By Mary Hladky

Tri-Rail officials have chosen their preferred location for a second station in Boca Raton, but can’t yet guarantee it will be built.
The preferred site is the former King’s Deli property along the CSX railroad tracks at Military Trail and Northwest 19th Street, officials said at a sparsely attended June 20 public meeting at the Spanish River Library.
A runner-up site is just to the south, but it is not as attractive to Tri-Rail officials because it is not directly on Military Trail and so is not as easily accessible.
But at least two obstacles must be cleared before the station becomes a reality.
Tri-Rail needs to get funding to build the station and acquire land. Officials peg the station’s cost at $17 million.
The commuter rail had about $8 million from the Florida Department of Transportation and the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency to evaluate potential station sites and to design the station. On June 5, the Federal Transit Administration approved the location, clearing the way for Tri-Rail to seek local, state and federal money.
Its ability to build on either of its preferred locations is uncertain. Developer and landowner Crocker Partners owns both parcels.
Crocker Partners managing partner Angelo Bianco, now in a legal dispute with the city over his proposed Midtown development, said he would not sell either one.
“We have a plan for a development,” he said in late June. The preferred station location “is smack in the midst of that.”
Bianco did not divulge details of his new plan for land his company owns, except to say it is an “extensive redevelopment.”
Tri-Rail spokeswoman Bonnie Arnold said she could not comment on what effect that will have on agency plans.
“We have not even discussed it,” she said June 29.
Communication between Tri-Rail and Crocker has been scant.
Tri-Rail officials said they could not contact Crocker about the land until the FTA approved its preferred location for a station, and had not done so as of the June 20 public meeting.
Bianco said he called Tri-Rail officials after they announced their preferred station site. He said they confirmed the location, but did not ask if he would be willing to sell the land.
Litigation between Crocker Partners and the city further muddies the waters.
Crocker Partners led a coalition of landowners proposing a “live, work, play” redevelopment of about 300 acres in Midtown, between Interstate 95 and the Town Center mall.
Crocker Partners originally supported the second Boca Raton station as a complement to its transit-oriented development where residents of up to 2,500 proposed apartments would walk or take shuttles to their jobs at nearby office buildings or retail stores, and to restaurants and nightlife. Its representatives had hinted they might consider donating land for the station.
More recently, Crocker Partners said the station, while desirable, was not necessary to make Midtown a success.
But momentum for Midtown came to a halt in January, when the Boca Raton City Council delayed voting on two ordinances that spelled out how Midtown could be redeveloped and instead voted to create a “small area plan” for the area that would not be completed until the end of this year.
Crocker Partners sued the city in May, saying its actions created an impermissible building moratorium. By then, other Midtown landowners had started moving ahead with their own redevelopment plans.
If it’s ever built, the station would have two parking lots with 75 spaces, and a drop-off area for passengers getting rides to the station. Buses and shuttles could access the station and bicycle parking would be available. The current scheduled opening date is in 2023.
A 2016 Tri-Rail study found that about 1,000 riders were projected to use the new station on weekdays, enough to support construction. But Tri-Rail also expected that to rise if Midtown landowners built residential.
Several residents attending the public meeting voiced objections to the second station.
Bobbye Miller questioned why Boca Raton needed two stations. “Everyone in my neighborhood is not for this,” she said.
Anthony Catalina, director of planning and capital development for Tri-Rail’s governing agency, said the Yamato Road station is Tri-Rail’s busiest, and rider surveys showed demand for a station in the Midtown area because it would be a more convenient location for them.

Boca Raton Airport Operations Manager Travis Bryan carries a bag of trash from an international flight to the incinerator at the U.S. Customs facility. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

At the Boca Raton Airport, trash has become a very big deal.
Since the airport’s new U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility opened a few weeks ago, the airport has been burning trash coming off international flights in a new on-site, medical-grade incinerator, reducing everything placed inside to ash.
The process of destroying any foreign materials that could bring disease or blight, or create other problems in the United States, is an arduous and detailed one, required and overseen by both customs and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“One of the highest priorities of the USDA and customs is to make sure that no contaminants enter the country through trash,” said Airport Director Clara Bennett. “That’s why we have such strict procedures in place to make sure everything is burned before it goes into the community.”
Boca Raton is one of only a few airports in the state — and the only one in South Florida — to have an incinerator to burn trash coming off airplanes that cross international airspace.
Other airports, including Palm Beach International, Fort Lauderdale Executive and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, use a hauling service to dispose of garbage.
But as plans were being developed for the new customs facility, Boca Raton officials determined it would be most cost effective — and more efficient — to purchase the 1,830-degree incinerator rather than contract with a hauler.
Officials estimate that having a customs- and USDA-certified hauler come to the airport to remove the international trash twice a week would cost about $20,000 a year, almost as much as the $26,000 incinerator, especially since there would be an additional charge for extra pickups.
“This is a much more cost-effective process,” Bennett said, adding that other airports are in contact with Boca Raton to learn more about the incinerator. “The unit will probably pay for itself in a year.”
Since the incinerator is on-site — in a locked area adjacent to the customs facility — Boca Raton Airport staff can also be more responsive and can burn airplane trash, including food waste, on relatively short notice.
All seven of the Boca Raton Airport Authority’s full-time staff members have been trained in a process, which along with other details, was hammered out during a six-month period in cooperation with customs and USDA officials.
As part of the process, the Boca Raton Airport is now an officially regulated USDA garbage-processing facility.
As a result, taking out the trash at the customs center is a lot more complicated than just bringing the garbage barrel out to the curb for pickup.
According to airport Operations Manager Travis Bryan, trash from each plane coming from out of the country — usually between 15 or 20 a week — must be placed in a special trash bag 3 mils thick, then sealed and deposited in specially marked trash cans outside the customs center. Once full, the trash barrels are padlocked.
Although the airport staff has 72 hours to dispose of the trash, Bryan says members of his three-person operations crew check the cans every day and burn the trash when the cans are full.
“Everything we put in has to be reduced to ash,” Bryan said, adding that trash will be burned until it meets the requirement.
A log of each burn is kept and a detailed process is outlined should an accidental spill occur before the trash makes it to the incinerator.
Bennett said she is in the early stages of looking into the possibility of working with veterans organizations and scouting organizations to use the incinerator to properly dispose of retired American flags.
So far, the incinerator has been kept pretty busy with the new customs facility handling 61 flights with 215 passengers in its first four weeks of operation.
“It’s about what we expected,” Bennett said.
Among the flights coming into Boca Raton are those that originated at airports in Ireland, Portugal, Canada, Venezuela and the Bahamas.

