News

By Angie Francalancia

Boynton Beach celebrated the completion of its amphitheater at the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum and marina-entry feature with tours and music last month — a milestone in a slow progression to convert Ocean Avenue into a dining, shopping and entertainment destination.
But at the same time, other parts of the plan experienced hiccups. The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency agreed to start over in its quest to find a restaurateur to lease the Ruth Jones Cottage, which was moved in June to the corner of East Ocean and Southeast Fourth Street.
And over at the Boynton Marina, the easternmost anchor of the plan, the CRA gave Splashdown Divers until Aug. 25 to vacate its dive shop. That’s the latest salvo in an 18-month feud with business owner Lynn Simmons, who says she was promised a long-term lease.
There can be no long-term lease, CRA Executive Director Vivian Brooks says, because that building is slated to be torn down.
“They bought this property with a Palm Beach Waterways grant,” intended to keep it as a working marina and keep existing businesses viable, Simmons said. “What am I, chopped liver? Why would they give me false hope?”
Late last month, Splashdown was still operating its dive shop at the marina.
The hiccups are small, given how long the planning has taken, say downtown champions like City Council Vice Chairman Bill Orlove.
“What I’m really happy to see is that we are finally moving forward with these plans and that things are really starting to change for the better,” Orlove said. “There are several free events planned for next year in the amphitheater. We’re also going to have an open-air market there.”
By Sept. 28, the CRA will be examining a new set of potential tenants for the Ruth Jones Cottage, looking for one that can hit it out of the park, said Brooks.
She’s looking for someone who can give Boynton Beach a novel café and assure the CRA that the business can make it, assurances Brooks couldn’t get from Sandra Gagne, with whom the CRA initially contracted.
Gagne, who planned a café-style restaurant of comfort food, “could not produce the financial data to show they had the working capital to make it through the first year,” Brooks said. “We kind of worked with this particular business for a while because they’re local people. These are tough times, and we get it. But you at least have to have money to pay the gas, electric, water and supplies. To me, we’ve gotta try to hit a home run. We don’t want to have a failure out of the box.”
Meantime, Kaufman Lynn Construction, contracted to move the cottage from its original location three blocks away and renovate it, will shore up the structure and install the rough plumbing on the 1920s-era home before setting it on a foundation. The City Council, sitting as the CRA Board in August, approved several changes to the contract to add extra structural support as well as vault the ceiling, giving the tiny structure a more open feel.
“As with any historic restoration project, there were some unknowns,” said Bruce Cavossa, vice president of operations for Kaufman Lynn. Work was slated to begin Aug. 29, “and we’ll be cutting that ribbon in about 45 days.”