Maria Nhambu holds her book, 'Africa’s Child,' at her coastal Delray Beach condo.

The book is the first of a planned three-part memoir.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Her name is Maria Nhambu but she prefers to be called Nhambu.
    It is a name that tells you much about this woman, an orphan in Tanzania who escaped a life void of love and affection and later thrived as an educator in, of all places, Minnesota.
    The name also tells you about a role she played during the greatest part of her 73 years, that of informal ambassador helping people in the United States understand more about Africa and those in Africa learn more about America.
    Nhambu, in the language of the East African tribe the little girl known for many years only as Mary was born into, translates into one who gets people together.
    “My whole life, that’s what I’ve been doing,” she said. “Then many years later, I found out that was my name.”
    Nhambu’s extraordinary tale of being left at an orphanage for mixed-raced African children when she was just 3 days old, and of later using education to lead her to an accomplished life in the U.S., is chronicled in her book, Africa’s Child. It is the first and, so far only, published book of a three-part memoir that reads like a script for a Hollywood movie.
    Her earliest years were marked by bullying and physical abuse at the hands of older girls in the orphanage, which was in an isolated and desolate mountain region that Nhambu describes as at the end of the world.
    “It’s a miracle I’m still alive,” she says.
    Thoughtful and insightful even as a child, Nhambu realized that if she were ever going to leave the orphanage she would need an education.
    “I was alone in the world,” she says. “I made the decision that nobody wanted me, so I needed to want me.”
    As Nhambu got older, the nuns who ran the orphanage sent her to a boarding school 200 miles away, and eventually she was chosen to go to the first secondary school in the area which was run by nuns from the Maryknoll Sisters of New York.
    There she met a 23-year-old English teacher named Catherine, who took her under her wing. After her year volunteering in Africa, the teacher headed back to Minnesota — and brought Nhambu with her.
    “I was petrified, but I trusted her,” Nhambu says. “You realize you’re leaving the only place on Earth that you know.”
    For a few years Nhambu lived with Catherine’s family while going to college on a full scholarship and majoring in French.
    “It was the happiest time of my life,” Nhambu says.
    She landed a job teaching and made a career in education. Eventually, she put down roots in Minnesota, where she got married and started a family. She still has a home there, where she spends summers.
    While teaching, Nhambu also started a fitness program, Aerobics With Soul, which ties back to her African roots.
    “I used dances I knew as a child and modified them so I could teach Americans,” she said.
    Today, Nhambu lives near the ocean in Delray Beach surrounded by her 700-piece collection of African art.
    When she’s in the United States, Nhambu says she is an ambassador for Africa, helping Americans understand more about that continent and its culture.
    “I talk about what is good about Africa and what it has to offer,” she says.
    During trips to Africa, she says, she shares similar stories about America with Africans.
    “I stress the similarities,” she says.
— Rich Pollack
    
    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Tanzania, East Africa. It has influenced everything about me — how I think, how I see and interpret the world and life.

    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I have been a French and Swahili teacher and created Aerobics With Soul, a fitness program using African dance and music.
    
    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. Find your dream. When you find it, don’t follow it, chase it!
    
    Q. How did you choose to make your home in Delray Beach?
    A. My former husband moved his business here and I came with him.
    
    Q. What is your favorite part about living in Delray Beach?
    A. The beach, the weather, the community and friends I’ve made.
    
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. African music, solo piano and New Age music.

    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A. “It is what it is, but it will become what you make it.”
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. Yes. Teachers in Tanzania and in America. Both my friends and enemies have taught me meaningful and helpful lessons about life.
    
    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. Halle Berry.
    
    Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
    A. Dancing makes me laugh. Children make me laugh and AFV (America’s Funniest Home Videos).

By Dan Moffett

     A divided South Palm Beach Town Council has given preliminary approval to an ordinance that will raise the pay of council members and the mayor, beginning after the March election.
    The measure increases the mayor’s monthly salary from $250 to $500 and council members’ pay from $250 to $300. The change does not apply to the current council, but would be phased in next year and after the 2018 election when new members are seated.
    The ordinance passed 3-2 on Dec. 21 with Mayor Bonnie Fischer and Councilwomen Stella Gaddy Jordan and Elvadianne Culbertson approving. Vice Mayor Joe Flagello and Councilman Robert Gottlieb voted against it.
    Flagello argued that the council should have discussed the pay raise during budget workshops last summer and made it part of the budget. He said the town would have to take money out of its contingency fund to cover the expense.
    “Contingency is for unplanned things — not planned things,” Flagello said. “We didn’t budget for this and we shouldn’t do it now.”
    Flagello, Fischer and Culbertson would be eligible to receive the raises if they win reelection in March. Gottlieb and Jordan would have to wait until 2018, when their seats come up.
    “I would love to get more money, don’t get me wrong,” Flagello said. “But I don’t think this is responsible.”
    Gottlieb agreed and said the council should “show goodwill” and wait to make the change. “We all know this won’t make the town go broke,” he said. “But let it come up at the next budget workshop.”
    Jordan led the support for the raises, saying council members hadn’t had an increase in eight years, the town could easily afford the cost, and Fischer had worked overtime to expand the role of the mayor by engaging with other communities and agencies to raise the town’s profile in the area.
    “You can’t imagine how many hours she puts in and how hard she works,” Jordan said.
    Fischer said the mayor’s job required more work than the other council positions.
    “I don’t want to sound self-serving,” she said, “but some of us put in more time and effort than other people because it’s the nature of the office.”
Council members had considered raising their salaries to $400 a month, but Culbertson, in her first meeting since her appointment to the seat opened by Woody Gorbach’s death in October, sided with Flagello and Gorbach to derail that idea. She proposed limiting the raise to $300, and her vote for it was the difference.
    The ordinance is scheduled to come up for final approval at the Jan. 24 town meeting.
    In other business, Town Manager Bob Vitas said an architect’s review of Town Hall “is moving right along” and a report on options for renovating or replacing the aging structure should be ready by the spring.
    Vitas said Steven Knight, of Alexis Knight Architects in West Palm Beach, has interviewed most of the town’s officials and completed a review of the building, which is a hodgepodge of several renovations and additions from decades past.
    “The building is structurally sound,” said Vitas, but he warned that finding a way to expand parking and comply with federal disability access standards will be difficult problems to solve.