By Steve Plunkett

Police are hamstrung by state rules that limit what they can do in Lake Boca, where a man drowned this April during the hugely popular Boca Bash.
City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser calls the state preemptions “just so surprisingly restrictive” when it comes to boating and local governments.
“Perhaps they weren’t originally designed for these types of, kind of massive, events. They were just intended for boating and navigation, open waterways, so this is kind of an unusual thing,” Frieser said June 11 as the City Council reviewed this year’s bash.
The event, which now attracts about 1,500 vessels and 10,000 attendees to Lake Boca, started in 2006 as a birthday celebration and, though not sponsored, grew through word of mouth, a web page, printed flyers and social media, Police Chief Dan Alexander said.
A 32-year-old West Palm Beach man, Francis Roselin, was found under 5 feet of water April 29 after he had last been seen swimming in the lake. His was the first death to occur at a Boca Bash event.
Alexander assigned 38 police officers to the event; together they worked a collective 553.75 hours at a cost to Boca Raton taxpayers of $35,402. City fire-rescue units answered 15 calls for help with total personnel costs of $9,318.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission assisted Boca police along with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Boynton Beach police’s marine unit, the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Fish and Wildlife. The FWC issued six boating under the influence citations, handled 16 other violations and made 15 public assists, Alexander reported. His officers issued seven citations, nine warnings and seven juvenile referrals.
The Police Department created a “safety lane” on the lake for marine patrol boats to get through, but beyond that could do very little to control the crowd, Alexander said. The Wildflower site next to the boat launch at Silver Palm Park was closed, as was Pioneer Park in Deerfield Beach.
“Actually the most significant events that we’ve had don’t involve law enforcement,” Alexander said. “The drowning wasn’t a law enforcement-related event. We had a fractured neck at one point that was pretty significant but again, that wasn’t a function of enforcement.”
Frieser suggested the city lobby the legislature to change Florida law.
“But the state has been very slow in trying to be flexible to allow local governments more control over these … events that cause real public harm,” she said.
Mayor Scott Singer said the city should remind organizers next year of this year’s drowning.
“There’s a very fine line between … a fun afternoon boating and a very unsafe afternoon that has significant ramifications,” he said.

By Emily J. Minor  

The attorney for suspended Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie told a judge at a “status check” hearing last month that his team had just received discovery materials from prosecutors and needs more time to prepare.
Palm Beach Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley scheduled the next hearing for July 26; a trial date could be set then.
Haynie, 62, was arrested April 24 on charges of failing to disclose income she and her husband, Neil, received from developer James Batmasian, whose city projects she favored in several City Council votes.
She has not resigned as mayor, although the governor suspended her from that position.
At the core of the charges from the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office? Haynie, a longtime city servant who has lived in Boca for almost 50 years, is accused of collecting $140,000 since 2014 from business deals with Batmasian, which Haynie failed to disclose.
During that time, prosecutors allege she cast four favorable votes on Batmasian projects.
In May, Haynie switched attorneys, hiring former federal prosecutor Bruce Zimet, now a noted defense attorney, who a decade ago represented Batmasian — the developer at the center of the Haynie scandal. In 2008, Batmasian served eight months in federal prison for payroll tax evasion. 
The two cases are unrelated and Zimet has said there is no conflict of interest.
No plea deal is in the making, Zimet said at the June 19 hearing.
He called Haynie “very engaged in the case” and said they’re looking forward to “seeing what the evidence is” in the state’s discovery files. Zimet said they’re confident “there’s just no case there.”

By Mary Hladky

The battle between the city and Midtown developer Crocker Partners has intensified, with Crocker suing the city in May in an effort to keep its project alive and the city in June asking a judge to toss the lawsuit.
Another dispute arose in June, when Mayor Scott Singer proposed ordinances that would replace county zoning regulations — which remained in effect after the city annexed the Midtown area in 2003 — with city zoning regulations. The change would give the city more control over noisy bars and restaurants.
Singer described the ordinances at a June 11 council workshop as a “glitch bill” that would address residents’ concerns about loud music.
But at a City Council meeting the next day, attorney Henry Handler said the disagreements between Crocker Partners, his client, and the city will “only be exacerbated” by the ordinances. “This will likely lead to disparate piecemeal zoning regulations, which will drive the city and major Midtown landowners further apart and exacerbate existing disputes,” he said.
Public hearings on the ordinances will be held July 24 and Aug. 21 before they could be adopted. The City Council is expected to discuss the litigation in a closed-door session July 24.
The lawsuit, filed May 23, accuses the city of treating Crocker Partners differently from other property owners and not following its normal procedures for project approval.
It seeks to have a judge compel the city to write land development regulations for Midtown. The lawsuit also asks a judge to rule that the council’s delay in adopting ordinances containing those regulations and its Jan. 23 vote to instead develop a “small area plan” for Midtown are illegal and invalid.
The lawsuit aims at rules imposed on Midtown, which Crocker Partners says are unconstitutional and create an impermissible building moratorium.
They include a mandate that a new Tri-Rail station be operational, all street infrastructure be done and improvements to Military Trail finalized before the proposed construction of as many as 2,500 housing units would be approved.
No similar requirements were put in place before the city established regulations for the Northwest planned mobility development in 2015, the lawsuit states. Midtown also is a proposed planned mobility development.
The lawsuit amounts to asking the city “to do its job” by approving the regulations for Midtown that would allow Crocker Partners to submit development plans to the city, said Crocker Partners managing partner Angelo Bianco.
“They were supposed to do this in 2011. We are asking a judge to get them to do it.”
Crocker Partners told the city in April that it planned to sue for $137 million because the approval delays left it unable to redevelop three properties it owns in Midtown: Boca Center, The Plaza and One Town Center.
Bianco said if he wins on the most recent suit, he would abandon plans to seek damages.
“The last thing I want to do is hurt the taxpayer,” he said.
In its June 14 motion to dismiss, the city argues that it is not required by law to enact land development regulations for Midtown and a judge cannot decide the validity of those regulations in ordinances that have not been enacted.
“Plaintiffs are seeking relief in the wrong venues, have brought stale claims, have wholly failed to allege the basis for their claims and are seeking decisions on matters the are not ripe for adjudication,” the city’s motion states.
Crocker Partners originally joined with other landowners in the Midtown area in an ambitious plan to redevelop about 300 acres between Interstate 95 and the Town Center mall. They envisioned a “live, work, play” transit-oriented development where people would live in new residential units and walk or take shuttles to their jobs, shopping and restaurants.
But delays in enacting ordinances that would allow the Midtown project to go forward caused the group to break up, and some are moving ahead with individual redevelopment plans. They include mall owner Simon Property Group, the now-closed Sears building owner Seritage Growth Properties and Glades Plaza owner Trademark Property Co.
Even so, Bianco thinks he can create a smaller version of Midtown, with fewer residential units, on about 80 acres that Crocker Partners controls, provided the city sets parameters for what can be built in that area.
The city has hired two consultants, Community Marine and Water Resource Planning and Larch Design Plus, to help it create a small area plan. The contracts total nearly $50,000.
The city now expects to have a small area plan crafted by no later than December, which would then be formally adopted by the City Council, a city spokeswoman said.
The consultants invited the public May 23 to offer their vision about how Midtown could be redeveloped.
About 120 residents attended the session at the Spanish River Library. They split into groups and came up with general ideas on Midtown’s look.
Each group’s ideas shared similarities, such as low density, low- or mid-rise buildings, pedestrian friendly, lots of green space and improvements to Military Trail.
Residential units would number no more than 1,250, and many people wanted fewer.
Jim Anaston-Karas, principal of Community Marine and Water Resource Planning, said another public session is planned for September.

NOTE: Due to a production error, an earlier version of this story did not appear in the June edition of The Coastal Star.

Final social event stirs a half-century of memories

Jean Fletcher and Claude Donawa enjoy a final dance together at the Boynton Beach Civic Center. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Walls go up, and walls come down, and in between lives are lived.
On Tuesday, Sept. 4, 1962, Mayor Thomas A. Summers turned a shovelful of dirt at the corner of East Ocean Avenue and Seacrest Boulevard, and a new, $100,000 Boynton Beach Civic Center was born.
The walls stood strong through 56 years of teen dances and rummage sales, pingpong and pool, Jazzercise and hurricanes, but now they’re about to come down.
On Sept. 3, the city will hand the Civic Center keys to developers, and those old walls will make way for Town Square, a $118 million, 16-acre redevelopment.
And so, for six hours on Saturday afternoon, June 16, some men and women who were young when the center was young gathered there to mourn, remember, dance a last dance — and write on the walls.

