3 Boynton restaurants get makeovers
Banana Boat, Hurricane Alley and Prime Catch are popular eateries.
BOYNTON BEACH — The Therien family brought the Banana Boat to Boynton Beach nearly 40 years ago and next month will celebrate a grand reopening after a weekslong closure to update the waterfront restaurant.
There won’t be changes in the menu, prices or ownership, but there will be a “Florida Caribbean” feel with more dock space and an emphasis on outdoor dining, said Luke Therien, one of the brothers who own the restaurant.
“We’re trying to connect with the Florida Caribbean atmosphere: fresh seafood on the waterfront, fishing, boating, surfing,” he said. “The decoration and the atmosphere didn’t completely reflect that.”
Banana Boat off Ocean Avenue in the Boynton Three restaurants in Boynton Beach’s underdeveloped downtown have been there for decades and are either undergoing renovations or will be soon.
interest in moving here, supporters said. But in the end, the decision came down to location, location, location — and the process by which Mayor Jeri Muoio’s administration pushed to create the district to benefit one developer’s project.
“I felt uncomfortable with the way this process has played out,” Commission President Neering said. “I don’t think we have been as transparent as we could have been from Day One on this process. It hasn’t felt right to me.”
Muoio said Tuesday morn- ing she was disappointed but would continue to seek ways to encourage quality office construction downtown.
“There was a pretty clear case made that we desper- ately need Class-A office space,” she said. “Part of my job as mayor is to fig- ure out how to provide that. We want to grow businesses here. We want to grow jobs and want to make sure that our children and grandchil- dren have a place to work when they grow up. We want them to stay here with us.”
Muoio and Commissioner Keith James made forceful appeals in favor of the proj- ect, with James calling the vote a historic opportunity. “The economic opportunities it presents are pretty overwhelming for me,” said James, a candidate for mayor in 2019. “If we are going to grow as a city, we have to continue to build on the tax base and provide opportunities for smart, targeted growth.” and focus on sustainability. She proposed eliminating a sticking point for some of her colleagues, that the district would limit how much could be built on a nearby city-owned parcel, the Tent Site at Okeechobee and Dixie Highway, which would have reduced the value of the site and its attractiveness to developers.
It was too late to craft the careful wording needed to include such provisions but city staff indicated that if the district were approved Monday, they could be added before the second and final vote on the matter, in com- ing weeks.
Commissioner Sylvia Moffett, though, flatly said the plan to create the Okeechobee district amounted to spot zoning meant to favor Related Cos. The city’s comprehensive plan favored Quadrille Boulevard, several blocks off the waterfront, as preferred for Class-A office space, Moffett added.
Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene is ready to build a 30-story, two-building proj- ect already approved for Quadrille and is just waiting for Federal Aviation Administration approval, Moffett said, and Greene confirmed.
Greene cast doubt whether city plans to ease traffic by encouraging walking and bicycling would have any impact on the traffic the Related project would create. “People like to drive their car in Florida,” he said.
He called for the city to stick to predictable zoning rules, rather than letting Related build 25 stories on a 5-story waterfront zone. “I’d like to have a 500 percent increase” for his projects, he said.
Did ‘spot zoning’ come into play?
Commissi o ner Paula Developer: ‘Once-in-aRyan said she supported lifetime opportunity’ the Okeechobee Business The meeting went on so District plan because it was long, as one resident after more than just one building. another took a turn at the
In making the motion for dais, that Greene made his the development, she sought statement, left, showered, to add to the approval con- had dinner and came back ditions or additional feawearing a change of clothes. tures to incentivize growth, Another developer discreate workforce housing agreed with him. Al Adelson, developer of The Bristol, an uber-luxury condo tower rising a few blocks away on South Flagler Drive, said business executives who have bought units in his building are “desperate” to move their companies to West Palm Beach.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he told commissioners. “If you guys blow this, you’re not going to see this again.”
Commissioner Shanon Materio, a likely opponent of James’ in the upcoming mayoral race, pressed as hard against the proposal as he pressed for it.
“This isn’t the end of the world. Another project will come,” Materio said. “I think the building can live someplace else . ... Every time we have a difficult decision to make like this, we’re told that if we don’t make this decision, our city’s going to collapse on us. We are a great city. Right now.”
The statement won applause but so did James’ comeback: “We are a great city but we need to be greater.”
In the end the arguments for jobs, historic preservation and a stunning skyline, not to mention the public relations outreach, glossy mailers, testimonials from eminent locals and the filling of auditorium seats by students in blue Okeechobee Business District T-shirts, did not sway the three commissioners’ misgivings about the proposed business district.
“If Related didn’t exist to bring this project forward, would we be here talking about the Okeechobee Business District?” Neering asked the administration’s point man, Development Services Director Rick Greene.
The effort to encourage Class-A office construction has been paramount for some time, Greene said. “Probably so.”
Three out of five doubted that.