Stet NewsIt’s getting busier out there. And we say: Bring it! For you today, neighbors sue to block another convention center hotel; Rick Roth vs. David Silvers for state Senate; get ready to pay to play tennis in West Palm Beach; a well-liked administrator is recovering from a medical emergency; and what a top NASA leader says about racing China to the moon.
🏨 Second convention center hotel OK’d, but wait
Development giant Related Ross won approval last week from the County Commission to build a second 400-room convention center hotel in downtown West Palm Beach.
Yes, but: A group of West Palm Beach residents the next day sued the city to block the construction project, claiming it will destroy a historic neighborhood.
Driving the news: The estimated $349 million hotel required the approval of the county and West Palm Beach. City commissioners had to change zoning rules. They did so on Aug. 31.
- Commissioners lauded the complex deal with Related to build the 18-story hotel, saying it would pump billions into county coffers and the local economy over the next century.
Why it matters: Talked about for years, the second hotel would help the long-struggling convention center on Okeechobee Boulevard attract large national and even international events, commissioners said.
What they’re saying: “Everyone is going to benefit from this, the city, the residents and them — all the way around,” County Mayor Sara Baxter said. She called the deal a “no-brainer.”
- “This is a shining example of what is wrong with the planning and development process in this city and how it makes residents feel unheard and invisible,” Margaret Frazzini, president of the Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association, told commissioners.
Last-ditch attempt: Residents complained to commissioners that they were given only five days’ notice of the meeting, a violation of its own rules. The county attorney disagreed.
- County Administrator Joe Abruzzo said the meeting was scheduled, in part, to accommodate Related and protect the county.
- With construction and supply costs rising, the company wanted to break ground by the end of September.
- But – city officials said Related is still awaiting building permits.
What the lawsuit says: Before the City Commission approved the hotel, it didn’t do studies to determine whether water, sewer and drainage could accommodate another 400-room hotel with two restaurants and nearly 21,000 square feet of event space.
- Related officials said the increased traffic would add only 3 seconds to the wait time at the Rosemary Avenue and Okeechobee Boulevard traffic light, but that finding was based on a 2019 traffic study.
- The city and Related declined to comment.
Read more about the lawsuit at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
✅ Midterms 2026: Roth vs. Silvers for state Senate
Two former state representatives are vying for the Florida Senate District 26 seat being vacated by Lori Berman in Palm Beach County in the Nov. 3 election.
Rick Roth, R-Wellington, and David Silvers, D-Boca Raton, each served in the Florida House from 2016 to 2024 and were term-limited. Berman is leaving because she, too, is term-limited.
The district spans from the Palm Beach/Hendry county line to the coast and from Southern Boulevard south to Boca Raton. It includes Belle Glade, South Bay, Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Delray Beach, the Village of Golf, Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge, Wellington and most of Boca Raton.
Why it matters: If elected, both want to work on issues they focused on in the Florida House, from affordable housing to mental health reform and government accountability.
What they’re saying:
- Silvers on mental health reform: “I became a leader in the House on mental health reform. I want to do whatever I can to improve the mental health system in our state.”
- Roth on overdevelopment: “We are not building roads as fast as people are moving into Florida. We need to fund the infrastructure. There should be impact fees on new residents.”
Where they stand on pressing issues:
- Amendment 3 property taxes: Roth supports. Silvers opposes.
- Data centers: Silvers says experts have told him Florida is not conducive for them. Roth opposes them unless they provide their own power and water.
- Deportation of immigrants: Roth hasn’t seen problems on his farm but said he believes solutions can come from Congress once the illegal immigrant population returns to pre-2020 levels. Silvers says, “These are not criminals. These are individuals that are paying taxes and are law-abiding citizens.”
For more about where they stand on the issues, go to StetNews.org.
— Susan Salisbury
More Stet election coverage:
- Woodward vs. Calabrese for County Commission District 4
- What’s in the proposed $280 million Palm Beach County parks bond
- County library improvements are on the Nov. 3 ballot
🎾 West Palm tennis turmoil nears resolution
West Palm Beach is close to inking a deal that would cost at least one – possibly two – popular tennis pros their jobs and force residents for the first time to pay to play on courts that were recently rebuilt with millions in tax dollars.
Why it matters: The deal, which rocked the city’s tight-knit tennis community, spawned bid protests and a lawsuit, will turn the operations of tennis centers at South Olive, Howard and Gaines parks over to Let’s Play Tennis, a Palm Beach-based firm that wasn’t the city’s top choice.