DONNIE & JEANNIE, ’69
Inside a heart, of course.
Regina Day, 66, was born in Delray Beach, and Don Day, 67, moved there when he was 6. They met at the old Seacrest High School.
“We’d come up from Delray,” Don Day said, as a trio called Three’s Company burned through Great Balls of Fire onstage.
“This was the main dance hangout,” he remembered. “The idea was to pick up the girls in the parking lot so you didn’t have to pay to come in and then take them to the Royal Castle in front of St. Mark’s School on U.S. 1.”
One night, he got in a fender bender on Ocean Avenue. “Took the gray primer off my old Ford Falcon,” he said. “I finally painted it white.”
But his future wife, Regina — known to all as Jeannie — could not be lured to Royal Castle.
“I was the good girl who came in with my cousin and danced,” Jeannie Day said. “We were real dancing machines back then. That’s why last year I had to get new knees.”

The Civic Center and the library (in background) will both be demolished to make way for the Town Square redevelopment.

Cathy Patterson, 67, was one of the organizers who decided the city should host a Last Dance at the Civic Center “so all the kids who used to hang out here could say goodbye.” She also suggested it be from noon to 6 p.m., even though those Saturday dances of the 1960s were at night.
“Nowadays, we all have to get to the early bird at the LongHorn,” she laughed.
Cathy thinks the dances cost 25 cents when she was a girl, but her husband, Jim, says 50 cents, and he should know. Jim Patterson, 72, was the city’s recreation supervisor back then and held the job for 30 years.
“It was 50 cents for Boynton Beach Youth Association members and a dollar for others,” he said.
Memories fade, but both agree they met within these walls.
“He was running the dances,” Cathy said. “I was 16 and he was 21, the adult in the room.”
You could tell Jim Patterson was the adult in the room because he wore a coat and tie.
“We didn’t have that many problems,” he recalled. “I had to watch out for a little bit of drinking, and check the bathroom for smoking. A few kids would get drunk.”
On a good night, he said, the teen dance might draw as many as 300, 400 kids.
“But we averaged about 150. We paid $70 or $80 for a band, $90 if they were real good. The big local band was The Avengers.”
Propped on an easel near the door beside a table full of Civic Center scrapbooks, a blown-up, black-and-white photograph from the old Boynton Beach News Journal has captured the five Avengers with their Beatles hair and bellbottoms in February 1969.
The Avengers’ bass player was an 18-year-old boy named Dana Carrier.
Onstage at the last dance, facing that photo from the stage, the bass player for Three’s Company was a 67-year-old man named Dana Carrier.

DANA & LYNN
LYNN LOVES DANA

In a heart, of course.
Lynn Shephard and Dana Carrier met here, too, and married.
“I tried to get the original band back together for this,” he said, “but they’re all over the United States. One’s in California and one in Tennessee, one in South Georgia. I gave them four months’ notice, but …” He shrugged.

ABOVE: Dana and Lynn Carrier married after meeting at the Civic Center and returned there for the Last Dance.
BELOW: A February 1969 Boynton Beach News Journal clipping shows Dana Carrier and his band, The Avengers, performing at the Civic Center.

Carrier had auditioned for The Avengers to replace a departing guitarist, he recalled. The other guys told him he wasn’t good enough to play guitar, but if he wanted to be a bass player, they’d get him a bass and teach him. Garage bands were loose like that back then.
“We used to rehearse in a tin barn down where Bud’s Chicken is now,” he said.
They played the tunes most of today’s teenagers have never heard of, and they will never forget.
“We played a lot of Vanilla Fudge,” he said. “Young Rascals. Good Lovin’ was my big song, and we had a singer who had a voice like Gary Puckett, so we could do Young Girl.”
Meanwhile, Noel Cyr, 67, and his brother Duane, 65, stood against the wall, reminiscing about The Tree.
Something in Noel’s grin, and the way he spoke those two words, let you know The Tree should always be capitalized.
“This was the place to come and meet girls,” he explained, “and The Tree was this big banyan tree out in back. You’d go out there to kiss.”
They pushed through the side door, stepped out into the library parking lot and pointed.
“That’s it, right there,” Noel Cyr said, and sure enough, straight across the lot, beside Southeast First Avenue, a majestic banyan tree still stands with branches low enough to hide a multitude of teenage temptations.
“There’s probably a couple girls here today that I took out to The Tree,” Noel said.
The library wasn’t here back then, it was dark, and there were other trees around, so The Tree was really several trees.
“If you could get the girl outside, any tree was a good tree,” Duane Cyr said.
But of course the good girls wouldn’t venture back here, surely.
“Well,” he drawled, “they were good girls when they came out here, but they might not have been good girls when they went back.”
The Tree has survived, but youth doesn’t, and the teen dances didn’t, either.
“What killed the teen dances was psychedelic music,” Jim Patterson said. “I tried to keep it going. I bought six black lights, but the kids weren’t dancing to that sort of music.”
By the 1970s, he was patrolling preteen dances instead.
“We played bubble-gum music, but we didn’t have a band,” he said. “It was just records.”
And then came Jazzercise classes.

GONNA MISS THIS PLACE 197????
Monica Roundtree Cleckley, 44, a Boynton native, led her daughters, Maliha, 9, and Kirinyaga, 15, around the hall while she made a smartphone video.
“I went to dances here, and I brought my daughters for ballet and tap classes. It was a hub for things to do on a low-key street. Everybody in the community coming together.”
On Aug. 13-26, the Civic Center will be reopened to accommodate early primary voting, but this last dance would be the last real event.
Teenagers become Medicare recipients, band members move away, memories fade, time flies and walls fall.
The teen dances of the 1960s could draw 400 on a good night, but the Last Dance at the Civic Center never saw more than 60 or 70 that Saturday afternoon.
By 5:55 p.m. when the real last dance came due, there weren’t more than 25 or 30 old-timers lingering. The others had already left, for that early bird at LongHorn, perhaps, or a nap.
In the end, a young group called Bright Colors played a song called Good Times, recorded in 1979 by the rhythm and blues band Chic. Dana Carrier sang along, but only a few people danced.

Historic preservationist and longtime resident Susan Oyer writes a goodbye message to the Boynton Beach Civic Center.

GREAT EXAMPLE OF 1960S ARCHITECTURE. WELL LOVED. GOODBYE AND GOD BLESS. SUSAN OYER.
Oyer, whose great-great-grandfather arrived in Southeast Florida in the early 1870s, stepped back to read what she’d written on the wall.
“Jazzercise in here as a kid,” she said. “Beautiful building — sorry to see it go — ‘progress’ I guess.
“How many buildings can you fight for?”

