News

The east view of the proposed iPic theater complex. The area at lower left is where a ‘living wall’

has been proposed to soften the street level view of the building.

Rendering provided

By Jane Smith

    City commissioners smoothed the way for the iPic luxury movie theater to open in downtown Delray Beach when a majority voted for it in August.
    The proposed iPic project had changed somewhat since July when the city’s seven-man Planning and Zoning Board voted unanimously against the increased height and 5-2 against a movie theater at that location, between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues along Atlantic Avenue, and against an alley abandonment included in the plans.
    The changes:
    • Moved the valet circulation to within the project, instead of onto the side streets that connect with Atlantic Avenue;
    • Offered to create a living wall, measuring 30 feet high by 70 feet wide, to soften the street level view of the theater building on Southeast Fifth Avenue, known as southbound Federal Highway;
    • Increased the open space to 3,550 feet.
    About 12:30 a.m. in the wee hours of Aug. 19, the commission voted 3-2 to reverse the P&Z board’s recommendation. The chamber still held half of its audience, even though the commission had to vote at 11 p.m. and then again at midnight to extend the meeting.
    iPic chief Hamid Hashemi attended the meeting where his company used a mobile screen to show a movie clip and renderings of the proposed project.
    The $53 million project combines eight movie auditoriums with 529 seats on the ground floor, 42,900 square feet of office space in two levels, 7,500 square feet of retail along Southeast Fourth Avenue and a three-level parking garage.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein voted for the conditional uses — allowing a theater in the downtown and increasing its height to nearly 60 feet — and for abandoning the north-south alley that was part of the original requests sought by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
    “If not iPic then what? Under both our old and new land development regulations the property could be developed to a size and intensity larger than what iPic proposed,” he explained a few days after the meeting. “Most citizens wanted exactly what was being proposed — a downtown movie theater and office space for jobs.”  
    He also liked that the movie theater would give residents something to do that didn’t involve a restaurant, boutique or bar. He said changing the land price now — or other changes to the CRA’s request that some consider flawed — would present “significant reputational risk to a city, or any organization, for changing the rules or moving the goalposts.”
    After midnight, when trying to explain his vote, he said, “I wish my dad was still around. He was such a great resource on what has happened in other places.” Successful cities adapt and capitalize on the opportunities presented, he said.
    The project’s land use attorney, Bonnie Miskel, gave commissioners a 10-page memorandum of law just before they began their discussion.
    A few days after the vote Glickstein said that “Ms. Miskel’s memorandum was relevant, but was largely codified in the staff analysis that supported the application based on an accurate application of our imperfect rules.”
    He also wanted to see the project’s size decreased. He asked the iPic developer “to let some air out of the tires for us,” but he did not give specifics.
    In addition, he made a requirement that the design can’t be changed once the project goes out for bid; he wants to see the building keep its stainless steel skin that was proposed.  
    For public parking spaces, the mayor wants to see a net-net so that the project would offer the same number of public spaces that will be lost. He directed the city’s planning director to determine that count before the project has its site plan review.
    Commissioner Mitch Katz, who voted to allow a movie theater downtown but against the height increase and alley abandonment, asked whether residents could have access to the roof space so that they could go up there and have a picnic to watch the sunset. The iPic team readily agreed.
    Katz asked whether the city can secure the majority of the property taxes generated by the finished project, instead of having the bulk of it go to the CRA.
    The mayor said, “I’ve asked the city attorney to look into lowering the portion across the CRA district that goes to the CRA. … Yes, I fully support that.”
    Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who cast three votes against the project, filed a complaint on Aug. 21 with the county Inspector General about the alley abandonment vote.
    “I wanted to follow the city ordinances, but we did not do that,” she said a week after the vote. “I expect that if it comes back that we need to get an outside legal opinion and can be done in time, the commission will take a vote on that.”
    The iPic project has to go through four more reviews before it can break ground.