iPic News
iPic Entertainment, which wants to build a movie theater-retail-office complex in downtown Delray Beach, plans to offer the city a rewrite.
The project—a 529-seat theater, about 8,000 square feet of retail, 42,000 square feet of office space and a 320-vehicle parking garage—would go where the city library and chamber of commerce once stood, between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues behind businesses that front onto Atlantic Avenue. A hotel once was planned for the site.
The theater would face Fifth Avenue—southbound Federal Highway. The office-retail entrance would face Fourth Avenue. Most theater patrons and people going to the offices and stores, according to iPic President and CEO Hamid Hashemi—a subsidiary of iPic is the applicant—would use the parking garage on Fourth Avenue.
The community redevelopment agency assembled the site. In August 2013, when the CRA chose the iPic project after marketing the site and agreed to convey the land once the applicant got permits, excitement followed. Delray Beach hasn’t had a movie theater since the closing of the Regal multiplex at Linton Boulevard and Federal Highway. The iPic at Mizner Park in Boca Raton, which opened in 2012, has been very successful.
The theater proposed for Delray would be different. There would be no stand-alone restaurant like Tanzy. The restaurant would serve only the theater; Hashemi said he didn’t want to compete with existing restaurants in the area. There’s also no office or retail in Boca; there’s no need, because the theater has office and retail all around it. Many in Delray Beach liked the idea of a downtown theater. The city would be home to the corporate office of iPic, which has 11 theaters nationwide and plans to add nearly as many.
Then a problem emerged. On the site is an alley that services those businesses on Atlantic. The north-south portion of the alley, which connects to an east-west portion, would become part of the project. Business owners pushed back against the loss of the alley, saying that they need it for deliveries. Some residents also questioned the request for extra height—from the maximum 48 feet to nearly 60 feet. In its report for the Planning and Zoning Board meeting last December, staff recommended approval based on the company meeting conditions about the alley. The item was postponed, and then was postponed again in April as the developer worked on a solution. The project is to come before the Planning and Zoning Board on July 20.
The board will consider whether the city should allow use of the site for a movie theater—with the added height—and whether the city should abandon the north-south alley. As Hashemi noted in his emailed responses to my questions, the site plan will not be at issue before the board, so the company doesn’t have to discuss it. But he will present “a modified plan. . .to provide solutions that address any questions or concerns.”
Hashemi added, “iPic will be presenting a plan that will actually give up land in order to assist property owners on Atlantic.” The plan, he said, would help move traffic and “improve how the current alleys work.” The company would buy “an adjoining property” to create “a pass-through for the alleyway that is being abandoned at the request of the (community redevelopment agency.)” The change would mean “additional alleys for (the businesses) to go east-west.” The city, Hashemi said, would gain three to four feet of alleyway “and iPic will be giving more than what it was getting in an effort to satisfy the concerns of our community partners.” If the city approves the plan, Hashemi said, the project will “provide continual traffic flow to local business owners and residents. . .” Because the company needed time to make the changes, it asked in April for a delay. It has until Oct. 26 to obtain the permits.
The new proposal is not surprising. City commissioners had expressed to me their skepticism that iPic could satisfy the city’s and the business owners’ concerns about the alley with the first version of the project. Hashemi said the company all along has “sought out local and community input. . .” The planning staff again will make a recommendation for the Planning and Zoning Board before the July 20 meeting.
Another issue, though, is emerging. Some residents and City Commissioner Shelly Petrolia have examined city records and are questioning not just whether the city should convey the alley but whether the city can do it. They are examining three city commission decisions, in 2004, 2012 and 2014. Hashemi referred questions about the legal issue to the CRA. Jeff Costello, the CRA director, told me “alley abandonment was always part of the plan.” Costello said the business owners “still will have access,” and the agency remains “an advocate for the project.”
In Delray Beach, it’s always about a small road when it comes to a big project. With Atlantic Crossing, the issue is an access road to the project from Federal Highway. With Fourth and Fifth Delray, it’s about an alley. I will have more about the legal arguments before the Planning and Zoning Board meeting.
Trash talk
The late, great Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee used to call what he considered dull stories “room-emptiers.” You might consider trash a “room-emptier.” But stay for just a moment.
Two things must happen when garbage disappears from your bin. It must be hauled away, and it must be disposed of. Sounds simple, right? In Palm Beach County, fortunately, it is. And it just got even simpler and more efficient.
On Saturday, the county opened a nearly $700 million plant that will burn trash and turn it into energy. Emission levels will be low, thanks to the latest technology, and more burning means less trash in the county landfill—as much as 90 percent less. Most of the water for the plant will come from rain captured at the plant. There may be uses for recycled ash from the burning.
If you think that the county deserves little credit for pulling off what the public might consider infield practice for local government, look at the mess that is trash disposal in Broward County. The county let a private company gain control of the waste-to-energy incinerators. When the amount of trash didn’t fit its business model, the company moved to close the incinerators. The landfill isn’t a serious option because it’s nearly full. Landfills smell. And there isn’t much room for them. The county considered the incinerator after justified criticism for trying to put a landfill near the Everglades.
For seven years Broward will export trash to Palm Beach County’s new facility, until population growth brings it to capacity with local trash. Then Broward will have a problem. Thanks to a decade of planning, Palm Beach County already has its solution.
Randy Schultz was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He has lived in South Florida since then, and in Boca Raton since 1985. Schultz spent nearly 40 years in daily journalism at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, most recently as editorial page editor at the Post. His wife, Shelley, is director of The Learning Network at Pine Crest School. His son, an attorney, and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren also live in Boca Raton. His daughter is a veterinarian who lives in Baltimore.