Manalapan leads South County with 10.51% increase

By Mary Hladky

For the seventh year in a row, the taxable value of Palm Beach County properties has surged to a new high.
After making up the losses last year from the Great Recession, countywide taxable property values jumped 6.53 percent to $187.8 billion this year, according to the county Property Appraiser’s Office. That’s well above the pre-recession taxable value record of $169.4 billion set in 2007.
The total market value of countywide properties now is $264.7 billion, up from $251.9 billion last year.
While property values continue their upward march, experts see no sign of a housing bubble. The $263,900 median value of a Palm Beach County home in April was 18.8 percent below the pre-recession peak of $325,100, according to the national real estate website Zillow.
And while values keep rising, the rate of growth has decreased in recent years.
“Continued modest, sustainable growth indicates a healthy and stable real estate market in Palm Beach County,” Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks said in a video announcing the 2018 valuations.
Speaking to the County Commission on June 19, Jacks said 16 new apartment complexes were added to the tax roll this year, and 20 will be added in 2019, with an average value of $50 million per project.
Those complexes accounted for more than $800 million of the total $2.4 billion in new construction added to the tax roll, she said.
“The biggest trend in Palm Beach County, apartment complexes have become the new condos,” Jacks said in the video.
As it has for the past two years, Delray Beach outpaced other cities in south Palm Beach County with a taxable value increase of 8.62 percent.
“People coming here find it to be a place they want to relocate to,” and the demand for homes pushes prices up, said Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia. “We have so much going on, an explosion almost, from single-family homes to townhomes to apartments to condos.”
Boca Raton saw a 6.32 percent rise in taxable values, while Boynton Beach was up 7.12 percent.
“Boca Raton’s unmatched quality of life makes us a great place to live and invest,” Mayor Scott Singer said in an email. “The increased valuations reflect how attractive we are.”
The overall growth leader in south Palm Beach County was Manalapan, with values up 10.51 percent to $1.4 billion.
Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the increase was due to the addition of several newly constructed high-end homes to the tax roll and the higher valuations of other homes that sold.
Property values increased 10.26 percent in Briny Breezes, 8.02 percent in Gulf Stream, 3.63 percent in Highland Beach, 7.99 percent in Lantana, 5.95 percent in Ocean Ridge and 5.36 percent in South Palm Beach.
All cities and towns in Palm Beach County saw taxable value gains. Those with the biggest jumps were tiny Cloud Lake with 16.45 percent, followed by Haverhill at 12.61 percent. The smallest increases were Highland Beach’s and 2.67 percent in the Village of Golf.
The drivers of growth, beyond new apartment complexes, are downtown development in Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth, as well as the construction of new hotels, Jacks told the County Commission.
“Values in the [downtown] cores are rising very quickly,” she said.
Unlike Broward County, which is largely built out, land is available in Palm Beach County and there is a demand for new housing in the western parts of the county, Jacks said.
New apartments set trend
The largest additions to the tax roll in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Boca Raton illustrate the trends.
In Delray Beach, the top additions include the $80 million expansion of Delray Medical Center, the 248-apartment Delray Station at 1720 Depot Ave. and the 146-apartment Caspian Delray at 190 SE Fifth Ave. in the downtown, said Dino Maniotis, tax roll coordinator for the Property Appraiser’s Office.
In Boynton Beach, the largest additions included the 80-apartment Quantum Lake Villas at 2700 Quantum Lakes Drive, the 350-apartment Cortina at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Old Boynton Road, and the 93-room Holiday Inn Express at 2001 W. Ocean Drive.
In Boca Raton, the top four are the 378-apartment Palmetto Promenade at 333 E. Palmetto Park Road in the downtown, the 370-apartment Residences at Broken Sound at 5500 Broken Sound Blvd., and the 282-apartment Allure Boca Raton and 400-apartment Altis Boca Raton, both in the former Arvida Park of Commerce, now called The Park at Broken Sound.
Local governments use the tax roll numbers to begin calculating how much property tax money they can expect in the coming year, so they can set their annual budgets and 2018-2019 tax rates.
That process will end in mid- to late September, before the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year.
An increase in taxable value means the county, cities and towns will collect more money from property owners in 2018-2019 even if they keep their tax rates the same as in 2017-2018.
Elected officials can increase the tax rates even though property values have risen, but they typically don’t want to anger taxpayers by doing that. They often opt to decrease rates a small amount so they can say they have lowered taxes even though their tax revenues will rise.
Officials contacted by The Coastal Star in June either did not comment or would not say whether they are considering keeping tax rates the same or lowering them because they had not finalized budgets for the new fiscal year.
Petrolia said decision-making this year is complicated by a state constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would create another $25,000 homestead exemption, which is expected to pass and would cut city and county property tax revenues.
“I will probably be more conservative this year,” Petrolia said.

Mounds of sargassum, in places more than 30 feet wide and more than a foot deep, pile up on the beach in Ocean Ridge in mid-June. Since then some of the seaweed decomposed but then more arrived on the tide. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Sargassum species perplexes but doesn’t worry

experts, who see no threat to nesting turtles

By Cheryl Blackerby

Sargassum, the brown seaweed that is tossed onto South Florida’s beaches by Atlantic waves, has always been a mixed blessing: Environmentalists love it, beachgoers loathe it.
But this year, the piles of seaweed also have presented a mystery that has scientists baffled. It’s a new species of sargassum with larger leaves and heavier tangled mats than in years past. Where did this new sargassum come from and how did it get here? Scientists believe it didn’t take the usual path on the Gulf Stream.
It doesn’t seem to be carrying as many tiny shrimp and crabs that made the old seaweed species sources of food for seabirds.
And, most perplexing, this year there have been far fewer man-of-war that usually accompany sargassum. Could the new seaweed be keeping them away?
Sargassum started showing up on beaches in May, when it usually does. Beachgoers have to stake their umbrellas away from the mounds, which many consider ugly and smelly blights. Hotels worry about tourists’ reactions. Visitors from other parts of the country don’t know that seaweed is a beneficial part of Florida’s natural landscape.
Marine conservationists see its many virtues: It protects expensive replacement sand on the beaches, it bolsters sand dunes that help keep hurricane surges away from houses and roads, and it gives nourishment to beach vegetation.
Offshore, it provides crucial sanctuaries and nutrients to turtle hatchlings for the first years of their lives and offers safe havens for fish nurseries and protection for dolphins.
The sargassum of past years moved on currents around the Caribbean, through the Florida Straits to the Gulf Stream, and onward to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The new sargassum is thought to be from Brazil and did not come by currents. It most probably was blown here.
“More recently, I’ve heard a lot of it appears to possibly be a new species or a species that’s not found around here and they think it’s coming up from Brazil, which is very bizarre. I’m not sure what path it’s taken or even if it really is from Brazil,” says Dr. Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
“If the currents are doing what they normally would do, it would be almost impossible for a floating plant to come here (from Brazil). So I would imagine it would have to be the winds. Possibly the mats are so thick that they would rise out of the water so they would be more affected by the wind.”
The lack of man-of-war normally associated with sargassum is a welcome surprise, but puzzling.
“We have no theories at all,” says Rusenko. “I don’t know if the sargassum is not allowing them to feed or it may be just too thick. I haven’t seen a man-of-war this entire summer.”

