The group seeking to build a performing arts center in Mizner Park got grudging, temporary support Monday from the Boca Raton City Council.
Though council members approved the new design for the project, they set a deadline of Jan. 7, 2025 for the Center for Arts & Innovation (TCAI) to provide updates on fundraising and other issues. And the discussion got frosty at times as council members complained of being blindsided.
Most notably, TCAI failed to meet its second fundraising goal by today’s deadline. That news unpleasantly surprised council members, all of whom said TCAI officials had assured them until three days ago that the group was “on track.”
Council members also were not pleased that TCAI supporters contacted them to urge support for the project while blaming the city for delaying approval. In fact, council members said, TCAI had raised numerous issues very recently with no notice. Among other things, TCAI wanted a guarantee that the limit on downtown development would not hamper the project.
“It’s very disturbing the way this has gone down,” said an angry City Manager George Brown. He noted that TCAI’s board had decided on Sept. 25 to suspend cash on hand fundraising just a month out from the deadline, also without telling the city. From here on, TCAI must show much more “accountability and transparency.”
TCAI President Andrea Virgin said the group had encountered more questions from potential large donors than expected. She came Monday to ask for more time. Under the lease agreement two years ago, the council could have terminated the lease because of the missed fundraising goal.
By March, Virgin said, TCAI would have back studies answering the group’s questions, which are like those raised by city staff and the city’s new consultant. Would an underground parking garage work? Is the design, with the stage facing west and not south, workable?
Virgin offered a “proposed path forward.” Despite the fundraising miss, “This is not a setback.”
Councilwoman Fran Nachlas, running the meeting as chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency, noted that TCAI had said in 2022 that once the city granted the lease, donors were ready to commit. Now, Nachlas said, TCAI is saying that if the city just blesses the plan, donors are ready to commit.
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Virgin urged support by saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Councilwoman Yvette Drucker, however, blamed TCAI. “You should have let us know” months ago about fundraising problems. She added, “You divided the house.”
After a needlessly prolonged discussion—with members making the same point repeatedly and taking pains to indicate support for the project—the council approved what are called the Landlord Plans. But TCAI must come back on Jan. 7 with “updates,” especially on fundraising. TCAI had asked for an extension until March.
Mayor Scott Singer said Jan. 7 could be a “pivot point.” Drucker asked, “Are we willing to terminate” if the answers from TCAI are insufficient? Singer nodded.
Nachlas called the next two-plus months “the Super Bowl of fundraising.” Council members urged Virgin to have donors call them. Councilman Marc Wigder was the lone vote against the amended agreement. He doubts that TCAI can raise enough money to meet that second goal in the lease agreement. He wanted to revisit the lease agreement to add “flexibility.” Virgin had asked if the city could redo those fundraising “thresholds.”
It was a partial victory for TCAI. Given that Brown’s anger matched the council’s collective anger, however, a partial victory was all TCAI could have hoped for.
I’ll have more in my Thursday post.
Boca City Council to select next city attorney
At today’s 2 p.m. special meeting, council members will choose Boca Raton’s next city attorney.
That person will succeed Diana Grub Frieser, who has had the job for 25 years. Her last day is Oct. 31, nine months ahead of what had been her planned retirement date. Under a contract that a previous council approved in 2011 and would be illegal today, Frieser will get a severance of $437,000.
A search firm presented the council with three finalists for today’s interviews. All are from Florida. One is Joshua Koehler, who has been deputy city attorney under Frieser since 2011. The others are Clayton Knowles and Ronald Tomasko.
The city attorney and city manager are the only employees who report to the council. After approving Frieser’s separation with almost no public discussion, council members could have decided to hire an outside lawyer to supervise the other four members of the legal department. Instead, they stuck with the current system, which means that whoever the council picks will owe his job to the council.
Tomasko is an assistant attorney for Collier County, in charge of litigation. He’s had that position for two years. For the previous 15 years, he worked for private firms in Pennsylvania that did government work.
According to the search firm’s packet, Knowles has been county attorney for Gadsden County, west of Tallahassee, since 2020. But the Florida Bar lists him as working for Pittman Law Group in Tallahassee, which also lists Pittman as working there. This year, Knowles was a finalist to be city attorney for Tallahassee. A related news article also referred to him as the lawyer for the Gadsden County Commission.
With Koehler, council members likely will focus on how he might be different from Frieser, who after decades of council acquiescence resisted recent efforts to change the office. Those efforts came after a string of high-profile litigation losses.
I’ll have more after the meeting.
Boca carwash boom
If you want to have your car washed in Boca Raton, you soon may have a lot more choices.
On the agenda for tonight’s regular city council meeting are proposals for three car washes near each other along Federal Highway in the northern end of the city. An accompanying resolution would update the relevant regulations by eliminating descriptions such as “car laundries” and “auto laundries” and replacing them with the generic “carwashes.”
All three properties—at 6901, 7251 and 7900 N. Federal Highway—are vacant. The Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval of each one. So does the staff report, saying that the architecture would be compatible with adjacent single-family neighborhoods and that restrictions would keep noise levels at acceptable levels.
All three owners are out-of-state entities. The property at 7251 N. Federal Highway sold in April 2008—right before the real estate crash—for $5.1 million. The owner of 7900 N. Federal Highway wants to build a two-story project that would include a restaurant. Nothing in the staff reports explains why there’s suddenly a bull market for carwashes.
Approval of Boca racket facility on agenda
Also on tonight’s agenda is approval of the proposed racket facility at North Park, the former Ocean Breeze Golf Course.
The project is a centerpiece of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District’s roughly 200-acre property in the Boca Teeca community. At two stories, it would need permission to be taller than 25 feet. The Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval. So do city planners.
