Another tower rising in downtown West Palm Beach

Developers win approval for 22-story residential development at Hibiscus Street and South Dixie Highway.

Add another canopy of cranes to the skies above downtown West Palm Beach.

A proposal that stacks hundreds of thousands of square feet into a structure 296 feet high is poised to become concrete reality as controversy about high-rises shooting up in the heart of the city reaches historic proportions.

Developer Mast Capital earned final approval Wednesday to build Banyan Tree Residences West Palm Beach, a 22-story, nearly 204,000-square-foot residential development with 88 condo units, a four-level garage and 11,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. 

The Downtown Action Committee’s unanimous approval came over the objections of a downtown citizen activist group, which is pushing back against the fast pace of development that has turned much of downtown into a construction site.  

Opponents acknowledged that the proposed tower at Hibiscus Street and South Dixie Highway meets the city’s planning codes for this district, where buildings are allowed to reach the city’s maximum height. Their argument pressed on the point that something this size will mean more decay in the quality of life downtown, particularly considering traffic.

“Code compliance does not eliminate this committee’s responsibility to evaluate how the building relates to its surroundings,” said Fatima Sanandaji, who lives downtown and co-founded Save West Palm Beach, which had about a dozen of its members at Wednesday’s hearing in light blue T-shirts, their group’s name with white lettering. “This is a 22-story, nearly 300-foot tower on a 0.85-acre site beside substantially lower residential buildings — that difference in scale is significant.”

But committee members praised the planning and the design of the building that will replace the low-rise former home of the Arthritis Foundation.

“I’m in full support of it,” said Roger Janssen, chairperson of the committee. “I think that architecturally it’s very successful … very, very well thought out, very well-designed.”

A battle for downtown West Palm’s future

Members of Save West Palm Beach said they weren’t surprised they lost this one. 

The proposal meets city codes for this part of the city in every way, according to the city’s presentation Wednesday. That means it doesn’t require City Commission approval, only review from the Downtown Action Committee, said Kathleen Joy, city spokesperson. 

Other projects by developers without a stake in this condo project loomed large over the proceedings for 400 Hibiscus St.

Since the pandemic in 2020, the pace of new housing, stores and schools has crowded the city agenda like never before. Residents say streets have become notably more clogged. The Palm Beach Post estimates that at least 10,000 new housing units could open in the next five years.

Deals with the city’s biggest developer, Stephen Ross, would build a second, 400-room convention hotel downtown while giving his company, Related Ross, use of the land tax-free.

Related Ross is planning 168 residences in two towers along South Flagler Drive next year and is constructing twin towers in CityPlace that will provide 1 million square feet of office space.

Ross’ proposal to reroute Flagler Drive to expand the downtown waterfront park prompted so much community outrage that Mayor Keith James paused a comprehensive rewrite of the city’s Downtown Master Plan, which allowed new waterfront high-rises.

‘Soulless and indifferent developers’

Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, was alluded to derisively during Wednesday’s hearing.

Harriet Janensch, retired from the New York fashion industry and now residing in City Plaza, referred to “soulless and indifferent developers, infesting our politics” including one whose name rhymes with “boss.” She urged the committee to make a larger statement.

“So right now, in this moment, get these powers that be to admit you can’t successfully create a condensed city in a century-old infrastructure — it stops with us,” Janensch said. “Halt any planned development not under construction … sanely create the long overdue modern city planning that is effective and sustainable, where the citizens have overriding input, so all can rightfully access and enjoy a quality of life.”

Cory Hartstein, a lawyer living on South Flagler Drive, saw something bigger in the tower plans and said it represents “exactly the kind of progress our city and downtown needs.”

“The proposal before you today could help transform that vacant lot into what we heard — a mixed-use development for professionals choosing West Palm Beach because they see what everyone in this room already knows — that West Palm Beach is a special place that has real momentum,” Hartstein said. 

“Our downtown is thriving, not the opposite,” he said. “West Palm Beach is at a crossroads, and we can be a city that embraces smart, responsible growth, one that welcomes new neighbors, strengthens its tax base, and reinvest in the infrastructure and services that benefit everyone, or we can be a city that reflexively says ‘no’ to every proposal, watches its momentum fade, and wonders a decade from now where all the investment and energy went.”

Harstein said that he will feel much safer walking around the city with his children once the luxury development is built out rather than the current situation.

The location has changed hands because the Arthritis Foundation’s national organization wanted to cash in on the downtown real estate boom in 2023. That led to a legal imbroglio with its local chapter, which wanted to run a clinic there. 

Ultimately, the local Arthritis Foundation lost its downtown site and the property was sold for $4.5 million in 2023 and then sold to the developer in 2025 for $5.2 million, according to county records.

Conditions developers must meet

City staff asked for two conditions to be placed on the developer, Mast Capital, based in Miami:

• A review of the valet operation with the right to either revoke the valet permit or ask the developer to change the operations.
• More screening details and architectural elements for the garage openings and other inactive facades.

To opponents’ question of the development’s impact on traffic, Chris Kimmerly, West Palm Beach’s principal planner, said the development passed the city’s evaluation.

“The traffic study was provided and the analysis was vetted by both our city traffic consultant … and our city transportation mobility coordinator,” Kimmerly said, noting that the developer has also agreed to continued monitoring.

One of the members of Save West Palm Beach, however, said that analysis was limited in its scope of study.

“That’s like saying my house was studied, but the study only included the front hall to the bathroom to the laundry room,” said Sue Fuller, a resident of South Flagler Drive.

Local consultants on the project include Langan engineering firm’s Rick Reikenis; UDS planning and landscaping firm’s Robert Dinsmore; MPLD land development firm’s Rebecca Miller; Shutts & Bowen law firm’s Harvey Oyer; and The Westley Group procurement firm’s Kelly Shoaf.