Not a threat to turtles
Even though the new sargassum has a larger leaf structure and makes bigger masses, Rusenko doesn’t think the seaweed is a threat to turtle nesting, which started in April.
“We scrape it away if it gets on a nest. Fortunately, there have been only a handful of hatchlings so far and the nests we’ve had didn’t have a lot of seaweed around,” he says. “A few days ago, it would have been a problem. There were 10- or 15-foot-wide mats they would have to climb over.”
Turtle monitors have been busy making sure the seaweed is not a problem for nests, which are often roped off.
Cleanup of beaches must follow strict rules spelled out in permits issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection. Regulations call for mechanized equipment to stay in the high-tide water line and to give turtle nests and beach vegetation a wide berth.
Clayton Peart, president of Universal Beach Services Corp., says he has seen a lot of sargassum this year. “It’s almost floating in on islands. It’s worrisome,” he says. He and his family have been doing beach cleanup since 1973 from Palm Beach to south Boca Raton.
Peart buries the sargassum in the waterline following the rules of his permits. “We level escarpments when requested, put seaweed in spots where there’s erosion when it’s not turtle season, and pick up trash. ... We’ve picked up everything from cigarette butts to boats, and a 9,000-pound net.”
Dave Rowland, owner of Beach Keeper, has been maintaining beaches for municipalities, including the beach behind the Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa, for 21 years. He, too, has seen an upswing in seaweed.
“Three weeks of winds from the east brought in a lot of seaweed. This year has been in the top two years for seaweed. A couple of years ago,” he said, “seaweed was a foot thick from the beach to the end of the Lake Worth Pier.”
Joan Lorne of Delray Beach does turtle patrol with the nonprofit Sea Turtle Adventures on a 3-mile stretch of beach in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and Ocean Ridge with her daughter, Jacquelyn Kingston. Kingston has been monitoring sea turtles for 18 years, and her master’s degree research has been incorporated into the FWC’s Marine Turtle Conservation Handbook. 
“I don’t have a concern about the sargassum. It’s beginning to dissipate,” says Kingston. “We usually see this. It’s nothing that’s alarming to me. The hatchlings can crawl over it. It’s part of our environment and plays an important role in our ecosystems.”
Betty Bingham has been watching sea turtles and sargassum in Ocean Ridge since her family bought a beach house here in 1959. Bingham, a former town commissioner, moved permanently to the house in 1985.
“In the old days, we would take the sargassum to the dunes to make it harder for the sand to wash out and to give nutrition to the dune plants. Sargassum is enormously nutritious,” she says.
Many towns are beginning to bury the sargassum on the beaches for the same reason — to stabilize replacement sand.
For people who don’t like the seaweed piled on the beaches, she tells them to tear off a piece and shake it into a snorkel mask, then look at the tiny shrimp and crabs that fall out. The seaweed feeds seabirds and is a nursery for sea creatures.
And to those who complain about it, she says: “Tough.”
The sargassum is dissipating, but as Rusenko says, “Who knows, it may come back.”
Michael Stahl, deputy director of Environmental Resources Management for Palm Beach County, says the seaweed “ebbs and flows, although it’s an upward trend. We’re seeing more. It depends on the shore winds and currents and it tends to get concentrated on some beaches.”
There is a lot of speculation on the causes of the larger amounts of seaweed.
“Warmer water would increase the growth rate,” says Rusenko. “We’re definitely concerned. Agricultural runoff, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution coming through the inlets are not helpful.”
As for the turtles, county officials are pleased with nest numbers, although they “won’t break any records,” says Stahl.
“The green turtles are definitely taking this year off. We’ve got five nests in Boca,” Rusenko says. “We haven’t been that low for at least 25 years, and it’s going to be statewide. For some reason, the turtles decided to nest every other year, which doesn’t mean they’re in trouble. This is just an off year. Leatherbacks had 18 nests, loggerheads 396. That’s better than it was 10 years ago. It’s a respectable number.”

Marty Pawlicki of Briny Breezes has tubes running into both arms while he makes the final donation of platelets on his way to the 100-gallon milestone. To the right is Benita Teschendorf, his fiancee, whom he met while donating his 70th gallon. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Talk to Marty Pawlicki and it soon becomes apparent that he is a health and fitness fan, who rides his bike 20 to 25 miles a day and who is a regular on the tennis courts.
Pawlicki is also a numbers guy; he taught math as well as public health at Palm Beach State College before fully retiring a few years ago.
So it comes as no surprise that one of Pawlicki’s most ambitious goals combined the two.
Just a few weeks ago, Pawlicki reached a major milestone when he donated a pint of blood that put him over the 100-gallon mark.
It is an achievement that has been more than 20 years in the making and one that few others reach.
“Giving blood is the easiest way to do something good,” says Pawlicki, 70, a Briny Breezes resident. “It’s easier to replace blood than to replace money.”
Pawlicki, from Michigan, has been giving blood for decades, but he says his quest to reach the 100-gallon mark began almost two decades ago after he attended a celebration honoring blood donors.
He read a booklet there that listed those who gave in order of how much they donated. At the time, Pawlicki was fairly far down the chart, but he was ambitious.
“I wanted to get on the first page of the booklet,” he said.
Once Pawlicki reached 46 gallons, he did a few calculations and set an even more ambitious goal. “I thought I could get to 100 gallons,” he said.
There was a bit of a hitch, however. Blood banks generally limit whole blood donations to six times a year. At that rate, Pawlicki calculated, it would take far too long to reach his goal, and he probably would never make it.
Pawlicki, who has A-positive blood, went a different route, becoming a plateletpheresis donor, who can donate up to 24 times a year, making his goal more realistic.
With pheresis, blood is withdrawn from the body and platelets, the cells responsible for clotting, are removed. The donor’s blood is then put back in the body to house remaining and newly produced platelets.
A familiar face at the OneBlood blood bank in Delray Beach, Pawlicki is there on a regular schedule for about 90 minutes every other week.
“I like doing it,” he said. “You can lie there and watch a movie.”
Through his donations, Pawlicki has gotten to know the staff at the center as well as some of the other regular donors, including someone with whom he plays tennis.
For Pawlicki, his regular trips to the blood center also helped him discover he had high-blood pressure, which is now being treated.
Trained as a nurse, Pawlicki spent much of his career in Michigan as a public health educator teaching all aspects of health, including fitness, nutrition and stress management.
“Health is really synonymous with happiness,” he said, adding that having your health makes it possible to achieve your goals.
It was a few years after his son Michael was born that Pawlicki and his wife (now ex-wife), also a nurse, began giving blood.
“We would go to the blood center as part of a family outing,” he said, explaining that the couple would bring their son, who would play at the blood center while they gave blood. “We all did it together. It might have had something to do with learning to insert an IV.”
Pawlicki believes that the future of blood donations belongs to younger people who he hopes will become donors.
“The only way a high school student should think about losing blood is by donating,” he said.
As for Pawlicki, he now has a new goal — to reach 1,000 donations.
“That’s 25 more gallons,” the former math professor said without skipping a beat.