By Emily J. Minor

    OCEAN RIDGE — Daniel J. O’Connell, a prominent contractor and former Ocean Ridge mayor whose daughter said he was always loved for that impish “twinkle in his eye,” died Dec. 16. Mr. O’Connell was 86.
    “He was a hilarious man,” said daughter Danielle Murphy, who lives in Boynton Beach. “He was funny, serious and down to earth. Everyone loved him.”
    Born in Holyoke, Mass. — where he lived until moving to Florida in 1972 — Mr. O’Connell went directly from his hometown high school to the Air Force, where he served from 1948 to 1952. Afterward, he attended the University of Massachusetts, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
    At the university, he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and then spent 15 years as a general contractor with Perini Corp. With Perini, later renamed Tutor Perini Corp., Mr. O’Connell moved to Florida to head a new division, said Danielle Murphy.
    Then he started his own company, Daniel O’Connell General Contractors, and worked on many prominent projects through the years, many of them along the coast.
    In Ocean Ridge, he was always involved in community work, whether in politics or community service. Mr. O’Connell served as mayor and town commissioner. He was also active in the Delray Beach Elks Lodge 1770 and past president of the Palm Beach County General Contractors Association. An accomplished pilot, Mr. O’Connell flew privately out of Palm Beach County Park Airport (Lantana Airport) for many years.
    A man of strong Catholic faith, Mr. O’Connell was a member of the Florida Knights of Columbus Council 13996 District 68 and an active parishioner in both St. Mark Catholic Church, Boynton Beach, and St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, Delray Beach. He also worked to support the Diocese of Palm Beach.
    Memorial contributions are suggested to the building fund at St. Vincent Ferrer, where Mr. O’Connell sat on the advisory board for a major school and church expansion project. The family asks that any donations be made to that capital project in Mr. O’Connell’s name.
    Surviving their father are his six children: Danielle; Karin Lieberman, of Newton, Mass.; Susan Drummey, of Hudson, Mass.; Daniel O’Connell, of Denver; Nan Maley, of Framingham, Mass.; and John O’Connell, of Swansboro, N.C. In addition, 11 grandchildren and several sons- and daughters-in-law survive him.
    Mr. O’Connell also leaves behind one brother, Charles, who recently moved from Florida to New Hampshire; and his ex-wife, Debby O’Connell, a local real estate agent with Hampton Real Estate Group.
    Although they were divorced, Debby and Mr. O’Connell remained close friends and provided constant love and support to their children and grandchildren, Danielle said.
    Visitation was Dec. 21, with a funeral Mass 11 a.m. Jan. 6 at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, 840 George Bush Blvd., Delray Beach.
    “He was your typical ornery little Irishman,” said his daughter. “That’s why everybody loved him.”

By Emily J. Minor

    BOCA RATON —  Dr. Thomas G. Vinci, a kid from the tenements of New York City’s Lower East Side who became a successful educator and social philanthropist, died Thanksgiving Day. He was 93.
    Dr. Vinci, who had retired to Florida full-time in the early 1990s with his wife, Elin, was known for his devotion to church, education and community, said one of his sons.
    “I love that Dad got along with everyone, and everyone was treated with dignity and respect,” said Peter Vinci, who lives in Atlanta. “Everything he did, he rolled up his sleeves and worked along with everyone else.”
    And Dr. Vinci did a lot.
    Born in New York City in 1923, Dr. Vinci attended the still-renowned Stuyvesant High School, known even then for its dedication to math and science. Admission was tough, and based solely on academics.
    Dr. Vinci would go on to receive undergrad and graduate degrees from Fordham and Columbia universities before starting his career as a public school science teacher in 1967. Science, teaching and children comprised the heart of his life’s work. Later, he was an associate dean emeritus at Fordham.
    Dr. Vinci met Elin, to whom he was married in 1948, at the beginning of their college careers, she said. She was 16 and he was 18. Mrs. Vinci said she always loved her husband’s confidence, loving spirit and interest in children and learning. At the time of his death, they’d been married 68 years.
    After leaving Manhattan with their first baby, the couple lived in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and then Saddle River, N.J.
    Dr. Vinci was always taking advanced courses and, for 20 years, Elin Vinci worked full-time with a Manhattan College environmental startup called Hydroscience. Dr. Vinci was also the founder of Pine Brook Day Camp in Tallman, N.Y., a prominent summer program that thrives today, although under different ownership.
    In the late 1980s, the Vincis began to fall in love with coastal life in southern Palm Beach County. By 1993, they were living here year round, and loving the view from their penthouse apartment at Sabal Point Apartments in Boca Raton.
    “I love the weather. I love looking at the ocean,” said Mrs. Vinci. “It’s the best thing we ever did.”
    Upon establishing a post-retirement life here, Dr. Vinci was involved in many groups in Boca Raton, including the Mayor’s Education Advisory Board, the Christ Child Society, the League for Educational Awareness of the Holocaust, Men of Caring Hearts, FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association, the Fordham University Alumni Club of South Florida, and the New Pines Development Center. He also served as president and board member of the Sabal Point Apartment Association.
    A Mass was held in his honor Dec. 3, and the family asks that memorials be made to the Christ Child Society of Boca Raton at P.O. Box 811025, Boca Raton, FL 33481.
    Besides his wife and their son Peter, other survivors include another son, Tom, his wife, Ann, and their two children, of Summit, N.J. Peter Vinci’s two children also survive their grandfather.

    BRINY BREEZES — Harry Robert Esterman, 88, formerly of Cincinnati, died Dec. 15. He leaves behind his wife of 65 years, Patricia Carolyn Esterman (nee Albers), to whom he was devoted, and five children: Sue Thaler (Mike) of Briny Breezes; Sally Lukez (Paul) of Lexington, Mass.; Joyce Culbertson (James) of Beaumont, Texas; Bob Esterman of Cincinnati; and Greg Esterman (Michelle) of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. He also leaves six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
    Mr. Esterman was a Navy veteran and concluded a successful career as a commercial printer by selling his business and retiring early to begin a life as a gentleman farmer in Sunman, Ind.
    Although hard work never scared Harry — he was great at fixing things and working with his hands — he soon realized that farming wasn’t as easy as it looked, so he sold the farm and really retired to Briny Breezes.
    He loved life at Briny Breezes, jumping into everything with his usual boyish enthusiasm. He and Pat played bridge frequently and square-danced until they couldn’t. Mr. Esterman felt torn between the beach and the pool, since napping in the sun felt great at both. He was an avid golfer and woodworker, and his zest for travel took him and Pat around the United States and on various international adventures.
    A memorial service was held Dec. 27 at the Briny Breezes Ocean Clubhouse.
    Memorial donations can be made to the Briny Breezes Library Angels at 5000 N. Ocean Blvd., Briny Breezes, FL 33435.
— Submitted by the family

    GULF STREAM — Daniel Joseph Murphy died peacefully at his home in Gulf Stream on Dec. 21 after a courageous 3½-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 83.
    Danny, as he was known, had been retired for 34 years after a storied career on Wall Street. A pioneer in the block trading business, he built Shields and Co. into a trading powerhouse. When Shields was sold, he became a senior partner at Oppenheimer and Co., where he finished his career. He was a great mentor and has left behind a legacy of the many careers he helped foster.
    In retirement, he loved spending time at his home in Sun Valley, Idaho, and avidly pursued his passions for golf, skiing, fishing, shooting and travel.
    He had the personality of a charming leprechaun with sparkling blue eyes and an ever present ability to make those around him laugh.
    Mr. Murphy is survived by his loving wife of over 35 years, P.K., his daughters Suzanne Murphy and Melinda Schild, and three granddaughters. His daughter Marisa Wry predeceased him.
    In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to support the pancreatic cancer research of Dr. Matthew Weiss at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Checks should be made payable to Johns Hopkins University, referring Daniel J. Murphy, and mailed to the attention of Bridget Cashen, Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 722, Baltimore, MD 21205.
— Submitted by the family

