News

By Jane Smith

    Riverwalk owner Shaul Rikman recently purchased 5.8 acres of mangroves just south of his proposed development and offered them to the city of Boynton Beach in late March.
    “It is in our best interest to maintain the mangroves to the south of the project,” Rikman said at the March 21 City Commission meeting.
    Commissioners thanked him. The city attorney requested that Rikman submit a proposal for review. Rikman could not be reached for comment.
    Commissioner Justin Katz, who supported the contentious Riverwalk project, said at the meeting he was asked by some residents “to work on a consensus to make the project more palatable to those not in favor of it.”
    The waterfront mangrove parcels were not available when Riverwalk was going through the city approval process, Katz said. They recently became available. Rikman’s Isram Realty paid $750,000 on March 13 for two waterfront parcels, according to Palm Beach County property records.
    His firm will keep a 3.2-acre mangrove parcel that is landlocked. It sits west of the waterfront parcels and east of a McDonald’s, Miami Grill and Boynton Billiards on Federal Highway. Isram paid $500,000 for the property in March 2011.
    Rikman received approval earlier this year to raze the former Winn-Dixie building and construct a 10-story apartment building at the southwest corner of the Intracoastal Waterway and Woolbright Road.
    For more than a year, Boynton Beach and Ocean Ridge residents protested the extra height and density Rikman’s real estate firm received.
    But they lost.
    “I love how we’ve gone from protest to praise,” said Mary Nagle, secretary of the Seagate of Gulfstream condominium community that sits just south of the mangroves. “It’s good news for our residents. I am heartened that it will be in a preserve forever.”
    If Katz’s dream of connecting the boardwalk at Riverwalk to the Seagate community becomes true, her residents will want to put up a locked gate at the border. The community has two swimming pools and would be concerned about its liability, Nagle said.
    Even so, she said, residents would like to walk up to Prime Catch for dinner or fish along the proposed pier or take advantage of a possible kayak concession.
    Other Boynton Beach residents like the idea of adding green space. They also said they hope the city has a plan to maintain it, especially if a boardwalk is built.
    Other boardwalks along the Intracoastal, at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park and in Mangrove Park behind St. Mark Catholic Church, have been restricted or closed because of lack of money for maintenance.
    Across the waterway in Ocean Ridge, the mood was guarded.
    “It’s fundamentally a good idea,” said Ed Bresnihan, president of the Ocean Ridge Yacht Club. “Rikman did not do this out of the goodness of his heart. He is a smart businessman and wants to make money. The Boynton Beach commission needs to watch out for quid pro quo and be alert to what he asks for in return.”
    At Crown Colony Club community, Dan Dekker said, “I’m happy to hear the mangroves will be preserved.”
    In fact, he proposed more than a year ago purchasing the mangroves so that they could be preserved.
    His building does not sit on the Intracoastal. He said residents in the building with waterfront views pay about $40,000 extra for their units. Some might be concerned about their views being disrupted by noise from people using a boardwalk or fishing pier.
    He wants to have Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes residents at the table when the boardwalk is discussed, along with the Boynton Beach people who live in the Seagate community.