Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
End of the beginning for downtown dream?
Margate kills long-stalled plan to build city center
Margate’s controversial downtown development project, more than a decade in the making, might not be built, city officials said.
City commissioners, acting as members of the Community Redevelopment Agency, directed their attorney Wednesday night to kill the contract with New Urban Communities.
“I don’t think there is going to be a meeting of the minds,” said Vice Mayor Arlene Schwartz. “My suggestion [is] we end this now ... and we go our separate ways.”
Last year the commission had signed off on a plan to build its first downtown, a city center of 968 apartments, 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, a hotel and an amphitheater — all along or within walking distance of State Road 7.
The project was supposed to peak at three stories and construction was scheduled to start this year.
Since 2004, Margate has spent more than $30 million to buy 36 acres around Margate Boulevard and State Road 7 to create the city center.
But in November, some new commissioners were elected, and opposition began to mount. Some said the area was already choked with traffic. The majority of the commission wanted the project scaled back; the developer resisted, saying the project needed to be larger both to get the financing from a lender to build it, and to attract shoppers.
Still, earlier this year both sides seemed to agree to go forward with 750 residential units.
“We walked out of there nodding our heads,” said Tim Hernandez of New Urban Communities, which would have meant building 316 of the units on the east side of State Road 7 and the rest west of the highway.
But Wednesday night, developers came back with a site plan for 922 units, explaining after the meeting that the development agreement allowed them that number, yet
they would be willing to build only 750.
And the commission said no.
“End this charade and get it over with,” said Commissioner Anthony Caggiano. “This is a done, dead deal. There’s not a shovel in the ground so it can’t be that much money [to end the contract]. … The first step is to stop this disaster.”
Now, attorneys for both sides will try to reach a settlement to terminate the contract.
Still, developers hoped it wasn’t a bleak prospect.
“We have negotiated in good faith with them,” said Kevin Rickard of New Urban Communities. “They have not returned that same good faith in negotiating with us.”
“Our goal is for this not to be killed,” Rickard said. “We are ready, willing and able to go forward with the plan we submitted.”
Commissioners on the losing end of the vote said they were upset.
Commissioner Joanne Simone said her colleagues were putting the “fate and future of Margate in real jeopardy.”
“If we break this development [agreement], no developer will want to even touch Margate,” she said. “The deals that had been agreed to and broken time and time again, nobody will come here.”
Commissioner Le Peerman said she feared the city would be sued.
“Now what?” she demanded of the commission.
Mayor Tommy Ruzzano told her that once the contract was over “we can get what we want . ... Let me design something ... I will come back with a plan.”