Michael Holzheid (left) has purchased the Sail Inn property and bar. Longtime bartender, Bastian Raams (right) is now the general manager. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Christine Davis
Rick Jankee, who owned the Sail Inn in Delray Beach until Aug. 15, has sailed out, so to speak.
He talked to us briefly after a farewell thank-you party at the neighborhood bar at 657 George Bush Blvd.
“We are the oldest bar, 66 years, with the same name, same address,” Jankee said. “No one comes close to our age and our history, our philanthropy and the camaraderie we’ve had during hurricanes, sickness, death, and I’m really proud of that.”
Prior to owning the bar for 21 years, he was its manager for 10. The Sail Inn’s former owner, Bobby DeMario, gave Jankee the opportunity to buy the bar, and Jankee decided the time had come for him to do the same. Michaelk Holzheid now owns the property and the bar and Jankee’s former employee Bastian Raams now manages the Sail Inn.
“I wanted them to work for themselves and own their own business,” Jankee says. “Bastiaan worked for me for six years or so and he stepped up and I let him have it.”
A bout with throat cancer last year was a wake-up call, he says. “That changed everything for me; it humbled me and I decided it was time.”
His secret for longevity in the bar business? Fairness and consistency, he said.
Jankee says he plans to travel with his girlfriend, Kerri Hussey, help people out and do some charity work.
“I’ll miss the good times, though, the people, the camaraderie, and the quirky stuff I used to do,” he says, recalling the fire truck, the short bus that won the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the mariachi band and the pony that he drummed up for birthdays.
Jankee promises not to be a stranger to the Sail Inn. He’ll be back without the liability worries that come with bar ownership, he says. “I’m still only a block away. When in town, I’ll pop into the bar if they’ll have me.”
Dog Activity World is open in Boynton Beach, just north of Home Depot, at 1510 SW Eighth St. The center, started by Hannah Wickins, offers resort-style daycare, a 160-foot-long running path with a mechanical rabbit or squirrel as a lure, boarding, training, photography and more. The dog daycare hours are: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Call 340-3740 or visit www.dogaw.com.
The Club at Boynton Beach Assisted Living and Memory Care community opens in September, right in the middle of hurricane season, but is prepared with a state-of-the-art generator to provide emergency backup power and climate control to residential apartments and common areas.
Because of Hurricane Irma in 2017 when several nursing homes and assisted living communities in Florida were without air-conditioning after the storm, former Gov. Rick Scott issued a mandate requiring that assisted living communities have at least 96 hours’ worth of fuel and the capacity to cool 20 square feet per resident.
The Club, at 623 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach, goes beyond the mandate’s minimum requirements. The community has enough backup power to cool 64,313 square feet. Air-conditioning will be maintained throughout the entire building, private residential apartments and common areas. Daily operations will have enough energy to continue providing for residents to receive all of their nursing care, meals and activities without interruption.
“We designed our community keenly aware of the new mandate,” said Oliver Von Troll, founder and owner of The Club. “But we weren’t satisfied with simply meeting the minimum legal standards. The idea that our residents would have to squeeze into a single air-conditioned common area in the event of an outage just wasn’t acceptable to us. So we’ve put in place a system that covers the whole building. Our residents can stay in their climate-controlled apartments if they choose, minimizing disruption to their daily routines.”
Several Palm Beach County businesses have launched a new networking group, the Boynton Beach Professionals, which meets on the first and third Fridays of the month at 8 a.m. in Boynton Beach. It’s set up as an “exclusive seat” organization, so just one member per business category is allowed to join.
John Campanola is chairman of the group. For more information, contact boynton beachprofessionals@gmail.com.
The legal and consulting firm Erin L. Deady, 54 1/2 SE Sixth Ave., Delray Beach, has formed a new practice area, a title company for residential real estate transactions.
“This new area made sense for us as a way to expand our client services in the real estate industry,” said Deady, the firm’s president. “The fact that we are attorneys will give us a leg up since our experience allows us to look at the big picture for our clients.”
Co-Developers National Realty Investment Advisors and U.S. Construction have begun demolition work on the future site of Ocean Delray at 1901 South Ocean Blvd., previously the site of the Wright by the Sea hotel. The new development will have 19 residences, priced from $5 million to $10 million.
IMI Worldwide Properties, sales and marketing representative for Ocean Delray, has already sold 40 percent of the project, totaling $45 million. For more information, contact 800-793-9783.
The Delray Beach Housing Authority received approval from the Palm Beach County Housing Finance Authority for a non-revolving pre-development loan of up to $750,000 and a $1.7 million revolving construction loan for Phase III of its Island Cove project.
The Phase III project, which will include nine buildings with six townhomes that will be offered for sale on Southwest Eighth Street and Southwest 12th Avenue, will cost approximately $18.5 million. The $750,000 loan will cover some of the costs of the architect, project manager, marketing, legal, survey and testing.
The $1.7 million loan will cover the construction of one of the nine buildings. The revolving-construction amount may be increased by an additional $1.7 million, subject to availability of funding. The project will provide “workforce for sale” housing.
The Boca Real Estate Investment Club will hold its annual Locals Night at 7 p.m. Sept. 12. Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. It will be held at the Gold Coast School of Real Estate, 2600 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Cost is $15 for nonmembers. For more information, call 391-7325.
Boca Chamber’s Pulse, business professionals under 40 years old, will host a lunch featuring Kevin Ross, president of Lynn University, at Wynham Hotel-Boca Raton, 1950 Glades Road / Wyndham Way, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Sept. 17.
Ross, the fifth president of Lynn University, took office in 2006, succeeding his father, Donald E. Ross, who founded Wilmington College before serving as Lynn’s president for 35 years. Non-members pay $50 for the lunch.
For more information, contact Sarah Pearson at spearson@bocachamber.com or Chasity J. Navarro at cnavarro@bocachamber.com or at 395-4433.
In collaboration with FAU’s Jaffe Center for Book Arts and its exhibition Building Stories: Alternative Storytelling, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival is screening the film Sita Sings the Blues, an animated romantic comedy and musical interpretation of the Hindu epic poem The Ramayana, at 7 p.m. Sept. 26. It will be at The Jaffe Center for Book Arts, Florida Atlantic University Wimberly Library 3rd Floor East, 777 Glades Rd., Boca Raton. Tickets are $10.
The Faulk Center for Counseling will host its Community Impact Awards reception and dinner at 6 p.m. Nov. 7 at Broken Sound Club. The event will be co-chaired by Eileen Sands and Lois A. Weisman. Honorary chairs will be Pamela & Robert Weinroth.
This year’s honorees include Dr. Virginia Crist, licensed marriage and family therapist, recipient of the Caring Heart Award; Rotary Club Downtown Boca Raton, recipient of the Mental Health & Wellness Award; and Dr. Paul Peluso, Chair, Department of Counselor Education, Florida Atlantic University, recipient of the Education Excellence Award.
The individuals and organizations are recognized for their support of the Faulk Center’s mission of providing free and low-cost mental health counseling services to uninsured, underserved and at-risk individuals of all ages.
Ticket price to attend the event is $125 per person. For more information, call Ali Rubin at 483-5300 or email a.rubin@faulkcenterforcounseling.org.
Jane Smith contributed to this report.
Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.
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