Stet NewsWelcome to June … and hurricane season. For you today, how much is your town worth? Plus, a new strategy to fight poverty; $337, please; turning the tide in Riviera Beach; spotlight on Community Voices; and lessons from the Food Bank.
💌 Read to the end for an invitation.
🎄 Early Christmas in Lake Park
The twin tower, 330-unit condo building Nautilus 220 shortly before it opened last year at Silver Beach Road and U.S. 1 in Lake Park. (Photo: Joel Engelhardt/Stet)
When preliminary property tax values came out last week, it was Christmas in May for Lake Park.
The cash-strapped town of about 9,000 had been counting on a big budget boost from the 24-story, 330-unit Nautilus 220 waterfront condos that were completed in December, just in time to make the 2026 tax rolls.
Why it matters: For evidence of the impact high-rise residential towers can have on a city budget, look no further than Lake Park.
- The preliminary estimates put the Nautilus building’s value at $400.9 million. At this year’s tax rate, that would add $2 million to town tax collections next year, nearly a 50% boost over the $4.2 million in collections this year.
What they’re saying: “It’s a seismic shift in the tax base itself,” Lake Park Mayor Roger Michaud said. “We’re happy that it’s here and we look forward to seeing what we can do with this newfound revenue source.”
Zoom in: Taxable values countywide rose 6.8% to $365.7 billion. Lake Park had the highest percentage rise among cities at 38.5%. The town with the second highest value in the county, Palm Beach, had the highest amount of growth, at $2.9 billion, an 8.47% rate.
Of note: Countywide values have risen 75% since 2020, including three years with double-digit increases.
Top 5 most valuable municipalities
- Boca Raton, $42.5 billion
- Palm Beach, $37.5 billion
- West Palm Beach, $27.7 billion
- Palm Beach Gardens, $23.5 billion
- Delray Beach, $20.9 billion
Yes, but: Local officials will be closely watching Tallahassee this week as legislators take up Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call to increase the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $250,000, which would spare owners of homes valued at those new levels from paying any property taxes. Local governments depend on property taxes for schools, police, fire, parks, libraries and other services.
New construction continued to boom in Palm Beach County, with the value of properties added to the tax rolls topping $5 billion for the third straight year.
Top 5 in new construction
- West Palm Beach, $749.7 million
- Palm Beach Gardens, $610.8 million
- Boca Raton, $573 million
- Lake Park, $419.3 million
- Delray Beach, $305.9 million
Check the full story to find how much your town is worth at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🆕 A new philanthropic strategy
The Quantum Foundation will develop housing in West Palm Beach’s Coleman Park neighborhood. (Rendering: Spina O’Rourke + Partners)
Palm Beach Venture Philanthropy has spent more than $8 million and years of effort in one of Palm Beach County’s poorest neighborhoods. Now, with four city lots, it is moving ahead with its plan to build housing and a community hub.
Driving the news: On May 26, West Palm Beach city commissioners unanimously gave the property along Tamarind Avenue north of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard to the venture philanthropy branch of the Quantum Foundation.
The organization will develop the land and nearby property it has acquired into housing, business and nonprofit office space and a community common area called the Culture Yard. The project is designed to help rejuvenate the Tamarind corridor in the heart of the historically Black Coleman Park neighborhood.
Why it matters: The Coleman Park initiative is the pilot of a strategy the Quantum Foundation is developing to move beyond traditional grant-making focused on the symptoms of neighborhood poverty and instead focus on the cause, Palm Beach Venture Philanthropy’s Raphael Clemente told commissioners.
“We intend to scale countywide,” Clemente said. He added that about 25 U.S. Census tracts in Palm Beach County have similar conditions.
Catch up quick: The West Palm Beach-based Quantum Foundation’s focus on health goes back to its founding in 1995 with proceeds from the sale of the nonprofit JFK Medical Center in Atlantis to HCA Healthcare. The foundation created Palm Beach Venture Philanthropy in 2023 to lift distressed neighborhoods.
What they’re saying: At the May 26 commission meeting, Mayor Keith James said, “I believe as cities evolve, they will need the philanthropic sector to step up as Quantum has done here.”
What’s next: A search for funding partners is underway. Before the land transfer is final, the organization has to meet several requirements, including starting construction within three years. The project is estimated to be completed in five years.
Keep reading to learn more about the Quantum Foundation’s strategy and why its leaders chose the Coleman Park neighborhood at StetNews.org.
– Janis Fontaine
☀️ The costs of sunshine
A restaurant would go toward the north end of Currie Park under the $35 million plan to rebuild the waterfront park in West Palm Beach. (Rendering: City RFP)
Residents who want to see the proposals for a waterfront restaurant in West Palm Beach’s revamped Currie Park before a selection committee ranks them on June 10 will have to pay.
The city’s estimated cost for the public to review the submissions from three restaurant teams is $337. The money would pay for city officials to look over the proposals for exempt information, which the city says must be redacted before the proposals are made public.
Yes, but: The city’s own rules call for the bidders to identify such information and provide a legal basis for excluding it. And the city is sharing the proposals with the five-member ranking committee, which includes three non-city employees — without redacting them first.
