By Jane Smith

    The iPic theater complex will go forward in the heart of Delray Beach by the slimmest of approval ratings.
    On March 15, the City Commission signed off on three waivers and a site plan by a 3-2 vote. The project will occupy 1.59 acres just south of Atlantic Avenue between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues.
    Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Mitch Katz voted no. Katz didn’t think iPic did enough to reduce its size, as directed. The 94,912-square-foot iPic complex will be a mixed-use development of eight movie theaters with 497 seats taking up 44,979 square feet, 42,446 square feet of offices and 7,487 square feet of retail. Petrolia suggested they cut a movie theater to make the project a better fit.
    “We need eight movie theaters to be economically viable,” said Bonnie Miskel, iPic’s attorney. By cutting 32 seats, iPic is losing $1.5 million annually, she said. “We are widening that alley by 8 feet and making the upper deck a public area.”
    The March commission meeting began with drama.
    Miskel, seeing that iPic CEO Hamid Hashemi and Commissioner Al Jacquet were not there, requested a delay to the next month’s meeting.
    Jacquet opened a campaign account in January for his expected run for Florida House District 88. Two Hashemi-linked companies and iPic each donated $1,000 to Jacquet’s House campaign.
    The postponement motion failed with Katz and Petrolia voting no, even after the city attorney explained the liability of due process.
    “They pulled this agenda switching on other boards,” Katz said, and pushed other projects back. If iPic wants to postpone, he wanted to see the project go to the back of the approval-process line and wait six months.
    Jacquet said he was late because he was heavily involved in Super Tuesday. Hashemi said he was stuck in traffic in Miami. They both showed by the time the City Commission discussed iPic around 7:45 p.m.
    The project received the go-ahead with conditions. Mayor Cary Glickstein asked for a separate developer’s agreement from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the former library and chamber of commerce site.
    “The poor work product created a lot of problems here before us,” Glickstein said.
    He is concerned about traffic on Federal Highway from vehicles dropping off passengers going to the movies. The theater has a pedestrian entrance on Federal Highway.
    “I want to see uniformed officers on Federal Highway and if [iPic] gets complacent,” Glickstein said, “I want the city to position its officers at their expense.”
    In addition, he wants a guarantee from iPic that it would move its corporate headquarters to Delray Beach for five years.
    Before the vote, he also criticized iPic’s attorney for making “amateur moves,” such as the mystery of the corporate office and the one at the start of the meeting where Miskel asked for a delay because two people weren’t there.
    The actions, he said, “made our jobs more difficult when we are trying to support what we think is a good project.”
    The complex relies on its valet system to work. Glickstein wants that language strengthened so that the city decides whether it is operating well and not iPic.
    Commissioner Katz wanted to make sure residents understood why he would not support the waivers. He likened iPic to Delray Place, home to a Trader Joe’s grocery store.
    “Two years later residents near Delray Place are upset about the waivers granted to get that Trader Joe’s,” he said. “Rolling out the red carpet does not mean we make exception to our rules just to have a movie theater or a Trader Joe’s.”
    In other action, commissioners:
    • Denied single-level parking lifts for Swinton Commons.
    • Adopted the pet sales ban that allows sales of rescue cats and dogs only in an attempt to cut off the supply from puppy mills. Waggs to Riches is the only store that sells dogs in the city. The store has six months to comply. The store’s owner could not be reached for comment.

    • Approved spending $11,929 for design and permitting services with Wantman Group Inc. for a wheelchair-accessible walkway to the Atlantic Avenue Beach Pavilion.
    • Awarded a reclaimed water system contract for $2.7 million to Mancon Inc. It was the lowest bidder and will build the system in a .7-mile stretch of the barrier island between Causarina and Poinsettia roads. Work will begin this month.
    • Authorized the city manager to monitor vacancies at the city marina and determine whether lower rates are needed. The city recently increased its rental rates by nearly 56 percent to $28 a square foot for those living aboard their boats. The city raised the rates partially to cover the marina costs, including new docks and repairing or replacing the seawall.

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