Some say that the proposed City Center Delray will overwhelm Doc’s and that its Streamline Moderne style will be out of touch with the Mediterranean Revival style of the Old School Square Historic District, in which the new project will sit. Rendering provided
By Jane Smith
Doc’s, a fast-food eatery that got its start in 1951 as a Dairy Queen franchise, unanimously won a historic designation from the Delray Beach City Commission — but the new complex it will be part of had a tougher time before the board.
“I couldn’t picture Delray Beach without Doc’s,” Commissioner Ryan Boylston said at the commission’s Dec. 6 meeting. “My grandparents took me there. I take my kids there.”
Retired schoolteacher and longtime resident Yvonne Odom also supported saving Doc’s, with its outdoor seating and walk-up window service.
“It has a lot of memories for those of us who grew up here and went to Doc’s after football games,” she said.
Doc’s has been closed for nearly two years and will re-open by the end of 2023, said Pushkar Marathe, a chef hired for the restaurant by one of the partners, Steven Michael.
The new complex that will be adjacent to Doc’s, City Center Delray, received 3-2 approval of its site plan. Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale voted no on the controversial project, which will house retail and office space.
Petrolia was concerned that the new building would overwhelm and compete with Doc’s older structure. Doing so would violate U.S. Secretary of Interior standards for historic structures, she said.
The center’s size of nearly 32,000 square feet is massive compared to the 1,600 square feet of Doc’s.
Casale pointed out that the city’s Historic Preservation Board recommended denial of the project by a 6-1 vote. Most of its board members were concerned the three-story building would overwhelm Doc’s one-story height, said Michelle Hoyland, the city’s historic preservation planner.
The three-story building will be constructed in the Streamline Moderne style, which some board members said did not fit with the architecture of the surrounding Old School Square Historic District. That district has Mediterranean Revival-style buildings with stucco walls and tiled roofs.
City Center Delray will sit across North Swinton Avenue from the Old School Square campus. The complex extends along Atlantic Avenue for a block west of Swinton to Northwest First Avenue.
Most of the 12 speakers talked glowingly about Michael, a partner in City Center Delray. Their effusive comments prompted City Attorney Lynn Gelin to say, “What we are voting on is not the personality and character of Mr. Michael.”
Two speakers, including barrier island resident Kelly Barrette, talked about the federal standard that the new portion must be compatible with the surrounding designs. Barrette, like the other speakers, urged the commission to add Doc’s to the city’s register of historic places. She opposed the larger City Center Delray plan.
Boylston said he did not like voting against the city’s Historic Preservation Board, “but they have a narrow view. I look at the project as a whole. ... At what point do we push so hard that none of this becomes reality.”
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