Is city dealing bar owner free deck?
The city has approved spending up to $200,000 to dress up an Evernia Street sidewalk with decking and planters, to test ways to enliven quiet downtown side streets.
While the design is inviting, some residents and business owners immediately wondered whether it’s not just inviting customers to a millionaire’s new bar, at taxpayer expense. But city officials say the deck outside the West Palm Beach Brewery & Wine Vault represents a larger effort to stir activity and enjoyment throughout the downtown.
“If we continue doing this and are successful, we’re going to create a district and not just streets,” Deputy City Administrator Scott Kelly said Wednesday.
The city viewed its deal with brewery owner John Pankauski as an economic development project.
Pankauski paid the roughly $25,000 for the deck design and agreed to pay another $10,000 to $15,000 annually to maintain it. The Community Redevelopment Agency will pay the first $100,000 of construction cost, with the city paying up to $100,000 for whatever it costs over that.
Another important detail, noted Economic Development Director Chris Roog: It’s a temporary, test project. The deck will be in place at least a year but is designed so that the city eventually can move it elsewhere downtown, after deciding what permanent streetscape features to build on Evernia. Datura Street, a block to the north, and Northwood Village, a mile north of downtown, also are being considered for this kind of treatment, Roog said.
The city has given many businesses incentive grants, particularly when they’re refurbishing older buildings, Roog said. When Pankauski approached the city, looking for what grants might be available, he already was far along in renovating the brewery building, a former gym at 332 Evernia.
“It was in an area of downtown where we wanted to expand the walkability and welcoming nature of a human scale city .... You had narrow sidewalks, wide streets and lots of parking, but few people,” Roog said.
The plan calls for building the deck over the sidewalk and four adjacent curbside parking spaces, adding planters and a pergola. And though there’ll be tables and food and beverage service by the brewery, the sidewalk and tables will be open to the public, and people will be able to sit without having to patronize the business.
There’s a traditional approach to economic development, where the city zones land to encourage growth, and puts together marketing and branding campaigns, Roog said. Then there’s a nontraditional approach, where the city finds ways to join with businesses to add value to public spaces, as Subculture Coffee does on Clematis Street, orchestrating concerts and other events in the courtyard and alley next to it.
“We’re creating more space for people,” Roog said, “a walkable, friendly city that boosts economic activity and not just on Clematis Street and Rosemary Avenue.”