By Jane Smith
    
    After listening for nearly an hour to pitches by three executive search firms, Boynton Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency board members decided to give their interim director six more months to prove he can do the executive director’s job.
    “Mike Simon has been running the show for two months and shown he can handle it,” said City Commissioner/CRA board member Justin Katz. “It’s only fair we give him a shot at it.”
    In that time, the CRA has hosted signature events the Pirate Fest and Holiday Parade and teamed with the city of Delray Beach to host the Holiday Boat Parade.  
    In six months, the CRA will evaluate Simon’s work, board members agreed at their December meeting. If not, they will select a search firm to find an executive director.
    Simon took over Oct. 1 for Vivian Brooks, whose contract was not renewed by the board. Her salary was $130,961, plus a $3,000 car allowance. Simon’s salary is $125,000, plus a $250 monthly car allowance.
    Simon started with the agency in 2007 as development manager and was promoted in 2014 to assistant director. He has 20 years of private, municipal and CRA redevelopment experience.
    His background includes positions as the program specialist/administrator and community development division coordinator for Delray Beach and development manager at the Delray Beach CRA.

Children from the Lantana Hypoluxo School sit

on the Around the World float during a May Day 1923 celebration.

Lantana Elementary School students crowd around a 1935 American LaFrance fire engine

in this photo, one of about 25 images on display at the Hypoluxo Professional Center

as part of an exhibit created by the Lantana Historical Society.

By Willie Howard

    Photos from Lantana’s history are on display at the Hypoluxo Professional Center as part of a new exhibit produced by the Lantana Historical Society.
    The exhibit is displayed in the hallways of the office complex at 1111 Hypoluxo Road.
    The permanent historical exhibit is free and open to the public during business hours, Monday through Friday.
    About 25 copies of original images, many of them donated to the historical society by pioneer families, are on display. Viewers can scan QR codes with smartphones to hear descriptions of each photo.
    The Lantana Historical Society’s president, Rosemary Mouring, said images in the exhibit include the town’s first house on South Lake Drive, built by town founder Morris Lyman; the old wooden schoolhouse on the east end of what is now Lantana Road; and a fourth-grade class at Lantana Elementary School inspecting a 1935 American LaFrance fire engine.
    Other images on display show the town’s train depot torn apart by the 1928 hurricane; Anderson’s Ostrich and Alligator Farm, a popular tourist attraction in the early 1900s; and children seated on an Around the World float as part of the May Day celebration at the Lantana Hypoluxo School in 1923.

Banyan Creek Elementary won the Grand Float prize during the Delray Beach Holiday Parade

on Dec. 10. The float embraced the parade theme of ‘A Rock and Roll Holiday.’

Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    The city of Delray Beach presented the Delray Beach Holiday Parade float winners. Based on categories, entries were judged on theme, craftsmanship, originality, costumes and more. Winner of the “Grand Float” was Banyan Creek Elementary. Best Non-Profit went to Lynn University. Best Band went to Inlet Grove High School Drum Line. Best Civic was awarded to Delray Beach Girls Club, DREAM Youth Council, and Brother 2 Brother. Best Dance went to Diamond and Pearls.
                                 
    Florida Atlantic University’s Tech Runway “Venture Class III” students celebrated their graduation in November. The founders of the four companies honored at the ceremony were Thomas Gregory of SoFla Sunwear, Ray Briant of TiLoTag, June Adams and James Khalil of PowerCalc and Carly Asher Yoost of The Child Rescue Coalition. “We are incredibly proud of what this third FAU Tech Runway Venture Class has accomplished,” said Rhys L. Williams, associate vice president for research and the managing director for FAU Tech Runway. “Several of these companies were little more than concepts when they began our program. Now they have products, customers, sales, patents, employees and have become real businesses.”
    Since its launch, the program has offered financial support, strategic development, entrepreneurial education, free workspace, investor introductions and expert mentoring for 29 start-up companies. As a result of the program, 239 jobs were created, 57 of the university’s students were employed, more than $6 million in revenue was earned, and more than $18 million in investment capital was raised.
                                 
    Thomas McCaffrey, president and chief operating officer of KLX, has been appointed to the Palm Beach Atlantic University Board of Trustees.
    McCaffrey served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of B/E Aerospace for more than 20 years before joining KLX, a distributor of aerospace consumables and provider of services to the oil and gas industry. The California native received a bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic University. Locally, he is involved in the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.
                                 
    Partnering with the Capital Grille and Prime Cigar and Wine Bar, the Charles Medical Group raised more than $3,000 for the Broward Children’s Center at a happy hour event in November. The event offered $18,000 worth of raffle items, including a $12,000 hair restoration procedure donated by Artas, which will be conducted by Dr. Glenn Charles of the medical group.
                                 
    Thanks to community outreach, Marc Julien Homes of Delray Beach doubled its goal and obtained 131 toys for Toys for Tots.
                                 
    At 11:30 a.m. Jan. 11,  former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski will be the featured speaker at the Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club, making his first public appearance since his incarceration. The topic will be “From Incarceration to Freedom,” at the luncheon at City Fish Market, 7940 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Cost is $50.
    Kozlowski joined Tyco International in 1975, was appointed its chief operating officer in 1989, chief executive officer in 1990, and chairman of the board in 1991. Under his leadership, Tyco grew to more than $40 billion in revenue and a market capitalization of more than $120 billion. He parted ways with Tyco in 2002 in a scandal that is documented in Catherine Neal’s book, Taking Down the Lion.
    Kozlowski is co-CEO with Jim Clark of Commandscape, a new technology-driven security and building management company. Kozlowski is also associated with Harborside Advisors, a South Florida-based merger, acquisition, business consulting and investment company. In addition, he serves as chairman of the Fortune Society, an organization that assists former offenders with reentry into society.
                                 
    MusicWorks Classic Folk & Rock Series 2017 will feature Livingston Taylor on Jan. 12 and Al Stewart on Jan. 26, both at 8 p.m. The concerts will be held at Old School Square’s Crest Theatre, 51 North Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Tickets, priced at $57 or $77, can be purchased at www.OldSchoolSquare.org or by calling the box office at 243-7922, Ext. 1.
                                 
