofit working to build Black political power and increase civic engagement in Florida. Register here.
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, welcomes Nicholas Ostheimer, president of the FAU College Democrats, and Joseph Semprevivo, president of the FAU College Republicans, for a conversation about what their generation wants from government. (Listen now ; watch after 4 pm today)
561NSIDER: 🍣 Asian fusion on the water in Gardens
Kenneth Yeung is banking on Palm Beach Gardens’ locals for the success of his new Asian fusion venture, Red Phoenix.
The waterfront restaurant opened in March at 2401 PGA Blvd. Situated behind Carmine’s Gourmet Market, it overlooks the marina from the inside-outside bar.
Prices for a meal with drinks range from $20 to $50.
Why it matters: Yeung wants to bring success to a spot that has seen several past failures by offering:
- An extended happy hour from 2 to 6 pm weekdays with special drinks and appetizers.
- Thursday ladies’ night from 8 to 10 pm with live music. House wines and champagne will be free.
- Red Phoenix After Dark on Saturday nights, “8:30 to whenever,” Yeung said, as a gathering place after hours for the 30- to 40-something set.
What they’re saying: “I want to bring this area alive. I think, ‘How do I give people who don’t want to go downtown a place to gather and hang out?’ A good place to meet other people,” Yeung said. “Who are you going to meet on Clematis at the bars? Here, you get better quality people in Palm Beach Gardens.”
The menu: Dishes are traditional and fusion, but sauces are lighter, on a healthier track, Yeung said. Traditional dishes include those that attract the Asian community itself.
The good stuff: Peking duck is available, along with duck-fried rice. Fusion comes with dishes such as a black truffle-shrimp fried rice. “We have General Tso’s chicken, very popular,” Yeung said.
- Traditional dishes include Szechuan fish soup and mapo tofu.
- Dim sum appetizers feature shrimp dumplings, shumai (pork dumplings) and soup dumplings.
- At the sushi bar, diners can choose from a list of common rolls and those created each night. Cucumber rolls for vegetarians, and the spider and lobster rolls are popular, he said.
Learn more about why Yeung brought his restaurant to the area at StetNews.org.
— Jan Norris
⚾️ Rooftop view
👋 Liz, here! I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh visiting family, which meant a trip to PNC Park for a Pirates baseball game — watched from the rooftop.
It was 48 degrees and overcast, classic Pittsburgh, the kind of gray that somehow makes the yellow bridges and the skyline off the Allegheny look even more vivid. The Pirates hosted the Reds — who came in near the top of their division — and walloped them 17-7, which made the cold easier to ignore.
We came home to a cooler, rainy West Palm Beach, though after Pittsburgh, it felt appropriately tropical.
