Artist rendering of the proposed new complex that would be on Swinton Avenue.
Provided by Randall Stofft Architects
By Jane Smith
The Sundy House owners recently gave the Delray Beach Planning and Zoning Department preliminary plans for their proposed Midtown Delray project.
The paperwork, submitted in June, covers the properties near Sundy House on South Swinton Avenue, said Bill Morris, a partner in the entity that owns the historic restaurant and inn.
Midtown Delray will contain 110,000 square feet of retail space, 110 hotel rooms, about 30,000 square feet of office space, 15 condo units and 450 underground parking spaces.
In addition, the developer plans to move seven historic structures. Four would move to the east side of Swinton, in a vacant lot used by the Sundy House for overflow parking, Morris said. The lot would be cleaned up and the banyan tree trimmed. The homes would be refurbished, leased to artisans and open to visitors, he said.
Two others, including the historic Cathcart House, would be moved to the south side of the Sundy House, where they could be used for additional catering space for the restaurant, he said. The last one would be moved farther south, close to the Toussaint L’Ouverture High School for its use.
“We want to stay within the development guidelines, we are not asking for anything extra,” Morris said.
But in the spring of 2014, before Morris was involved and before the partnership bought the Sundy House, one partner proposed a change to the historic district that would allow a hotel to be built there.
Partner Steve Michael lobbied hard for at least six months and succeeded in getting that change in a tight commission vote of 3-2. Mayor Cary Glickstein and Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia were on the losing side.
After that victory, Michael’s team, including developer/futures trader Rick Marshall, bought the properties from reclusive developer Thomas Worrell, who had let most of the historic structures deteriorate.
“We support the historic ordinances,” Morris said. The partners plan to work closely with Winnie Edwards, executive director of the Delray Beach Historical Society, he said.
Petrolia, though, said last year she did not support allowing a hotel in a historic district because it would “forever change and alter the Old School Square Historic District.” She also recently said she would not be in favor of what she called “a Disneyland of historic homes.”
“A cute little historic village is nice,” said JoAnne Peart, president of the Delray Beach Historic Preservation Trust. “But that’s not Delray’s history.”
A preservationist recently completed an application to make the entire Old School Square Historic Arts District (North and South Swinton) eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The first stop will be the city’s Historic Preservation Board this summer and then onto the state in September, according to Ellen Uguccioni, who wrote the application. She is also a member of the Florida Historical Commission.
“Historic villages are like petting zoos,” said Uguccioni, who also teaches historic preservation at the University of Miami School of Architecture. “On Swinton Avenue, we have a microcosm of how Delray was founded and grew.”
The City Commission would be the last approval needed for the Midtown Delray project.
Delray Beach is rewriting its historic ordinances to gain control over the developers who have run out of buildable lots and now eye land underneath historic structures. The land is often more valuable than the structure.
“This commission is being tested and we are going to be held accountable to what we do with our historic districts,” Petrolia said at the June 16 commission meeting. “Each time we lose one of these properties we are losing our heritage, our past, and it is on our shoulders.”
In order to move a historic structure, the owner must prove the move benefits the structure or historic district, put up a bond equal to the appraised value of the structure and the land, and agree to let the city take back any approvals given for that land if a certain percentage of the structure is damaged in the move.
To demolish a historic structure, the owner must submit documents that indicate the steps taken to preserve the structure. Demolition will be allowed only as a last resort.
Both ordinances passed unanimously in mid-June on first reading.
Still Petrolia worried that the ordinances would provide a road map to developers.
“To me and to many people in this town, the location of where the historic structures are and the relationship to the properties they are on give the significance to historic districts,” she said at the June meeting. “I’m hoping this does not open up an opportunity for property owners to say this is what I need to do to move a structure.”
Both ordinances will come before the commission on July 7 for a second reading.
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