    Local poets and poetry lovers are invited to a variety of events related to the 13th annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival, which runs Jan. 16 through 21.
    At 11 a.m. Jan. 12,  Yaddyra Reralta will teach the Japanese literary form zuihitsu at her Haiku U workshop at the Morikami Museum and Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach. The workshop is free, but participants must pay for admission to the museum.
    The festival itself  will feature 15 poets in workshops, readings, talks, interviews and panel discussions at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach.
    Special guest poet will be Charles Simic, winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and a former U.S. poet laureate. Among poets leading writing workshops are David Baker, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Tina Chang, Lynn Emanuel, Daisy Fried, Terrance Hayes, Dorianne Laux, Carl Phillips and Martha Rhodes. Individual conferences will be offered by poets Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown and Ginger Murchison. Performances at the field house will feature The Mayhem Poets: Mason Granger and Scott Raven.
    For more info, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.
                                 
    At sunset Feb. 2, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival and the Astronomical Society of the Palm Beaches will co-host a free event, “Stargazing: Out of this World Poetry Reading.” The poems can be original or old favorites but must relate to the night sky. The event will take place at the Hagen Ranch Road Library, 14350 Hagen Ranch Road, Delray Beach.
                                 
    Place of Hope, at The Leighan and David Rinker Campus in Boca Raton, will benefit from the fifth annual Sporting Clays Fun Shoot, 7:30 a.m. Jan. 20. Tickets are $1,250 for an individual team of four, and $2,000 for a corporate team of four. The shoot takes place at the South Florida Shooting Club,  500 SW Long Drive, Palm City. For more information, call 775-7195.
                                 
    Benefiting the Soup Kitchen, the Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce presents its first 5K Small Business Bow Tie Run at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 21 at John Prince Park, 2700 Sixth Ave. S., Lake Worth. The entry fee is $30. Registration begins at 6:30 a.m. at the park’s center pavilion. It’s a family- and dog-friendly event, but keep your dog on a leash and clean up after your pet. And don’t forget to wear your bow tie. The Soup Kitchen will have a donation tent accepting diapers, baby food, baby wipes and baby shampoo.
                                 
    The Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Keys to Success 2017 business awards gala will be Jan.  26. Following the cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. will be dinner, dancing, an awards ceremony and a live auction. It will take place at Benvenuto, 1730 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach.
                                 
    Delray Beach snowbirds Julie and Paul Feingold, owners of Arundel Farm Gallery in Kennebunkport, Maine, offer a pop-up exhibit from 5 to 9 p.m. Jan. 27. Hosted by Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas, it will feature contemporary artists such as Ann Getsinger, John Andrews and Berri Kramer. The artwork will be on display in Room 12. The hotel’s Tiki Bar will serve snacks, and live music will be performed by Michele Lynn. For more information, call 702-6396.
                                 
    Miami rapper Armando Christian Perez, known as Pitbull, will be the keynote speaker for the Palm Beach State College Foundation’s 2017 STEAM Luncheon, which will take place at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 1 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts’ Cohen Pavilion, West Palm Beach.
    STEAM encourages study in science, technology, engineering, art and math.
    Perez, who helped create charter schools in Miami and West Palm Beach, will discuss the importance of education, and how music, math and science are closely related. The event is chaired by businesswoman and philanthropist Yvonne Boice.
Tickets cost $200 and can be purchased at www.palmbeachstate.edu/Foundation/STEAM or by calling 868-3450.
                                 
    Executive Women of the Palm Beaches is calling for nominations for its 34th Annual Women in Leadership Awards. Through Jan. 27, nominations are being accepted for women with outstanding accomplishments in the nonprofit, private, public and volunteer sectors.
    Nomination forms can be downloaded at www.EWPB.org.  
                                 
    The Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches reported that single-family housing inventory continued to grow, from a 4.6-month supply in November 2015 to a 5.1-month supply in November 2016, a 10.9 percent increase. That represents a move from a seller’s advantage toward the benchmark for a neutral market of a 5.5-month supply.
    The association notes that its local Realtors, affiliates and staff contribute to a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the Attainable Housing Foundation, Children’s Home Society, Fair Housing, Families First, Habitat for Humanity, Homeless Coalition, Paint Your Heart Out, Pay it Forward, Quantum House and Thelma B. Pittman Jupiter Pre-School.
                                 
    Jessica Rosato, broker associate with Nestler Poletto Sotheby’s International Realty and president of the Greater Palm Beach County Women’s Council of Realtors, recently earned the Performance Management Network designation, which grants her access to a nationwide peer network of real estate agents.
                                 
    Christel Silver, owner of Silver International Realty in Delray Beach, is now approved to teach courses to those seeking to obtain the Certified International Property Specialist designation.
    As such, she recently taught a course for the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors on the international real estate business environment, transactions tools, and working with clients in Europe.
                                 
    Jennifer Spitznagel, an agent with Brown Harris Stevens, represented the buyer and seller of a home in South Palm Beach at 3492 S. Ocean Blvd., which will be redeveloped, she said. “It is one of only four single-family homes in South Palm Beach,” she said.
    Recorded in public records on Nov. 29, the selling price was $3 million. The seller was Eliot Gittelmacher and the buyer was 3492 South Ocean LLC, a Florida company.
                                 
    Premier Estate Properties has redesigned its website, www.premierestateproperties.com. It translates into 52 languages and features full-screen photography, video tours, detailed demographic information, points of interest by area, real-time alerts of properties new to market, and a luxury-lifestyle blog.
                                 
    At Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, former managing director Michael King was named chief operating officer, and Cindy Racco was named general manager.
                                 
    Through its new partner, Desert Gate, Palm Beach Travel has expanded its services and now provides white-glove travel coordination into the United Arab Emirates for high-net-worth individuals and corporate clients. Also, Palm Beach Travel’s headquarters has moved into new offices in Plaza del Mar, doubling its office space.
    For more information, visit www.mypalmbeachtravel.com or call 585-5885.

Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.

Design changes for Mizner 200 include pocket parks and more shade trees and moving the central building farther from Southeast Mizner Boulevard.

