Plans taking shape for a more vibrant downtown
There’s been a burst of good news for West Palm Beach.
City Place 2.0 is about to become a reality, The Post’s Tony Doris reports. The once-groundbreaking shopping, dining, residential downtown district, under pressure from the collapse of brick-and-mortar retail stores, is getting a remake, and it looks like an intelligent one.
We’ll see more trees and greenery, nicer walkways, slower traffic. We’ll see more spaces turned to public uses such as farmers markets. The conversion of the former Macy’s site into an art hub — at least until it turns into something more permanent, possibly housing — is a good example.
The plans are a welcome echo of changes previously announced for Clematis Street: more shade and wider sidewalks for nicer walking and dining experiences.
The thinking goes beyond how to recycle vacated retail buildings. The city is adding better lighting, and perhaps bike lanes, to make the northward stretch from CityPlace to the rest of downtown more pleasant and inviting, especially at night.
Related Cos., which runs CityPlace, has also announced another office tower, to go up at Rosemary Avenue and Evernia Street, bring more workers directly into the Clematis Street/CityPlace nexus. And right next to the Brightline station. If the high-speed rail service is ever to succeed, it will need a lively city near the station.
Another stroke of good luck for West Palm: developer Jeff Greene says that at long last he is ready to build his twin-tower office, hotel and apartment project at 555 Quadrille Blvd., according to The Post’s Alexandra Clough.
And tourism leaders are looking into expanding the Palm Beach County Convention Center to accommodate larger gatherings. The Convention Center turned a profit last year for the first time in 14 years, thanks to the opening of the West Palm Beach Hilton next door. Enlarging the Convention Center would almost certainly spur construction of more downtown hotel rooms. Bringing in more visitors with money to spend can only be good news for Palm Beach County’s largest city.
One big problem, of course, is how to ensure that conventioneers can cross Okeechobee Boulevard safely. That broad state road now poses a daunting barrier between the Convention Center and CityPlace. Expert studies and community meetings have produced a range of fixes, from the overly ambitious (divert some traffic underground) to the simple (time the traffic lights better).
One option, which has been getting short shrift from city leaders, deserves serious consideration: a sky bridge. Examples in Hong Kong and other crowded metropolises of Asia belie our officials’ pessimism that the public would shun the thing.
But no one would have to climb stairs. In Asia, walkways use escalators to move people to the upper level and back down. You can cover the walkway to protect pedestrians from sun and rain. You can commission a dramatic artistic design to make the skywalk a landmark entryway to the city.
The point is, “How does the conventioneer cross the road?” is a riddle that has a solution.
A lot of heat gets expended on the downtown’s problems: traffic tie-ups, Flagler Shore. But look around at all the cranes. There’s a lot of building going on, mostly apartment towers for a growing population of young adults and empty-nesters who want to live in a walkable, amiable environment filled with interesting places to go.
The city center is transforming fast. These trends for CityPlace and Clematis Street offer hope that the city emerging before our eyes will be vibrant and inviting place to work, live, dine, imbibe — or take a leisurely stroll.
At CityPlace, more trees and greenery, nicer walkways, slower vehicle traffic.