Carolyn DiPaoloThe winning plan has a convention center, a Marriott, waterfront dining and a culinary school — all on 12 acres overlooking the water.
Riviera Beach leaders chose a partner Thursday to transform one of its most valuable assets, the city marina waterfront, into a $566 million residential and tourist destination.
Forest Development founder Peter Baytarian’s winning proposal calls for tearing down the city’s 10-year-old money-losing event center and replacing it with a 73,000-square-foot convention center.
Also now on the drawing board for 12 acres at the Marina Village just north of the Port of Palm Beach is a 270-room Marriott Autograph hotel, 164 condominiums, three waterfront restaurants, a rooftop lounge, a culinary school and a 240-slip dry-boat storage center.
For public access, the plan includes an expansion of Bicentennial Park, an amphitheater, a food truck park, a dog park and a splash pad.
The marina plan relies on open-air plazas, shaded promenades, waterfront gathering zones and rooftop venues for a coastal atmosphere.
With a 99-year lease of the city land, Baytarian said Forest would pay annual rent of $2.9 million.
And there’s more. Forest Development pledged to create a resident-led community benefit fund and contribute $100,000 a year to it.
The City Council selected the North Palm Beach-based developer over two competing proposals by a 3-1 vote with Shirley Lanier absent and KaShamba Miller-Anderson voting no.
While council members did not offer insight into their decision during the meeting, the convention center proposal won the day for Vice Chair Glen Spiritis, who made the motion to negotiate with Forest.
“I think we should be a destination,” he told Stet News after the meeting, “and I think that project makes us a destination point. It makes us different than other communities.”
The advantage of a convention center located on the waterfront will make it stand out compared to the 350,000-square-foot Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Spiritis said.
Forest is in discussion with London-based event company Informa to operate the convention center, Baytarian told council members. Informa runs the Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale boat shows.
Other potential partners are Okeechobee Steakhouse, which could operate one of the restaurants. Baytarian said chef David Burke, who recently opened an upscale restaurant in Forest’s Nautilus 220 condos in Lake Park, plans to open a culinary school at the Marina Village. Four Riviera Beach residents would get free tuition every year, Baytarian said.
He also promised to find a spot for the longtime marina restaurant Rafiki Tiki in the Marina Village.
Council Chair Bruce Guyton told all three proposers, who all are deeply involved in major construction projects in the city, that he didn’t want the project to lock out city residents by focusing solely on upscale restaurants and condos.
He quizzed each developer on what their projects offered for everyday Riviera Beach constituents. Twice, he suggested they consider adding a bowling alley.
“We’ve got one chance to get this right. One,” Guyton said, “to ensure all residents can participate.”
It will take 1,500 construction workers to build the project, which will create more than 1,000 part-time and full-time jobs, Baytarian said.
Three developer finalists
Forest prevailed over Sonnenblick Development and Related Urban.
Los Angeles-based Sonnenblick Development presented a proposal that included two hotels with a total of 300 rooms, 270 residential units and five waterfront restaurants. It is negotiating with the city to redevelop city property along Blue Heron Boulevard into a City Hall, library, sports complex and hundreds of apartments, an estimated $480 million project.
Sonnenblick edged out Forest for the City Council’s blessing last year.
During his presentation, Sonnenblick Principal Bob Sonnenblick criticized his rival’s convention center plan.
To do a convention center on the marina property would be a financial disaster, he told council members. “It will probably never get built.”
Miami-based Related Urban Development Group, the developer of two residential projects on the west side of the Marina Village, proposed the most modest project with 234 residential units and 120 hotel rooms. The developer scored the highest in a staff-led committee ranking of the projects. Forest came in second.
Related Urban won city approval Wednesday to build a twin-tower, 418-unit apartment building on the edge of Marina Village along Broadway, next to its under-construction 149-unit apartment building for lower-income residents.
What’s coming and when
Forest Development’s marina plan would be built in three phases.
Phase 1 will include the restaurants, retail and office space, which Baytarian said would open in three years, and the hotel, with a planned opening in 42 months.
Phase 2 is the convention center and Bicentennial Park improvements.
Phase 3 is the 164-unit condominium and boat storage.
The city has been trying to redo the waterfront since 2005, when it chose Viking to be master developer of a $375 million project, a plan that died in 2015.
Third try at a vote
Thursday’s decision came during the third attempt by this City Council sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency Board to decide on a waterfront developer.
The first planned vote was abruptly canceled on Feb. 25 after city officials received subpoenas from the FBI that WPBF reported were related to the marina redevelopment.
On May 13, only three of five council members attended a selection meeting. The board heard presentations, then decided not to vote without Lanier and Miller-Anderson.
Before Thursday’s decision, Miller-Anderson left a mystery around her reasons for voting no.
“I’m going to tell you the very truth for me. I don’t think this item should have come back to us right now,” she said. “For reasons you may not know, I do not feel comfortable voting yes for anyone tonight.”
Lanier did not announce her reason for skipping the two selection meetings, which came after the council negotiated an early end to the contract of City Manager Jonathan Evans.
Forest’s difficulties with the neighboring town of Lake Park drew a critical commentary from one member of the public, Nikasha Wells, before the council voted.
Forest has a multimillion-dollar deal with Lake Park to rebuild the town’s underperforming waterfront but the deal is in question after Forest sued Lake Park in late December alleging that the town slow-walked a critical element of the plan.
Forest is also the developer of the Nautilus 220 condominium high-rise in Lake Park, which opened last December at least a year later than planned, and has proposed the twin 25-story Oculina residential towers next door on the Riviera Beach side of Silver Beach Road.
Another stalled project is the 16-story, 595-unit 10th & Park Avenue apartments proposed for Lake Park.
Riviera Beach CRA staff members will arrange weekly meetings with Forest Development to pursue a marina agreement.
After the vote, Sonnenblick and Related Urban President Alberto Milo Jr. walked over to Baytarian’s seat for a handshake and congratulations.
Milo told Baytarian, “You’re a hell of a presenter.”