Rendering by Garcia Stromberg/GS4Studios/Provided by City of Boca Raton

By Mary Hladky

    In their longtime effort to win approval for a downtown luxury condominium, the developer and architect for the proposed Mizner 200 have revamped the project’s design once again.
    The redo, unveiled at a Dec. 20 Community Appearance Board meeting, goes further than the previous design to divide the project into three sections and give it a more open look.
    Embracing suggestions made by CAB members at a Nov. 1 meeting, architect Peter Stromberg of Garcia Stromberg/GS4Studios has incorporated townhomes at ground level, added pocket parks and more shade trees along the front of the building, pushed the central section farther back from Southeast Mizner Boulevard, varied the roof line and opened up more space between the southernmost building and the neighboring Townsend Place condominium.
    CAB members praised the changes and the willingness of Stromberg to work with them. Most agreed, though, that they would like more minor changes.
    “This interpretation is way better,” said member and architect Jessica Dornblaser.
    Member John Kronawitter, also an architect, pushed back at the notion that the project is not enough in keeping with the city’s signature Addison Mizner architectural style.
    “Do we want all our buildings to look like a Mizner knockoff?” he said. “Come on. This is 2016. We have to move forward. We can’t stay in the past.”
    But the project’s hard wall of opposition from neighbors was not breached.
    Residents of Townsend Place to the immediate south showed up in force to continue their assault on the 380-unit Mizner 200, saying it would block their views and sunlight and reduce their property values. Even with the changes, they said the project is too massive.
    “They have tried to make this very enormous building seem less enormous,” said BocaBeautiful president John Gore, a Townsend Place resident. “It is still an enormous building.”
    Investments Limited, the largest owner of commercial properties in downtown Boca Raton, which went public with its opposition in June, also blasted the project as too large and in violation of the city’s urban design policy.
    “It is a solid wall,” said Robert Eisen, a land use consultant with Investments Limited. “It needs to be broken up and opened up and we will be happy.”
    Investments Limited, a political heavyweight led by James Batmasian, is planning a complete makeover of its Royal Palm Place, a 14-acre shopping and dining destination across the street from Mizner 200. The residential component of its mixed-use project would compete with Mizner 200.
    After the meeting, Eisen said Mizner 200 would block views from Royal Palm Place.
    The project has become a rallying point for residents who fear downtown overdevelopment and the loss of the Mizner style. The most vehement opposition has come from Townsend Place residents, a number of whom are active in the BocaWatch and BocaBeautiful anti-overdevelopment groups.
    Conspiracy theories weren’t far from the surface at the meeting.
  BocaWatch posted comments on its website from Gore and George O’Rourke, the husband of City Council candidate Andrea O’Rourke, complaining that the CAB’s review of Mizner 200 was scheduled for the same night as the Boca Raton Bowl football game. They implied this was a deliberate attempt to reduce the number of people speaking against Mizner 200.
    CAB Chairman Mark Jacobsen said he received emails implying Mizner 200 was slipped onto the agenda at the last minute, and he denied that. A city staffer said developer Elad National Properties, which now rents apartments on the property, had followed normal procedure to get on the agenda.
    But no one had an explanation for why the city posted the agenda on its website just one day before the meeting, giving residents little notice.
    “This is not a ploy by the applicant,” said attorney Bonnie Miskel, who represents Elad.
    The CAB will consider Mizner 200 again, probably in February. The project also must undergo review by the Planning and Zoning Board before the City Council, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, will make the final decision on whether the project can be built.
    Immediately after the meeting, Stromberg said he did not know if further design changes would be made.
    Speaking to residents at the meeting, Stromberg and Miskel said they had met with Mizner 200’s neighbors, including Investments Limited, and taken into account their concerns in making design changes.
    Miskel, who also represents other developers, said, “We have met with more people on this project than any other project downtown. We are not ignoring anyone.”

Sandy Hedges and daughter Tammy Deery own The Fancy Flamingo in Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Would you go into business with your mom?
    That’s what Tammy Deery did about 14 years ago. A dental hygienist, Deery had an idea and took it to her mother, saying, “Mom, let’s open a shop.”
    Neither Deery nor her mom, Sandy Hedges, had retail experience. Even so, their shop, The Fancy Flamingo, has survived the ups and downs in the economy and a few hurricanes at its Ocean Plaza location at the foot of the Ocean Avenue drawbridge in Boynton Beach. Oh, and there was the promise of a downtown.
    The beachy boutique features women’s resort wear by Lulu B, long-sleeved T-shirts sporting the words “Ocean Ridge” on the back, jewelry and clothing with sea stars, mermaids and other ocean motifs.
    The shop’s items range in price between $10 and $70, with the most popular price point between $40 and $50.
    The Fancy Flamingo’s location near the ocean makes it convenient for people who want remembrances of their vacations and find the shop by doing an Internet search for “Boynton Beach” and “gifts.”
    “People just want to be able to take a souvenir home when they return to the North,” Deery said.
    The store uses social media, with a Facebook page and an Instagram account, to spread the word about its wares. The Fancy Flamingo also counts on word-of-mouth advertising from happy customers and referrals from fashion shows.
    Early on, a customer associated with the Little Club in Gulf Stream asked whether the shop did fashion shows. Deery chalked up another first when she began hosting fashion shows for “real women.” One year, the shop did 13 shows in one season. That was too many, both women agreed.
    Hedges calls the shop her “happy place.” The 700-square-foot store has interior walls painted a greeny turquoise, called Island Style from Benjamin Moore. Deery described the paint shade as a “bright, cheerful color.”
    She credits her mom for keeping the customers coming through the doors. “They all like my mom,” Deery said.
    Hedges remembers the customers’ names and their children’s names, where they are from and where they live now. “We go over and above with customer service,” she said. Plus, the store offers free gift-wrapping, helpful for husbands who come in with their wives’ wish lists for birthdays and holidays.
    Mom and daughter like being in a plaza where customers can get out of the cars and take a short walk to their store.
“Our customers are not mall shoppers,” Hedges said. She thinks the shop could use more space, but worries about sustaining sales in the offseason. Ú
    The Fancy Flamingo, Ocean Plaza, 640 E. Ocean Ave. No. 20, Boynton Beach; 735-8848; 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays during season; www.facebook.com/thefancyflamingo.

Each morning, photographer Joseph Vincent captures an image of the sun rising over Delray Beach.

Early morning brings with it the opportunity of a new beginning. It also is a time for reflection.

Editorial, Page 2

Photos provided by Joseph Vincent/josephvincentphotography.com

By Mary Hladky

    On one point, at least, everyone agrees: There isn’t enough parking in downtown Boca Raton.
    What to do about that is another matter.
    After wrestling with the issue for more than one hour at their Dec. 12 workshop meeting, City Council members agreed to explore the possibility of starting a shuttle service that would ferry people from free public parking spots to downtown restaurants and shops in the evenings.
    They also pledged to reinvigorate efforts to build a downtown parking garage.
    When the tourist season is in full swing, council members will cast fresh eyes on the downtown parking meter system to determine if meters are needed at all and, if they think meters are needed, how could they be used more effectively.
    “The sad reality is we need better parking solutions in downtown Boca Raton,” said council member Scott Singer.
    Speaking of Royal Palm Place, Mayor Susan Haynie said, “It is a free-for-all there. If you go at night there are people parked everywhere.”
    Downtown parking has long defied easy solutions. City officials have wanted to build a public garage for years. But City Manager Leif Ahnell noted that most downtown property has been acquired by developers, leaving no suitable sites for the city to buy.
    The parking issue came to a head again when Robert Eisen, a land use consultant with Investments Limited, said parking meters aren’t improving the parking problem. They were intended to stop people from snagging parking spots and leaving their cars there all day.
    “We encourage you to find that holy grail of the downtown parking garage,” said Eisen, whose employer is the largest owner of commercial properties in the downtown, including Royal Palm Place.
    If a garage is built, it might make sense to use parking meters on city streets in conjunction with the garage, he said, provided studies are done to determine the best meter system and the meters are enforced 24 hours a day.
    If not, existing meters should be removed and no other ones installed, he said.
    His request was supported by nearly 500 downtown business owners, customers and residents who signed petitions.
    Ken Johnson, a Boca Raton real estate economist hired by Investments Limited to do an analysis, said that the differing lengths of parking times — ranging from 30 minutes to three to four hours — cause drivers to clog the streets as they cruise around looking for the meter option that best suits them. Meters that allow many hours of parking don’t force drivers to vacate spots for other drivers to use, he said.
    City officials, though, allowed such variations in parking times because business owners requested it. A fast-food restaurant operator might want 30-minute parking, while a hair salon owner needs three to four hours.
    Council members said they were open to rethinking meters. But they moved beyond that issue to urge staff to find a way to get a parking garage.
    Singer said the solution might be to build one on the City Hall property at 201 W. Palmetto Park Road.
    For a more immediate partial remedy, Haynie suggested an evening shuttle. People could park at City Hall or the nearby old library building that now houses city offices and ride it to and from downtown.
    “It needs to run frequently,” she said.