Once a proposed three-year contract is finalized, the city will immediately turn over the operations of Howard and Gaines parks tennis centers to the company, headed by Cameron Lickle, a former tennis professional.
Lickle and his business partner, Gulf Stream resident Kevin Anderson, who was once the No. 5 tennis player in the world, would take over the South Olive Tennis Center in May, according to a draft version of the contract obtained from the city.
To settle a lawsuit filed by Skip Jackson after his bid to operate the centers was rejected, city officials agreed that the longtime director of the South Olive Tennis Center could stay until the end of the upcoming season of the women’s tennis teams that are based at the park. The season, which begins this week, ends April 30.
What’s next: Once Let’s Play Tennis takes over, under a city rate plan, the days of free tennis will end at Gaines and South Olive parks. Fees have long been charged at Howard Park, which has high-maintenance clay courts.
What they’re saying: Michael Williams, a retired city firefighter who has been organizing tennis clinics at Gaines Park for years, said he has many questions about the city’s plans to bring in new people to manage the centers.
- But he was unequivocal about the plans to charge residents to play on hard courts.
- “It’s absurd,” he said.
Keep reading for the details of the proposed contract at StetNews.org.
– Jane Musgrave
City manager recovering from medical emergency
Riviera Beach’s new city manager is in a medical rehabilitation center after an emergency six weeks ago that put him in the hospital.
What happened: Bill Wilkins, 79, who moved up from interim city manager to city manager on Aug. 5, was in an auto accident on Aug. 18.
The aftermath of the accident on West Blue Heron Boulevard sent him to the hospital, his wife, Brenda Wilkins, told Channel 25’s Terri Parker last week. Wilkins was driving a city vehicle and told Riviera Beach police the accident was a hit-and-run.
Catch up quick: A divided City Council pushed aside a national search to tap Wilkins to lead Riviera Beach three months after declining to renew the contract of its former city manager, Jonathan Evans.
Why it matters: Chairperson Bruce Guyton led the drive to hire him, saying Riviera Beach’s massive redevelopment and a challenging budget year required Wilkins’ experience.
The latest: Since the accident, Assistant City Manager Kevin Coppin has sat in the city manager’s chair during 10 meetings of the City Council, Community Redevelopment Agency and utility board.
What’s next: Wilkins said he is waiting for the doctors to clear him to return to work.
– Carolyn DiPaolo
🍊 The Juice
👑 The Don King Arena, formerly the Palm Beach Jai Alai fronton, comprising 52 acres on 45th Street in Mangonia Park, could be hosting office space and housing after the County Commission approved $5 million for water and wastewater improvements. It is reportedly the largest undeveloped parcel of land east of I-95. (Palm Beach Post $$$)
🔱 Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office used $111,000 in taxpayer money to pay a law firm to defend a second person as a grand jury investigated how $10 million from a Medicaid settlement sent to Hope Florida ended up in political committees. Using taxpayer money to defend public officials in a criminal investigation is illegal, according to an attorney general’s opinion.
- The governor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the expenditures. (Florida Trident)
🚦West Palm Beach will hold a public hearing tonight at 6 on its controversial Downtown Master Plan, which will direct the city in the future on issues such as downtown development and parking. The forum will be held in the Flagler Gallery in City Hall, 401 Clematis St. More information on the city website.
