CAREFREE, TENT LOCATIONS ARE BEING STUDIED
Two important development sites are coming back under the microscope:
■ The site of the demolished, once-popular Carefree Theater on South Dixie Highway, as part of a broader rezoning of commercial areas.
■ The tent site, the prominent location straddling the Okeechobee Boulevard and Lakeview Avenue gateway to downtown.
Palm Beach winter resident Charles Cohen, who has developed prominent buildings across the U.S., figures in both sites.
Last year the city nixed Cohen’s plans for the Carefree land as too big for the zoning rules in that area, just south of downtown.
He hoped to turn the vacant lots into a six-theater art house with luxury apartments, restaurants, shops and underground parking.
Though the city rejected the proposal, staffers were assigned to see if the zoning needed updating to allow projects large enough to make financial sense for developers without oppressing neighbors in adjacent houses. The result: a land use change to allow developers of mixed-use projects, in general commercial zones east of I-95 and Australian Avenue, between Okeechobee Boulevard and Belvedere Road, to build bigger if they provide such benefits as affordable housing, public parking or environmental features.
Under the proposal, buildings next to houses could go as high as 65 feet (six or seven stories). Those next to apartment buildings can go 85-feet high. Those adjacent to commercial properties in the rear could go to 105 feet.
The proposal comes before the Planning Board at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the city hall auditorium. Residents are encouraged to attend, as the proposal would change the look and feel of those areas.
Meanwhile, city staff is reviewing qualifications of four developers who in February expressed interest in the tent site. The staff recommendations will come before the Community Redevelopment Agency in May.
Cohen submitted a proposal to have uber-architect Cesar Pelli design a 300,000-400,000-square-foot office tower for the 2.4-acre site, walking distance from CityPlace, the convention center, Clematis Street and the waterfront. It would give the city “an iconic landmark office tower attracting financial and other service tenants from the surrounding areas and provide the latest technology and amenities found in the very best office towers being built anywhere in the world today,” Cohen’s proposal stated.
Palm Beach developer Jeff Greene said he would combine the site with the adjacent Opera Place land he owns, without adding more density to the two than the 1 million square feet he has the right to build at Opera Place.
Palm Beach Finance Center, based in New York City, resubmitted plans for a dramatic, curved glass tower it proposed several years ago.
Aventura-based developer Immocorp Ventures LLC also submitted its qualifications — buildings in New York, Miami and Paris among them — but offered no specific proposal, waiting to hear from the city on its preferences, said partner Franck Gotsman. “The question is, what does the city want?” he said.