Three-foot-long iguanas run along a dock in Highland Beach.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Green iguanas are not your unobtrusive 5-inch garden lizards that scurry across sidewalks and terraces.
    An iguana, which can grow to 6 feet in length, will get your attention. With no enemies but humans, they leisurely bask in the sun on seawalls, poop on pool decks and can destroy a vegetable garden. With their huge dewlaps, vertebral crests and menacing thick tails, no one would describe them as cute and sweet.
    They are a new and startling sight on the South Florida landscape. The first sighting in Palm Beach County was in 2003, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission research. They first appeared in Florida in Miami-Dade County in 1966.
    In a short time they have become one of South Florida’s most unwelcome nonnative species.
    “Here in Ocean Ridge, we first started discussing the iguana problem this past spring after receiving complaints from some town residents in the Sabal Island area about an uptick in the number and frequency of iguana sightings and associated damage to flowering landscape in the area, as well as reptile feces evidenced on seawalls and pool decks,” says Jamie Titcomb, Ocean Ridge town manager.
    The town sought estimates from iguana trappers, who charge rates based on a “per cage, per day” baiting and retrieval system, which can be costly. And because most of the trapping would be on private property, Ocean Ridge and other towns are trying to figure out how to go about it.
    No one knows precisely how much the iguana population has grown, says Carol Lyn Parrish, public information coordinator for Fish and Wildlife. “It’s not a species we are monitoring.”
    Iguanas, which are vegetarians, are a nuisance but are not a threat to native wildlife and do not compete for food with native lizards.
    The tail can cause a painful slap and sharp claws can scratch the skin, but iguanas usually avoid people and pets. And it is possible their feces could carry salmonella.
    They can decimate a garden with their swinging tails and appetite for pretty plants.
    “They can be detrimental to ornamental vegetation and fruit,” says Parrish.
    In fact, their favorite foods are hibiscus blossoms, orchids and roses. They also like berries, mangoes, lychees, tomatoes and figs, but not citrus. They don’t like milkweed, pigeon plum, oleanders and coonties.
    The frequent sightings lately may be due to cooler temperatures, which bring iguanas to the warmth of concrete seawalls and sidewalks.
    “When it’s cool, they will be out basking — so you will see them more and you may feel like there are larger populations,” says Parrish.
    Iguanas have multiplied since 2010, when a freeze killed off huge numbers. Dead iguanas fell from trees, taking residents by surprise. It’s unknown how their numbers compare to pre-freeze populations.
    Iguanas are fully established now, says Parrish. Experts say there’s only one reliable way to get rid of a lot of them: when winter temperatures drop into the 30s. Then, watch out for falling iguanas.
    “That five- to six-day cold spell in 2010 really knocked them back. The best way to control them is prolonged cold, below freezing,” says Art Roybal, senior Fish and Wildlife biologist. “In Florida, it’s not illegal to kill nonnative species, but the kicker is the method. The majority of the time the state would recommend a critter control company that has a license to kill these animals.”
    Meanwhile, residents can trap them but can’t release them elsewhere because it is illegal to release nonnatives. Decapitation and drowning are considered inhumane, and in most towns residents can’t fire guns.
    But iguanas have long memories; if residents scare them with a garden hose and chase them away, they probably won’t return.
    Neon green young iguanas are popular exotic pets, and reptile experts think the iguanas we see today came from those that escaped cages or were released into the wild when they grew too big for home aquariums.
    “It’s a good guesstimate that iguanas came from the pet trade, but we also get a lot of vegetation shipped in from other countries, which may carry iguanas and eggs,” says Parrish.
    Iguanas are arboreal, living in dense tree canopies, usually close to water. They are excellent swimmers.
    Meanwhile, coastal towns are trying to figure out what to do about them.
    “We are still seeking input from other sources for their best practices, outcomes and advice,” says Ocean Ridge’s Titcomb. “We are looking at the idea of initiating a pilot trapping program, but awaiting some science and scale to determine what we might effectively do with limited resources.”
    Realistically, homeowners just may need to make peace with iguanas and hope for cold temperatures.

Police aren’t sure of the gun’s age or history.

Photo provided

By Ron Hayes

    A little before 10 a.m. on Nov. 10, a maintenance worker helping to usher in a sparkling new future at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club stumbled on a rusty piece of the past.
    A mystery novelist could spin a dozen delightfully sinister histories for that rusty old Smith & Wesson, but the truth is probably more mundane.
    “It was really close to Federal Highway, almost in the swale,” said Eric Pierce, the maintenance worker who called police after finding the gun. “Anyone driving by could have tossed it out a car window.”
    Officer Phillip Torsiello, who responded to Pierce’s call, collected the rusty revolver and six .38-caliber bullets and carried them back to the station, where a check of the serial number with both the state and federal Crime Information Center databases yielded no information. The gun was not wanted in a crime.
    Pierce’s Facebook post did bring one intriguing result.
    “I got one reply from a retired police officer from Deerfield Beach who said his service revolver had been stolen back in the ’80s,” he said. But the gun wasn’t his.
    “I love my  job,” Pierce said. “They’re doing a $2 million renovation to the golf maintenance facility for us. It’s been there since 1959 when the course was erected, but now we’re getting a restroom, a bathroom, eating facilities.”
    Pierce is a mower and wrencher at the club, one of 23 employees who keep the golf course playable. On the Thursday morning, while preparing the ground around the new facility for new sod, he spotted something peeking from a mound of dirt.
    “You couldn’t even tell what it was,” he remembered. “Just the butt end was sticking out.”
    Pierce investigated and found a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. Loaded.
    “After we cleaned it up, it reminded me of a service revolver,” he said. “It was so frozen with rust you couldn’t have opened it or fired it.”
    While Pierce waited for police to arrive, he snapped a picture with his phone and posted it to Facebook.
    “Anyone recognize this gun?” he asked.
    Is it yours?