☪️ County Commissioner Maria Sachs’ meeting about preserving the Ag Reserve turned acrimonious as residents shouted her down over an approved Islamic Center at Lyons Road and 152nd Place South. The residents expressed concern that the supporters of the center could be extremists and could draw people who might be a threat. (Palm Beach Post, $$$)
🎓 Palm Beach residents Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross are aiming to make South Florida a leader in research and technological innovation by attracting top-shelf higher education here. Griffin donated $2 billion to bring a Carnegie Mellon campus to Miami, and Ross contributed $50 million toward the construction of a Vanderbilt University campus in West Palm Beach. (Palm Beach Post, $$$)
🔍 An air traffic controller did not warn pilots of an Amazon cargo plane, as required by federal regulations, of strong tailwinds before it landed and ran off the Miami International Airport runway, a preliminary report found. Five people died. (The Associated Press)
🚧 Demolition of a former Kmart by the end of the year will make way for the redevelopment of the shopping center at the northwest corner of South Dixie Highway and Hypoluxo Road in Lantana. (The Coastal Star)
🕯️ Fred Alfred Hazouri, a distinguished appellate judge who retired in 2013 and the husband of former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Pariente, died Sept. 27 at age 83. (Read the obituary)
☕️ Common Ground turns 20: How a community hub blossomed from a single piano lesson. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
👷🏼♂️A celebrity developer known for pioneering “McMansions” in the Hamptons and building luxury homes in the Palm Beaches is moving its West Palm Beach offices to Lake Worth Beach. Farrell Building Company plans to set up shop in the former Mathews Brewing building on South H Street. (Lake Worth Beach Independent) $$$
🍽️ More New York restaurants are flocking to West Palm Beach. (The New York Post)
🪧 The rise of the nine-figure listing. Real estate agents in South Florida and around the country report an insatiable demand by the country’s wealthiest households for palatial estates that provide extreme privacy and spectacular luxuries. (The New York Times, email required)
🏨 The Nora Hotel in West Palm Beach is accepting its first room reservations starting Oct. 19. (The New York Times, fourth item, email required)
🧘🏼♀️ Stet News correspondent Janis Fontaine visits YogaMass at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. (The Coastal Star)
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, presses James Martin, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast’s Democratic challenger in Florida’s 21st Congressional District, on questions including how he would pay for a government-backed health insurance plan with a $40 trillion national debt and how he would fix Social Security. (Listen now; watch after 4 pm today.)
561NSIDER: 🚀 The moon, Mars and data centers in space
NASA’s top launch official told a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches audience Wednesday that Americans will return to the moon by the end of 2028, and this time they’ll stay.
Why it matters: China is aiming for a moon landing in 2029 or 2030. Brian Hughes, NASA’s first senior director of launch operations, said that deadline is driving NASA’s pace.
- China has not signed the Artemis Accords, the peaceful-exploration pact signed by 75 nations. “China doesn’t play by those rules,” he said.
The plan:
- Artemis III, set for next year, will test docking with commercial lunar landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX.
- Artemis IV will land Americans on the moon in 2028.
What he’s saying: “The moon is the proving ground,” Hughes said. ”Ultimately, by building a permanent presence there and learning how to live and care for ourselves on the lunar surface, that gives us the building blocks to do the same on Mars.”
Yes, but: The Kennedy Space Center is aging. Hughes said the center needs major investment in utilities, rocket fuel supply, roads and more launch pads to keep up.
By the numbers:
- 109 launches from Kennedy Space Center in 2025.
- 35,000+: Florida jobs NASA supported in fiscal 2025.
Data centers in space: “It’s very feasible, and it will happen,” Hughes said. Orbit offers simpler cooling and constant, unfiltered solar power, without the noise and neighbors that fuel fights over data centers on the ground.
The bottom line: “The stakes are too high to not invest in America’s future in space,” Hughes said. “We are accelerating exploration, we’re strengthening the economy, and we’re reinforcing American leadership.”
Keep reading to find out what NASA expects from its newest telescope at StetNews.org.
– Valerie Staggs
💚 NAMI, NAMI, NAMI
Our kind and competitive Stet News team, which we told you about last week, is counting down to Saturday’s annual Palm Beach County NAMIWalks.
THANK YOU, Stetters, for stepping up with encouragement and donations to support mental health for all.
Why it matters: Saturday’s walk is one of the organization’s biggest fundraisers of the year and supports a range of programs and resources offered to the public for free.
Details: We invite you to join Team Stet or sponsor a Stet team member here. Or you can register, starting at 7 am on the day of the walk.
NAMIWalks begins at 8:30 am Saturday at the Eric Call Pavilion in John Prince Park west of Lake Worth Beach.
See you then!
– Your Stet NAMIWalks team
👩🏻💻 Say hello to Susan Salisbury!
We are happy to welcome Susan Salisbury to the Stet News family.
The Palm Beach County native has worked as a reporter for The Palm Beach Post, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Palm Beach Daily News and the Palm Beach Daily Business Review.
Susan is well-known for her coverage of agriculture, energy, real estate, and consumer issues such as scams and fraud. She also covered city and county governments, the judicial system, public and private schools and international trade.
She said that she always wanted to be a journalist. She wrote for her school papers when she attended Belvedere Elementary, Conniston Junior High and Forest Hill High schools. She also worked for The Independent Florida Alligator at her alma mater, the University of Florida.
“I like uncovering the truth and providing information that helps people understand issues and learn more about their communities,” she said.
After calling West Palm Beach home for many years, Susan now lives in Jupiter.