We lock our doors when there’s only one person in the office. We lock them when we’re working at night.
There’ve been times when we’ve asked local law enforcement to keep an eye on our office and our employees. We’ve been screamed at on the telephone and had hateful postings on the online and social media versions of our stories. And, of course, we’ve been threatened with lawsuits and sued over our reporting.
Let that all sink in.
We’re a 17,000-circulation, monthly newspaper. We dedicate as much newsprint to features and photos as we do to news reporting. We write obituaries and give a lot of space to monthly calendar listings. We seldom cover crime or courts.
So, as reports from the murderous attack at the Capital Gazette in Maryland unfolded, we were sickened but not completely surprised. There are a lot of angry people out there — even in a community as beautiful and privileged as ours. Even in a city as lovely as Annapolis.
One of the five newspaper employees killed in the attack was a former co-worker of mine. A beautiful and thoughtful writer. A man who loved his family and his profession. A good man.
The last I spoke with Rob Hiaasen was a few years ago. He was curious about the origins and success of our little paper. We talked about community journalism and why it’s become increasingly important in an America where a journalist’s value is often measured in retweets and celebrity. We agreed that every community, no matter its size, is filled with interesting stories that should be told.
If Americans learn anything from the senseless slaughter of professionals just doing their jobs, maybe it will be about the dedication under-paid and over-worked newspaper people feel toward the communities they live and work in. And maybe this will shine a light on our need as a society to move past divisive hyperbole and get a grip on our anger.
I’m not naive enough to believe we’ll ever leave our doors unlocked at night, but we’ll still be here covering the news of our community. Now more than ever.
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

This congregation was devastated to learn of the shooting in Annapolis June 28 and we are praying for the victims and their families.
While our heart is with the Capital Gazette we can’t imagine what each of you may be experiencing with your colleagues’ suffering. The work each of you produces shines light on the communities where we live and work and provides greater clarity and understanding of those forces that impact our daily lives.
Journalists shouldn’t have to fear attacks, both verbal and physical, while completing their work with integrity.
Threats to journalists are real and this certainty may bring weariness and exhaustion, disrupting your good work from time to time. Our hope is that you will hear from those you serve that your work is important, it is noble, and is our best defense of the liberties we cherish.
That is our intention with this letter. Perhaps these thoughts will be an encouragement to you and fuel determination to face this dangerous climate with rigor and courage.
Lives are enriched and communities are made stronger by what you do. Of this, we are certain.

Dr. W. Douglas Hood Jr.
Senior Pastor
First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach

By Jane Smith

Unfair. Disrespectful. Insulting. Deceptive. Racial undertones.
Several black community members have spoken those words at Delray Beach City Commission meetings since the beginning of April when commissioners voted to take over the city’s redevelopment board.
A few hours before the June 5 meeting, where Community Redevelopment Agency board expansion was on the commission agenda, the politics ramped up a notch.
Reggie Cox, a former agency board member, called Mayor Shelly Petrolia “the most divisive mayor in the last 30 years” on his Facebook page. He also shared his post to the Concerned Delray Citizens group page on Facebook, a social media platform.
In addition, he wrote, “The Mayor destroyed a black board.” The old CRA board had four black and three white members.
But it was Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, the commission’s only black member, who called for the takeover. The four other commission members are white.
The City Commission approved expanding the agency board by a 3-2 vote on June 5. It then voted to add former Commissioner Angie Gray and Pamela Brinson, both black women, giving the CRA board three black members and four white.
Bill Bathurst and Ryan Boylston, both elected to the commission in March, voted against the expansion because they wanted to discuss what their roles would be on the agency board. “We are just getting our feet wet,” Bathurst said.
Boylston agreed and said he wanted to have a workshop first to discuss the commission’s vision for the agency. He also wanted to have a few more agency meetings before deciding whether to expand the board.
“We haven’t put it out to the public,” Boylston said. He wanted to wait a week to give the public an opportunity to apply to be board members.
But the city clerk has been taking applications since late March, a few weeks after Johnson had said she was interested in a takeover vote. The commission voted to take over the CRA board on April 3, the first commission meeting since the election, but left open the possibility of adding members of the public.
By June 5, 30 people had applied to become board members. Nineteen either live in the agency district or have businesses there.
The pool of applicants from the Northwest/Southwest neighborhood, where the commission wants to focus redevelopment, was smaller.
Boylston nominated Connor Lynch, whose dad was mayor. The son has an insurance company on North Federal Highway, which is in the district. Only Bathurst supported the appointment, so it failed.
Johnson then nominated Gray, her campaign consultant, for a four-year term on the board. Gray also had served on the CRA board before her election as a city commissioner. Boylston was the lone no vote.
Vice Mayor Adam Frankel then offered Brinson to serve a two-year term. Brinson had run against Gray in 2014 when Gray lost her re-election bid to Jordana Jarjura.
Brinson was appointed by a 3-2 vote with Bathurst and Boylston voting no.
“It sounds like this discussion has already been had,” Boylston said.
The mayor said, “No, sir. There has been no discussion.”
Boylston then said, “I just hope Delray Beach is paying attention.”

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach city commissioners approved changes to the city’s eight lifeguard towers that will add more than $21,000 to what some have called “mini condos” that now sit on the beach.
One change order on June 19 included seven items: extra 30 days to pressure-treat the lumber in a more environmentally friendly manner; extra seven days to pick the correct color schemes; extra 14 days to comply with state regulations to protect nesting sea turtles; $9,600 for roof material change from cedar shakes to metal; $8,700 for roof color change so that the lifeguard towers now match the roofs on the pavilion and gazebos; $2,906.86 for stainless steel testing of bolts; and extra 30 days starting Nov. 1 to demolish the existing towers. The state won’t allow demolitions on the beach during turtle-nesting season.
Bolt testing cost by an independent laboratory, Applied Technical Services, was not included. That cost was said to be $1,245.
The stainless steel tests were done after rust was found on the bolts just weeks after the lifeguard towers were placed on the beach..
“We were told the stainless steel bolts would not rust,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said June 19. City Attorney Max Lohman, whose undergraduate degree was in oceanography, said the surface rust on the bolts was likely from a reaction with sulfur in the air. He also explained that stainless steel is not rustproof, but rust resistant.
The commission voted 4-1 to approve the change order to the lifeguard tower contract, with the mayor dissenting.
Petrolia supported replacing the old lifeguard towers, which were no longer usable, but she didn’t want to spend so much of taxpayer dollars on the new ones.
The new lifeguard towers will each have a metal roof, a solar panel to power public safety radios and a fan inside, impact windows, louvered shutters and skids so that they can move easily along the beach.
The $21,000 will come from the 5.2 percent contingency fund in the contract, said Susan Goebel-Canning, new public works director.
The towers now cost $128,951 each. When such soft costs as moving the towers are included, the individual price for a lifeguard tower tops $142,000.
Goebel-Canning assured the commission that the lifeguard towers would last 20 years and the hardware would not have to be replaced.

By Jane Smith

The new Boynton Beach police chief, Michael G. Gregory, will start July 9.
Gregory, assistant police chief in Fort Lauderdale, was selected by the Boynton Beach city manager in mid-June from 83 applicants.
He is negotiating the contract details with the city.
The police chief salary ranges between $99,962 and $149,494, according to the job listing.
“Mr. Gregory’s employment record in Fort Lauderdale is impeccable,” said Lori LaVerriere, Boynton Beach city manager. “I spoke with the city manager and police chief and they both had nothing but praise for him. He will fit our team beautifully.”
Boynton Beach also provides police services to Briny Breezes and its nearly 600 residents.
A Fort Lauderdale native, Gregory, 51, started with its Police Department in 1987 as a detective. Over the years, he moved through its ranks. He most recently led the Support Services Bureau.
Gregory had entered Fort Lauderdale’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan, forcing him to retire in 2019.
He has a master’s degree in public administration from Florida International University, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Florida Atlantic University and an associate degree in criminal justice from Broward College.
Gregory is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Police Executive Research Forum, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Florida Police Chiefs Association, American Society of Public Administrators and the National Forum of Black Public Administrators.
The Boynton Beach Police Department has about 155 officers and 53 nonsworn employees. Its budget is approximately $30.4 million, and it protects about 73,000 residents.