Tire tracks lead to a pentagram vandalized in Sanborn Square. The pentagram was repaired
and reinstalled Dec. 28. It was vandalized again early Jan. 2.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    A satanic pentagram with a banner disavowing the existence of heaven and hell was repeatedly vandalized after it was put up in Sanborn Square Park last month.
    The pentagram display was erected under the protection of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech. The city has allowed religious groups to set up seasonal displays in the park at 72 N. Federal Highway for years.
    Boca Raton Community Middle School teacher Preston Smith, a self-described atheistic satanist, created the pentagram sculpture and expected it to create the stir that it did. Police were called to the park eight times for vandalism-related incidents in December and January.
    “It’s very polarizing,” conceded Smith, who lives in Lantana. He created the display to let others know that atheists in the community have the same right to make a statement as Christians, Jews and any other religious groups.
    “If you open up public forums and invite one religious group, you better be ready for anything,” Smith said. “The real intention is to rebuild the wall of separation between church and state. The Christians and Jews do not have a monopoly on wedging their views into our public sphere.”
    Smith said vandals tore his display from its base on Dec. 20 and shredded the accompanying banner, from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The banner, which was spray-painted on another occasion and stolen once, proclaimed there are “no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.”
    The display went back up on Dec. 28 after being repaired, Smith said.
    The city acknowledged the controversial nature of the pentagram display in a Dec. 6 statement, noting that previous religious displays in Sanborn Square have “contained messages projecting the themes of peace, forgiveness and harmony.”
    “This display appears to be more about shock value, attention and challenging our commitment to constitutionally protected free speech rather than promoting goodwill, respect and tolerance during the holiday season,” the city statement said.

By Mary Hladky

    Boca Raton city officials have nearly reached the end of a tumultuous process to better define what developers can and can’t count as open space in downtown projects.
    The City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, approved an open-space policy in July to make sure there was no confusion about what the city requires. The policy pushes developers to include open space that can be easily seen by the public, usually at the front of buildings, and counts as open space such features as landscaped areas, arcades, colonnades and areas under major archways.
    The CRA board then turned the matter over to a city committee for fine-tuning.
    In recommendations made to the board on Dec. 12, the Downtown Boca Raton Advisory Committee called for parking lots to be located at the rear or sides of buildings. No parking would be permitted between the street and a building.
    Pool decks, walkways and plazas would not be counted as open space if they are more than 5 feet above ground level. That means, for example, that roof terraces could not be claimed as open space.
    One recommendation explicitly states that access to open space would be controlled by the property owner, making clear that a condominium could restrict access by the public to its pool deck.
    Advisory committee member and architect Derek Vander Ploeg said the subcommittee still has a bit more work to do. At the top of the list is a “new definition of what defines the public realm,” he said, referring to areas people can see but may or may not be open to the public.
    The definition is needed “to clarify what is private space and what is public space and when do they work together symbiotically,” Vander Ploeg said after the meeting.
    Indeed, even the idea of open space has proved confusing. Saying that residents were using the terms “open space” and “public space” interchangeably, city officials issued a notice last January saying the two are not the same thing and there is no requirement that open space be open to the public.
    CRA board members asked for a few clarifications, but voiced no opposition to any of the recommendations. City staff will now study the recommendations, which could come back for formal CRA board approval this month.
    The city has required developers to include open space in their projects since 1988 and adopted formulas developers must follow. For example, if a building is taller than 75 feet, 40 percent of the land must be open space.
    But downtown development was limited for years, and ground to a halt in the Great Recession. Now that projects are springing out of the ground, open space has become a hot-button issue for downtown activists who don’t want projects that look massive and forbidding.
    Some activists were enraged last year when city officials discovered a 2003 memo of which they were unaware that had been used as a guide by planning staff evaluating proposed projects for their adherence to open-space requirements. Officials said part of the memo was erroneous and could have allowed developers to skimp on open space.
    That prompted an exhaustive four-month review of downtown projects approved since 1988. But rather than include too little open space, the review found, developers had delivered 26.3 percent more than required under city ordinance.
    Even so, city officials wanted to make sure the city’s open-space requirements are clear and unambiguous by clarifying the policy.

An artist’s rendering shows the buildings in the Via Mizner complex at Federal Highway and Camino Real.

From left are the Mandarin Oriental Residences and Hotel and the recently completed luxury apartment building.

Rendering provided by Penn-Florida

By Mary Hladky

    While downtown Boca Raton is seeing a huge building boom, no project yet rivals the scope of Via Mizner.
    The ultra-luxury project, developed by Boca Raton-based Penn-Florida Cos. at an estimated cost of just under $1 billion, encompasses a Mandarin Oriental hotel, condos, a private club, rentals, shops and restaurants at Federal Highway and Camino Real.
    101 Via Mizner, a 366-unit apartment building, is the first phase to be completed and began renting in August.
    Construction will begin this spring on the 165-room Mandarin Oriental and the 84 condos in The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, both directly north of the rentals.
    Those wanting to snap up a condo could make pre-construction reservations even before the sales center opens this month at 10 E. Boca Raton Road. Douglas Elliman Real Estate is the sales and marketing agent.
    In all, nearly 1,500 spaces will be available in two floors of below-ground parking under the hotel and condo buildings, and on the second and third levels. Parking for the apartment building is in its first four floors.
    The Via Mizner Golf & City Club will include an 18-hole golf course, located about 3 miles away, between Palmetto Park Road and Camino Real just west of Military Trail.
    Golf legend Jack Nicklaus will redesign the course, which will be completed by the end of year, beginning in the spring. Once work at the site at 6200 Boca Del Mar Drive is completed, facilities will include six Har-Tru tennis courts, a fitness center, a clubhouse, a resort-style pool and restaurants.
    The city club will be in the Mandarin Oriental. Members also will have access to the hotel’s rooftop pools, spa, restaurants and other amenities.
    The entire project should be completed in 2019, with The Shoppes at Via Mizner as the final piece. The 60,000 square feet of shops and restaurants will line the base of the buildings.
    “I think all of Via Mizner is trying to address a lifestyle in Boca that many people have been looking for but is not entirely here yet,” said Al Piazza, Penn-Florida’s senior vice president for development. “There is a level of sophistication … but it hasn’t been fully realized.”
    New development has stirred passionate opposition from downtown activists who decry the changing character of their city. But 12-story Via Mizner, which does not exceed the city’s height limits for that part of downtown, has escaped the brunt of their wrath. In part, that’s because many residents saw the Mandarin Oriental as a desirable addition to the city.
    John Gore, president of BocaBeautiful, said residents would be far more vocal if Penn-Florida proposed such a large project now.
    “It was a beneficiary of timing,” he said of Via Mizner. Citing several other new downtown projects, Gore said, “If you proposed those buildings today, they would face a much more difficult regulatory and political process than they did. They came forward before citizens woke up. … They are not sleeping now.”
    Via Mizner is all about luxury and lifestyle, the developer says.
    The Mandarin Oriental will be only one of five in the U.S. that includes condos, with the others in Boston, New York, Atlanta and Las Vegas. The only other Mandarin Oriental in Florida is a stand-alone hotel in Miami, where rooms start at $539 and move up to $1,549 a night, according to its website.
    After the announcement last year that the hotel and branded residences would be built in Boca Raton, “the number of calls Mandarin received exceeded calls for any other [Mandarin condo] project around the world,” Piazza said.
    The condo owners will have access to all that the five-star hotel provides, including use of concierge, cleaning and valet services. They can get room service or have a chef prepare meals in their condos.
    Piazza said the condos will sell for 30 percent to 35 percent more than an unbranded condominium. A one-bedroom starts at $1.8 million and the price climbs to $18 million for an 8,500-square-foot penthouse with ocean view. Amenities will include terraces with summer kitchens, spa-style baths, private elevator foyers and a wine cellar with private storage.
    He estimates 10 percent to 20 percent of the buyers will be local residents, and the rest those who likely have other homes around the world.
    “Typical buyers for this are obviously very wealthy, travel the world, very demanding and know what high-quality service and lifestyle is,” he said. “They expect it and demand it.”
    Many local buyers may have lived in golf course communities, and no longer need large homes.
    “But they don’t want to give up luxury, convenience or lifestyle,” Piazza said. “There has been strong demand from the local Boca buyer for that.”
    Piazza thinks there are many potential buyers in that category. “The number of families with net worth exceeding $150 million [in Boca Raton] is just enormous,” he said.
    The rentals, featuring European cabinetry and quartz countertops, also command a high price. 101 Via Mizner’s 18 studios are about $1,800 a month, while its 27 three-bedrooms start at about $4,500, topping out at nearly $6,000. There are 184 one-bedrooms and 137 two-bedrooms.