What they’re saying: “The public is being billed to do the work the agency has already shifted to the vendors,” said Michael Barfield, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability. He called the city’s fee determination “ridiculous.”
Why it matters: The $35 million plan to rebuild the north-end park has been a lightning rod for criticism. The proposals will be a major change to the park, which has never had a commercial component.
Zoom in: The proposals include one from the city’s newest nemesis, Nick Coniglio, who owns E.R. Bradley’s, which has been embroiled in a dispute with the city over a downtown waterfront park. He is teamed with Ned Grace, a developer of the Nora neighborhood north of downtown.
Other bidders:
- SMG Drones of Lantana, whose founder, Hadley Doyle-Gonzalez, was part of the family that owned Panama Hattie’s Rum Bar in Palm Beach Gardens, which closed in 2014.
- Breakwater Hospitality Group of Miami, which operates several venues in Miami, including Pier 5 in Bayside Marketplace.
The city provided those names for free. It also provided the names of the selection committee members, including a representative of the city’s biggest developer, Related Ross, and a restaurant consultant.
Read more about the city’s demand for $337 to let the public know what to expect in a public park at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🌊 Riviera Beach takes on erosion
This aerial photo, taken in December, shows ocean waves reaching some Singer Island condo seawalls. (Photo: Palm Beach County)
Frustrated by the pace of Palm Beach County’s long-term plan to manage Singer Island’s beach erosion, Riviera Beach officials are launching an emergency dune replacement project.
Driving the news: The city set aside $77,000 in May to hire Baird, a West Palm Beach-based coastal engineering company, to design the project and help secure a state permit to start the work right away. The cost of the beach restoration could reach $6 million, according to city records.
The work would shore up the beach in front of 17 condominium buildings in the 1.2 miles from the Cote D’Azur condominiums, just north of Ocean Reef Park, to the Water Glades, the northernmost condominiums on Singer Island.
Why it matters: Riviera Beach City Council Member Glen Spiritis told Stet News the value of the real estate on the island reaches into the billions.
Barrier islands such as Singer Island absorb wave energy before it reaches the mainland. This generally means smaller storm surges on the coast while leaving barrier islands more vulnerable to severe erosion.
The latest: During the past two winter seasons, the county did not add sand to the dunes along that milelong stretch. The county does not have plans to put sand on Singer Island’s ocean shore this year either.
“Any attempt to build dunes in the current conditions would be futile and would require use of tourist-based tax dollars that is difficult to justify,” a county report said.
Yes, but: Palm Beach County is working with Riviera Beach to pursue a long-term solution. It could take five years of study and permitting before it launches.
The city aims to jump-start its emergency project before potential damage from the hurricane season, which started Monday, further deteriorates the beach and harms coastal wildlife, Spiritis said.
What’s next: Riviera Beach is appealing to the state to approve the placement of sand in certain areas during sea turtle nesting season. If the city does not get that approval, that would push the proposed work to Nov. 1.
Keep reading about the long-term plan to manage erosion in Riviera Beach at StetNews.org.
— Sephora Charles
📝 Community Voices report card: A+
Inlet Grove High School students at a Riviera Beach City Council meeting in April, taking notes and reporting on the city’s actions. They are, from left, Kelvin Verhovlyak, Mikala Graham and Abigail Guillaume. (Jake Shore/WLRN)
The first year of Stet News’ Community Voices teen news reporting project with Inlet Grove High School has been a success by every measure.
The five students in the program reported and wrote 14 stories since they began covering meetings in November. They include the latest on Riviera Beach’s planned police headquarters, the impact of tourism on the city and Riviera Beach being named an All-America City finalist.
Why it matters: Local government leaders make decisions in hundreds of meetings every month, often without public scrutiny. Community Voices invites students into the rooms where their future is being decided.
Catch up quick: The pilot trains and pays teens to cover Riviera Beach, where they live or go to school.
- Inlet Grove journalism teacher C.B. Hanif and Stet co-founder Liz Capozzi lead the team.
- The CVers are: Micaja Etienne, Mikala Graham, Abigail Guillaume, Kelvin Verhovlyak and Myles Whigham.
The latest: The students’ impact is reaching beyond Riviera Beach.
A WLRN radio journalist turned the microphone on Stet’s high school news reporters by interviewing them for a story on the South Florida station. Read here. Listen here.
A grant from the American Press Institute and the Knight Foundation will help support the teens’ plans this summer to produce the news on platforms beyond StetNews.org.
What they’re saying: Verhovlyak, 16 and an aspiring filmmaker, said he never thought about journalism before joining Community Voices. “It’s also just a whole bundle of new opportunities,” he said of the program.
“A shoutout to our Inlet Grove CEO Dr. Emma Banks, Principal Mr. Lopez and Assistant Principal Mr. McDermott, for their support,” Hanif said. “Kudos, too, to the city officials for welcoming the students on the basis of an expectation of professional journalism.”
What’s next: All of the CVers have committed to return for more news reporting in the fall.
