EVERNIA TO FULFILL CITY GOAL
WEST PALM BEACH — John Pankauski said the city approached him several months ago, “about doing something special with a peripheral street, doing something to improve the area other than on Clematis Street.”
That something special could take shape starting in June, assuming it gains city commission approval: turning the sidewalk outside his Evernia Street brewery into a 100-by-25-foot wooden deck bordered by planter boxes, a vine-draped pergola for shade, a bike rack and a seating area for the patrons and the public that stretches beyond the sidewalk to occupy four street parking spaces. The travel lanes on Evernia will narrow from 17 feet to 10, to slow traffic and make it safer for pedestrians.
“I love the idea. I’m just floored by it,” said Pankauski, a probate litigator-cum-restaurateur who owns West Palm Beach Brewery and Wine Vault, at 332 Evernia St.
The plan, worked out by the property owner, the city administration and Community Redevelopment Agency, would fulfill a city goal to explore innovative ways to enliven more obscure parts of downtown. Evernia fits that bill because it’s two blocks off the main Clematis shopping and entertainment strip and has been partly isolated from the flow of downtown since being bisected by the new Brightline train station.
Plus, the fact that a property owner already was engaged in a project to attract foot traffic to the street would give the city a private-sector partner.
At the time Economic Development Director Christopher Roog and CRA Executive Director Jon Ward approached Pankauski, he was part-way through converting the vacant former gym into the restaurant and brewery.
The city had big plans for redoing the entire look of Clematis, a $2 million investment for just the first block, with three more blocks set for similar treatment next year. Another city project would bring light and life to the alley between Clematis and Datura.
Meanwhile, a few blocks inland the owners of the sprawling CityPlace complex were re-imagining its integration into the downtown and its connection to Clematis. Between CityPlace and Clematis,
All Aboard Florida was completing the high-speed rail station in the central section of downtown. At the same time, city consultants were fine-tooling a transportation road map, a plan to make it more pleasant for walkers, bicyclists and cars to get around amid downtown’s relentless growth.
The city has billed the Evernia deck project as a pilot test, with an eye toward installing similar ones elsewhere if it works out, but there’s no set time limit. Roog said it could stay for a year or more.
“This project was always intended to be a temporary test of Evernia, from Quadrille to Flagler, to see how they would look and feel,” he told members of the Downtown Action Committee on Wednesday. “We would like to do the whole street but that would be very expensive.”
For the initial project, the property owner paid $20,000 for surveyors and a structural engineer to design the sidewalk. The city and CRA would contribute to construction costs, which Roog estimated between $100,000 and $200,000. Pankauski would hire a contractor to build it.
Roog said he expected the project to be completed this summer, in time for tourist season.
The plan aligns with the goals of the city’s Downtown Masterplan “to promote a memorable place of unique character with public spaces, in which people feel comfortable together,” Ana Maria Aponte, senior urban design planner told the Downtown Action Committee, which gave the plan its unanimous approval.
“Things like this are what makes West Palm Beach special,” member Nick Mihelich said.
The public’s chance to weigh in on the project will be when it comes before the city commission, as soon as June 4.