By Dan Moffett

Problems caused by rising seas are forcing rising expenditures to seep into the Ocean Ridge budget.
During the next fiscal year, town commissioners are considering spending roughly $125,000 on new stormwater infrastructure for the flood-prone Inlet Cay neighborhood, $47,000 to maintain and repair existing drain pipes, another $33,000 to install new drains, and $20,000 for swale construction.
There’s also $12,000 set aside in the proposed budget for Geographical Information Systems mapping that will help officials identify the areas in the town that are most vulnerable to future sea rise problems.
“The sea level and drainage problems will always be exacerbated,” Town Manager Jamie Titcomb told commissioners during a budget workshop on July 2. “We live on a barrier island.”
With a 3-2 vote, the commission approved setting the maximum millage rate for the next budget at $5.55 per $1,000 of taxable property value, a number that’s significantly above the $5.05 rollback rate that would keep tax revenues flat and the current millage rate of $5.25.
The commission can decide on a final tax rate less than the $5.55 maximum in the weeks ahead but cannot go above it. Vice Mayor Don MaGruder and Commissioners Phil Besler and Kristine de Haseth approved the ceiling rate; Mayor James Bonfiglio and Commissioner Steve Coz voted no.
Preliminary numbers from the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office show taxable values in Ocean Ridge up nearly 6 percent over last year, roughly in line with those throughout the county.
Bonfiglio and MaGruder have recommended that the commission start advancing projects to improve drainage before their construction costs increase in future years. But the mayor also warned that property owners will have to play a major role in helping the town deal with the rising costs of the rising seas.
“With sea level rise and our water table rising, it essentially makes the land less able to absorb water,” Bonfiglio said. “So as a town we can decide we want to have homeowners help us deal with that potential flooding issue.”
The commission has directed Town Engineer Lisa Tropepe to propose a priority list of possible drainage projects for the next few years. Tropepe said the town could act on two chronic problems without incurring great expense: getting seasonal residents to use moisture-detecting “smart” timers on their sprinkler systems when they leave town and persuading homeowners and contractors to reduce their use of impervious decks and driveways, as well as expanding swale areas.
The mayor said that without cooperation from homeowners and builders, the town is facing the task of developing “a massive drainage system” that is unrealistically expensive to build and manage. The town’s Planning and Zoning Commission is reviewing building rules, and officials are awaiting the results of an engineering consultant’s study of the Inlet Cay neighborhood that should be released in August.
In other business:
• The town got a passing grade from the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector Gen-eral during a routine audit of capital assets completed in June.
“We found generally adequate controls for the capital assets process,” the IG report said, “and physical controls for safeguarding the capital assets.”
The town accepted the auditors’ recommendation that administrators conduct an annual review of assets to ensure that insurance records are accurate. Capital assets are defined as tangible or intangible items that cost $5,000 or more and benefit the town for more than a fiscal year.
• Bonfiglio has submitted his resignation from the Town Commission, effective Nov. 6. The mayor is a Democratic candidate in the state House District 89 race and, under Florida’s “resign-to-run” law, must give up his municipal seat in order to seek the higher office in the fall election.

The eastern facade of Gulf Stream Views as seen from Old Ocean Boulevard. Rendering provided

By Jane Smith

Briny Breezes residents will soon be neighbors with luxury townhome owners living on the south side of the oceanfront town.
In early June, Gulf Stream Views LLC paid $5.4 million for the nearly 2-acre site, according to county property records. The new owner, a division of National Realty Investment Advisors of Secaucus, N.J., borrowed $16.5 million to buy the parcel and build 14 townhomes.
“We have a luxury product. There are no other oceanfront parcels available in the area,” said Glenn La Mattina, senior vice president of National Realty and its new division, NR Living. “We have location, location, location.”
The price paid was almost 22 percent below the asking price of $6.895 million.
“The buyers came in and negotiated very friendly terms to the seller,” listing broker Steven Presson said. “My clients came to a point and made a business decision it was time to move on.”
David Rinker, who purchased the property in 2006 when it still housed the Pelican Apartments, paid $3.2 million for the parcel. The Old Florida-style, 11-unit complex was soon demolished. Rinker and investors planned to build Tuscan-style townhomes. He did not return phone messages.
The purchase is National Realty’s eighth in coastal Gulf Stream and Delray Beach, according to its website. Its divisions spent $37.3 million in the past year, according to county property records. National Realty’s website also lists one property each in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach with a status of closing.
“We are building luxury units for sale or rental on the sites owned in southern Palm Beach County,” La Mattina said.
Most of the parcels have another local connection. Former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney’s law firm is listed as the registered agent for the limited liability corporations set up as the owner of each property. He declined to comment about his role, saying, “I don’t discuss my clients.”
National Realty also turned to a local lender for the bridge loan that covers acquisition and development of the townhomes near Briny Breezes. Trez Forman Capital Group was formed two years ago by Boynton Beach-based Forman Capital and Vancouver-based Trez Capital Group.
“I’ve known the borrowers for a long time. I started Forman Capital in 2004 in Delray Beach,” said Brett Forman, president and CEO.
His company is still optimistic about residential real estate in South Florida. “We look closely at the project and location,” Forman said. “People still want to move to South Florida.”
In mid-June, Trez Forman gave Sofa Partners a $20.6 million construction loan to build 111 First Delray, a boutique condo project in Delray Beach.
The name Gulf Stream Views comes from its oceanfront location, La Mattina said.
Site work will take place in July and construction will start in August, he said. The 14 luxury units will be ready in April 2020, La Mattina said. Preconstruction prices range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million.
Each three-story unit will have three bedrooms, an elevator, a splash pool, a two-car garage, a rooftop deck and 3,400 square feet of air-conditioned space.
Neighbor Mike Smollon, who lives in the County Pocket to the south, said, “It was inevitable that the parcel would be developed.”
He hopes the complex is constructed well and does not worsen the drainage problems in the County Pocket. With summer downpours the streets often flood, said Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach fire battalion chief.
“I believe in 10 years, we will look back on this as a landmark sale,” Presson said. “It not only will change the landscape but significantly increase property values in Briny Breezes and beyond.”

Other National Realty purchases, projects

Ocean Ridge
• Closing on 6644 N. Ocean Blvd. The property now contains three condo units and sits across from the county’s Ocean Ridge Hammock Park. The parcel can hold four townhomes, according to Jamie Titcomb, town manager.
The condo owners have come in to discuss what can be built on the property. The land sits in a zoning district that is not subject to the town’s moratorium on building, he said.

Gulf Stream
• Paid $6.5 million in August 2017 for a lot at 3565 N. Ocean. The town says the new owner can build 7,326 square feet, including a 467-square-foot gatehouse.
• Paid $6.5 million in August 2017 for a .77-acre piece once owned by Delray Beach real estate investor Carl DeSantis. The new owner can build 8,705 square feet, including a 488-square-foot gatehouse, according to the town.
The town does not allow condos to be built along the ocean, said Rita Taylor, town clerk. Both parcels recently received permission to build single-family homes, she said.