    Piazza wouldn’t comment on how many had been rented, but The Real Deal, quoting another company official, reported in mid-November that more than 100 were leased.
    Membership fees for the golf and city club haven’t been finalized, but all condo owners will be members. Membership likely will be by invitation.
    “It is too early to say how many members we will have,” Piazza said. “It will not be overcrowded.”
    The retail component is a work in progress, but Penn-Florida is setting the bar high.
Its website touts The Shoppes at Via Mizner as “destined to rival Worth Avenue, Bal Harbour Shops or Miami’s Design District.”
    The only signed retail tenants at 101 Via Mizner so far are Citibank and SunTrust, whose buildings on Federal Highway will be torn down to make way for the hotel and condos.
    Piazza said Penn-Florida is looking for luxury stores that are not now located in south Palm Beach County. Obvious customers will be the hotel guests and condo residents, but other shoppers could be drawn from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach.
    “We are looking for stores you would find in Paris or Milan, that people at the Mandarin Oriental would be familiar with,” he said.
 “There is a huge market here in Boca. People here now have to travel to shop.”
    Restaurants will range from very fine dining to more casual eateries, he said.
    Penn-Florida, which also has holdings in Tampa and Orlando, has developed many projects in Boca Raton, including One City Centre at 1 N. Federal and Atrium Financial Center at 1515 N. Federal. The company also is moving ahead with University Village, a residential, retail, office and hotel development on nearly 80 acres at Interstate 95 and Spanish River Boulevard.

The Police Department’s new message board cost about $16,000 and was paid for by the nonprofit

Highland Beach Police Foundation. Besides its message capabilities, the unit can measure

vehicle numbers and speeds at various times, helping the department with planning.

The screen is 4 feet high and 6 feet, 10 inches wide.

Photos provided

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach police  have a new tool to use in their efforts to enhance traffic safety, strengthen crime prevention efforts and improve communications with residents.
    With money from the nonprofit Highland Beach Police Foundation, the department recently bought a portable message board that can alert residents to any emergency situations and road closures or provide crime-prevention and traffic-safety reminders.
    “This is another way for us to communicate important messages to the community,” Chief Craig Hartmann said. “The ultimate goal is to create the safest stretch of State Road A1A and make all our neighborhoods safer.”   
    In addition to displaying messages in 10-inch characters and symbols — such as arrows — the message board is capable of recording data and letting drivers know when they are exceeding speed limits.
    Equipped with radar, the board can provide the Police Department with information about the speed of traffic during certain hours and on certain days. It can also let the department know the average speed of traffic during a given time and record the fastest and slowest speeds during defined time periods.
    The board can be programmed to collect traffic-count data at any given time, which the department can use for planning purposes.    
    “It’s an all-in-one unit that has a traffic analyzer, speed-measuring capabilities and message capabilities,” said Eric Aronowitz, the department’s training manager, who coordinated the effort to acquire the board.

    The message board can let drivers know the speed they are traveling, and a blue light and a red light will flash if an approaching vehicle is exceeding the speed limit.
    Because it is not equipped with cameras, the board does not record license plates and will not be used for enforcement purposes, Aronowitz said.
    Because it’s on a trailer and portable, the message board can be moved to any location within the town and placed on public rights of way or private property with owner approval.  
    “By having our own message board, we can deploy it wherever we need it and whenever we need it,” Aronowitz said.
    Hartmann says the board will be useful to augment existing communication methods in an emergency situation such as when evacuation orders are issued prior to the expected arrival of a hurricane.
    It can also be used as a crime-prevention tool, advising residents — for example — to remember to lock their car doors.
    The board is 6 feet, 10 inches wide by 4 feet high. The Police Department bought it for about $16,000 from K & K Systems of Tupelo, Miss., using funds from the nonprofit foundation, which collects money from the community and uses it to cover the cost of items the department does not ask the town to fund.

By Steve Plunkett

    Renovation of the science playground at Sugar Sand Park hit a last-minute delay in December when workers found three multilevel wood posts showing signs of rot below the surface.
    “Unfortunately that is going to add another time frame to completion of the project,” Arthur Koski, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, announced at the board’s Dec. 19 meeting.
    The district, which operates the facility, closed the playground in June 2015 for safety reasons and had hoped to reopen it in late December or early January. The new opening date is late January.
    The playground offers a hands-on experience with interactive components that demonstrate a number of scientific principles. It was originally built by community volunteers more than 20 years ago.
    The refurbished facility will be “all-inclusive” and open to children, parents and grandparents of all abilities.
    District Commissioner-elect Craig Ehrnst, who will take his seat this month, personalized the delay during his campaign by noting that his 9-year-old son was being deprived of an irreplaceable experience. He repeated that theme at the meeting.
    “From a kid’s standpoint or anyone else’s standpoint, it’s very hard to justify it being closed for such a long time or understanding the delays,” Ehrnst said.