Urban renewal - West Palm Beach

South Florida CEO, May, 2002 by Johanna Marmon

IT'S THURSDAY NIGHT, AND THERE'S A BLOCK PARTY going on downtown--downtown West Palm Beach, that is. It's happening on Clematis Street, to be exact, the city's newly rediscovered hip spot. By day, it's a place where shoppers stroll shady streets and business people congregate to seal deals at upscale bistros. Come Thursday nights, however, it's Clematis By Night, a weekly event organized by the mayor's office and several private sponsors ranging from Bass Ale to First Union bank. The event is a showcase for regional musical talent from jazz to reggae to rock and roll, but above all else, Clematis By Night is a perfect indication that West Palm Beach is finally alive and kicking.

"When it started [in 1995], there were probably two or three restaurants available on the street and very little retail," says Mary Pinak, West Palm's community events coordinator and a 13-year city employee. "At 5 p.m., you could literally shoot a cannon down the street and not hit anyone."

How times have changed. Clematis By Night is now a rollicking party that often swells to more than 4,000 revelers who eat and drink the night away. "This event definitely had a hand in revitalizing the area," Pinak says. "It was a catalyst of change."

Other catalysts have contributed as well. From the renovation of the Kravis Center theater to the development of downtown housing and CityPlace, a huge retail-and-residential complex in the heart of West Palm, the city is breathing new life.

A dozen years ago it would have been difficult to imagine downtown West Palm Beach as it is today, a vibrant urban core flanked on all sides by upscale retail and residential development. It was certainly not an overnight transformation. Bill Fountain, director of West Palm's Downtown Development Authority (the oldest DDA in Florida) says the city's renewal was catalyzed years ago by two milestones: the opening of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in 1989 and the formation of a strong-mayor government in 1991.

"People who lived in Palm Beach County in the '80s bragged that they would only come through West Palm if they had to drive somewhere else," Fountain says. "It was the stepchild of the county. Now those very same people are driving here to go to the Kravis and CityPlace."

Keeping up with the times, the performing arts center is now undergoing a $31 million renovation and expansion. The project includes demolition of the center's Cohen Pavilion, to be replaced by a 114,000-square-foot, three-story building with rehearsal space, an education department and a banquet hall. The construction work is being done by the Weitz Company, a local contractor that has built more than two dozen buildings in and around downtown West Palm.

"I think the Kravis Center has helped anchor the downtown," says center spokesman Bill Underwood. "Before the center, there wasn't much here." Today, the Kravis puts on more than 900 performances a year in three separate venues: Dreyfoos Hall, the Rinker Playhouse and the Gusman Amphitheater.

As for the switch to a strong-mayor government, Fountain says it was instrumental in stimulating West Palm's development by paving the way for CityPlace. "Strong mayors can make a lot of things happen," he says. "Nancy Graham [the city's first strong mayor] had the power to make decisions ... we were no longer making decisions by committee."

One of the first things Graham did after being elected was issue $15 million in bonds to improve Clematis Street's infrastructure -- which had fallen into major disrepair through the '60s, '70s and '80s. "When I got here in 1989, 60 percent of the storefronts were vacant," Fountain says. "It was just a lot of derelict property. And not only was Clematis dangerous at night, it was dangerous in the daytime."

The infrastructure improvements succeeded in luring developer Renaissance Partners to the street, and the Clematis of today is largely a result of Renaissance's efforts. The firm, which has its headquarters on Clematis, bought its first two properties along the street (in the 300 block ) in 1993. Since then, Renaissance has bought, redeveloped and sold about 10 mixed-use buildings that incorporate New Urbanism design concepts, with retail stores on the ground floor and residential units upstairs.

Most recently, the company paired up with North Miami-based American Land Housing Group to develop the Strand, a 275-unit, 15-story luxury apartment project (just off Olive Street in West Palm) that will include ground-floor retail, which is Renaissance's part of the deal.

"Sometimes you have to be an outsider looking in to see the opportunity," says Renaissance property manager John MacConnell. "We knew that the downtown needed a residential core, and one of the reasons that Clematis has been interesting is because of that opportunity for mixed use."

Stroll through CityPlace today and it's hard not to be a bit overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude. Sitting on 76 acres of land east of 1-95 and housing 78 retail tenants, a movie theater, hundreds of residential units and a Publix supermarket, CityPlace is unlike anywhere else in South Florida. Developed at a cost of more than $550 million, CityPlace is a bustling example of downtown West Palm's rebirth, and a rags-to-riches tale of real estate development.