Stet News, an IRS-certified nonprofit, underwrites Community Voices. We invite you to join us with a contribution as we build and grow the program.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
🍊 The Juice
(State Archives of Florida/Elfers Citrus Growers Association)
✂️ Gov. Ron DeSantis is promoting a plan to eliminate property taxes on the first $500,000 of a homesteaded home’s value but his plan, which requires voter approval, raises the state’s $50,000 homestead to $250,000 in 2028 and leaves it to future legislatures to raise the amount to $500,000. It also restricts spending to public safety, education, infrastructure and natural resource projects, issuing local bonds and paying retirement benefits, leaving out money for property appraisers and other constitutional offices. (Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times $$$ or see the proposal here)
- A calculator posted by the state shows homeowners how much they would save with a $250,000 homestead exemption. (Save Our Homes)
🚂 State legislators supported a $60 million payout to the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority to keep Tri-Rail rolling. The money, in the state’s $114.5 billion budget approved Friday, awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature. (Sun-Sentinel $$$)
- The budget included many weird — and wired — expenditures. (Seeking Rents)
⛈️ Taxpayers’ $2 billion investment in building stormwater treatment areas to cleanse runoff before releasing it into the Everglades is on course to fail rules imposed under a court order. The rules require that the average annual phosphorus levels in the water coming out of the STAs by April 2027 must stay at or below 13 parts per billion two out of every five years, and must never go above 19 parts per billion. But, of the five STAs, only one has managed to keep phosphorus levels at below 13 parts per billion, state data shows. The other four have repeatedly hit phosphorus concentrations above 19 parts per billion in recent years. (Florida Trib)
⬆️ Billionaire Jeff Greene has proposed a 25-story tower with 366 apartments in downtown West Palm Beach that would take advantage of the state’s Live Local Act. The tower would go on top of the 1915 city fire station at 120 S. Dixie Highway. The law requires 40% of the units be designated for workforce housing (between 60% and 120% of area median income) and allows the project to move forward without City Commission approval. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🔌 Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy is known as a political force whose tactics have sometimes put it at odds with regulators, residents, consumer groups and news organizations.
- Some utility experts said NextEra’s political activities are likely to be scrutinized as the company seeks approval for its $66.8 billion purchase of Dominion Energy. (The New York Times gift link)
🎆 To bounce back after two disappointing years of fireworks, Lake Worth Beach is planning a $115,000 hybrid drone and fireworks show in Bryant Park downtown for the Fourth of July. Vice Mayor Mimi May will parachute in with a skydiving team. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
- West Palm Beach is planning a celebration on the downtown Flagler Drive waterfront starting at 5 pm and ending with a laser show synchronized to an 18-minute fireworks display. (City press release)
🖼️ Henry Flagler’s museum home in Palm Beach, Whitehall, will offer free admission Friday in honor of Founder’s Day, marking the anniversary of the estate’s rescue from demolition by Flagler’s granddaughter, Jean Flagler Matthews, who established the museum in 1959. (Sun-Sentinel $$$)
🎀 A stroll down memory lane to Marilyn Monroe’s ties to Palm Beach on the 100th anniversary of her birth. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, explores the upcoming special session on property tax relief, focused on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ homestead exemption boost to $250,000 and the effects it could have on city and county services. (Listen now; watch after 4 pm today)
561NSIDER: ❤️ More than free food
Health Department nutritionist Wynna Dunmyer in class in Lantana in May. (Photo: Joe Capozzi/Stet)
Residents in need of food can get more than a meal from the Palm Beach County Food Bank. They can get a lesson in nutrition to assure that their next meal is healthy.
Through a program in West Palm, Lantana, Jupiter, Greenacres, Delray Beach and Belle Glade, the Food Bank and the Health Department offer the county’s 192,000 food-insecure residents an option to get nutritional advice from experts along with fresh food.
Why it matters: “By combining access to nutritious food with practical education, we are empowering families to make healthier choices,” said Dr. Jyothi Gunta, director of the Department of Health’s Palm Beach County office.
Catch up quick: The program costs more than $1 million a year, paid for in part by federal American Rescue Plan grants to the county. Two other partners, Baptist Health and Florida Blue Foundation, are helping pay for medically tailored food boxes.
Zoom in: The May program in Lantana started at 1 pm in a library conference room where a registered Health Department dietitian shared nutritional advice with a dozen people, including seniors and mothers.
- More of a relaxed conversation than a formal lecture, nutritionist Wynna Dunmyer used a whiteboard and magnetic images of food items such as chicken, corn and potatoes to illustrate the importance of a daily healthy balanced meal.
What they’re saying: “I loved it. I will be back for more,” said Theresa Potochak of Greenacres. “I learned stuff I didn’t know. I honestly didn’t think it would be that interesting, but it was.”
Read more about how a food bank is handing out fresh food and an education at StetNews.org.
— Joe Capozzi
🎉 Join us this month for happy hour!
We’d love to see you at Stormhouse Brewing in North Palm Beach, where we’ll gather at 5 pm June 19 to ring in the weekend.
The family-owned establishment offers beer, wine and cocktails for purchase. We’ll supply some light bites.
Everyone is welcome. RSVP if you can by replying to this email so we know how many Stetters to expect.
– Joel, Carolyn and Liz