Delray Beach
• Paid $450,000 in September for 837 Denery Lane, which has a 1,706-square-foot home built in 1958. The house sits on .23 of an acre.
• Closing on 915 Bond Way with a 2,373-square-foot home built in 1958. The house sits on .28 of an acre. The National Realty website gives this description of its planned Palm Trail Townhomes there: two-unit luxury townhomes with 4,000 square feet each, four bedrooms and 4.5 baths, elevator, plunge pool, outdoor terrace and a club room.
The property is owned by Shovel Ready Investments LLC. Former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney’s law firm is listed as the registered agent on Florida corporate records. His firm also is the registered agent for the National Realty divisions in Palm Beach County.
• Paid $6.5 million in September for 707 N. Ocean Blvd. The property has a 4,042-square-foot home built in 1954 on .57 of an acre. A National Realty division submitted plans for a two-story, 7,994-square-foot home that sits mostly east of the Coastal Construction Control Line. That means the state Department of Environmental Protection would have to approve it. The department has allowed most such structures in the past.
• Paid $7.05 million in October for 344 N. Ocean Blvd. The property is .89 of an acre and has a house under construction.
The former owners, Albert and Tamara Rabil of Boca Raton, are involved in litigation with their builder and subcontractors over 176 change orders on the house with costs exceeding $9 million. On June 7, with 30 parties and 85 claims, the Rabils asked the judge to declare the case “complex” and set up a case management plan with non-binding arbitration and mediation. As of press time, no hearing date was set.
• Part of a $7.25 million purchase in July 2017 of 322 N. Ocean Blvd., 1239 Laing St. and 316 N. Ocean, for a total of .87 of an acre. These parcels have city approval to build a two-story, 6,310-square-foot home with five bedrooms, three-car garage and a pool; a two-story, 5,069-square-foot home with an elevator and pool; and a two-story, 5,451-square-foot home with five bedrooms, three-car garage and a pool.
• Paid $3.05 million in September for four parcels (302, 318, 338 and 346) totaling .88 of an acre on Southeast Fifth Avenue: 302 has two, one-story office buildings of 1,222 square feet each, 318 has a four-unit building of 4,130 square feet, 338 is vacant land and 346 has an 800-square-foot office building. As of press time, no plans were filed with the city.
Sources: Palm Beach County property appraiser, county clerk & comptroller and Delray Beach Planning, Zoning and Building Department

By Dan Moffett

Billionaire Palm Beach real estate entrepreneur Jeff Greene is busy campaigning around the state for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Officials in Manalapan would rather see him repairing the house he owns at 4020 S. Ocean Blvd.
Three years ago, Greene and his investor group, 920 N. Stanley Partners LLC, bought the 6,400-square-foot, six-bedroom home on 2.4 acres adjacent to the Boynton Inlet.
Greene’s group told Manalapan officials in 2016 the plan was to demolish the structures, divide the lot and build two homes there. That hasn’t happened. A legal dispute with an adjacent owner over submerged land property lines has stalled Greene’s plan.
Meanwhile, the 60-year-old, $6 million house is falling apart, officials say.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf. “The gutters are falling down. Lights are falling down. It’s dreadful.”
The town has cited Greene’s group with a lengthy list of code violations and wants them resolved soon. The case will go before a special magistrate in August.
The message from the town is “either fix it or take it down,” Stumpf said.
“We understand there are some special circumstances,” Mayor Keith Waters said. “But that doesn’t preclude taking care of the property.”
Representatives of Stanley Partners could not be reached for comment.

A construction crew works on the parking lot in Plaza del Mar while another works on the roof of the new Publix under construction. Publix officials hope for an early August opening but say the date will not be confirmed until Manalapan issues a certificate of occupancy for the building. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

Manalapan began the year with ambitious plans to expand its Police Department by 50 percent. Those plans have stalled lately over problems recruiting and keeping qualified officers, despite a hefty across-the-board increase in pay.
Police Chief Carmen Mattox says he has eight full-time uniformed officers now and has made no progress expanding the department to 12 as the Town Commission unanimously approved earlier this year.
“We’re just really having a tough time with hiring and keeping,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf. “Right now we’re struggling against the Sheriff’s Office and the School Board. They’re both hiring like crazy.”
Stumpf said that two officers who left Manalapan recently to work elsewhere in the county said during exit interviews that the town’s salary increase was important to them, but their main reason for leaving was pension benefits. Manalapan offers a 401(k) plan but does not offer defined benefits compensation, such as that of the Florida Retirement System, that other agencies provide.
“We can’t compete in today’s marketplace,” Stumpf said.
Mayor Keith Waters asked Stumpf and Mattox during a budget workshop on June 25 to find out how much it would cost the town to offer a defined benefits plan. Waters said it makes no sense to go ahead with plans to improve the town’s network of security cameras and overhaul the police dispatch center without first hiring qualified officers.
“If we invest in all this technology and we don’t have the people, we have nothing,” Waters said. “We have to invest in people first.”
After a string of car thefts late last year, commissioners approve in January a plan to spend $417,000 from reserve funds to expand the department. The plan called for raising police starting salaries from $46,700 to $51,200 and giving each officer currently in the department a $4,500 raise.
Mattox said he needs more officers to satisfy the commission’s goal of having three patrol cars on duty around the clock. Stumpf said that improving police pensions likely will force the town to increase its millage rate.
Manalapan is well-positioned, however, for a modest tax hike. The town has one of the lowest tax rates ($2.795 per $1,000 of taxable property value) and highest per capita tax bases in the county — and property values have risen roughly 10 percent in the past year, Stumpf said.
Besides the police expansion, another significant expenditure in the 2018-19 budget is a renovation of the Town Hall chambers. Commissioners are waiting for cost estimates on that project.

By Dan Moffett

Ocean Ridge officials are quickly learning that it’s much easier to put on a construction moratorium than to take it off.
The Town Commission took the unprecedented step of halting new projects in May after concerns arose over loopholes in building rules that could allow the construction of oversized houses or, worse, sober homes. Mayor James Bonfiglio said the town needed time to work on code and zoning revisions that had needed attention for years.
Builders, contractors and property owners with plans in hand have reacted with angst and anger at the prospect of being sidelined for an indefinite time — perhaps as long as six months.
Commissioner Steve Coz says his phone has been ringing with calls from unhappy people.
“There are a lot of very angry residents who are terrified,” Coz said during a meeting with the town’s Planning and Zoning board members on June 18. “Sales of properties are stopping. Sales of open land are stopping. So it’s having an impact on the town.”
Complicating officials’ predicament are the ongoing efforts to update the town’s comprehensive plan, the long-range guide for shaping growth and development in Ocean Ridge. Commissioners and planning officials find themselves under pressure to move quickly with decisions that could affect the town for decades to come. Bonfiglio told officials they should keep working on a dual track and deal with updating the comp plan while also “easing the fears of people who are concerned about the moratorium” by getting the building rule revis-ions done “as quickly as we can.”
The commission approved hiring Marty Minor, an urban planner with Urban Design Kilday Studios consultants of West Palm Beach, to help the town make changes that are often highly technical and tangled with unintended consequences.
The mayor has insisted that no single construction project moved the town to implement the moratorium and rewrite its rules. However, part-time resident John Lauring, a Massachusetts businessman, touched off debate about oversized homes in May when he showed the town his plans to build a nine-bedroom, 11½-bath home on property he owns at 92-94 Island Drive S.
Bonfiglio has directed P&Z members to consider four issues related to large home construction: parking requirements, septic tank limits, drainage and accessible exits and entrances.
“Drainage is a big issue,” Minor said. “It’s always going to be a big issue from now on.”
Minor, who has been working with the town for weeks to revise the comprehensive plan, said officials have to consider all available options to tighten building rules and prevent having homes that are too big for their surroundings.
“There are only so many tools in the toolbox,” he said, “and we have to use them all.”