history museum - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T14:45:25Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/history+museumBusiness Spotlight: Whole Foods grocery coming to west Boyntonhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/business-spotlight-whole-foods-grocery-coming-to-west-boynton2022-03-30T14:21:23.000Z2022-03-30T14:21:23.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10248946079,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10248946079,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10248946079?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong><em>Whole Foods plans to open a store as part of a development called the Boynton Beach Marketplace at Boynton Beach Boulevard and Hagen Ranch Road. <strong>Rendering provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Christine Davis</strong></p>
<p>Good news for Whole Foods fans in Boynton Beach. A store will soon be available closer to home.<br /> SJC Ventures, a grocery-anchored retail and multifamily development firm based in Atlanta, recently signed a new lease with Whole Foods Market, which will be in the Boynton Beach Marketplace, 7499 W. Boynton Beach Blvd. <br /> Other expected tenants once the center is complete include sit-down restaurants, fast casual eateries, service establishments and boutique fitness options. <br /> “This will be a fantastic addition to the Boynton Beach area and we are thrilled to bring a tenant such as Whole Foods Market to the community,” said Jeff Garrison, principal at SJC Ventures. “Our firm seeks to find regional sites that fit the demographic of specialty grocery stores like Whole Foods Market, and Boynton Beach certainly matches that.”<br />An opening date has not been announced.</p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">South Florida-based real estate investment management group <strong>Grover Corlew</strong> announced that it has acquired the <strong>Palmetto Park City Center</strong> office building, 120 E. Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton, for $25.2 million. <br /> The sale was recorded on March 9. Palmetto Park City Center is adjacent to another commercial property, the Bank of America Tower, which Grover Corlew acquired in July 2021. <br /> “We have been making continuous investments in Boca Raton since 2016, when we originally purchased 1499 W. Palmetto Park Road and subsequently purchased the adjacent 1489 building,” partner Mark Corlew said in a news release. “Our headquarters are here, and we’re raising our children here. We see these two properties as an ideal opportunity to invest in our hometown.”<br /> Partner Anuj Grover added: “This is a strategic move for us as we continue to set our sights on underrealized areas of South Florida.” <br /> A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Dominic Montazemi and Scott O’Donnell brokered the latest transaction. According to public records, $21.85 million in financing for the deal was provided by Wells Fargo Bank.</p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">California-based <strong>Brickstar Capital</strong> bought <strong>Spanish River Plaza</strong>, 500 NE Spanish River Blvd., Boca Raton, in a transaction totaling $12.6 million recorded Feb. 25. The seller, Chart Organization, a real estate investment and management company based in Lynbrook, New York, paid $8.1 million for the two-building plaza in 2015. <br /> Mark M. Rubin and Bastian Laggerbauer of Colliers | South Florida Investment Services Team represented both sides in the deal. <br /> Brickstar’s intent was to buy the plaza “as an investment, re-tenant it 100%, and when the time is right, reposition the site as a redevelopment opportunity,” Laggerbauer said.<br /> Sited on 4.5 acres, the buildings were completed in 1974. Spanish River Plaza is 14% vacant, according to Laggerbauer, who added that tenants include Ascend Properties, IntensityX3 Fitness & Kickboxing, Mane Coffee and Dunetz Wellness Center.</p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">The <strong>Delray Beach Housing Authority</strong>, partnering with <strong>Smith & Henzy Advisory Group</strong>, received approval from the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board for their <strong>Island Cove</strong> project. It includes 60 affordable-housing buildings and a clubhouse.<br /> The site, which has been vacant for more than 10 years, is between Southwest Eighth and 10th streets and Southwest 12th and 13th avenues.<br /> The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency is contributing $1 million, in the form of a grant, toward the $27 million project. <br /> “Rents for the 40 two-bedroom/two-bathroom and 20 three-bedroom/two-bathroom apartments are expected to range between $500 and $1,800 a month,” said Shirley Erazo, CEO of the Housing Authority.<br /> “The units in Island Cove will be set aside for residents earning between 30% to 80% of the area median income. This phase of the redevelopment will focus on community heroes: firefighters, teachers, law enforcement officers, nurses and other members of the essential workforce.” </p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">Here’s some big (as in price and size) news in single-family home sales:<br /> Paul Saunders, founder of the Virginia-based James River Capital Corp., and his wife, Victoria Saunders, paid $34.7 million for the oceanfront estate at <strong>2445 S. Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach</strong>. The sale, recorded Feb. 22, represented a record high price for the town.<br />The home was owned by the late Mark Hamister, who had paid $12.5 million for the property in 2014. <br /> The 16,582-square-foot house, situated on 1.1 acres, has seven bedrooms, a 14-car garage and 120 feet of beach frontage, according to realtor.com. Features include a full wing guest suite, screening room and a club room wing with a six-bay auto museum. <br /> The property was listed for $42 million in November 2021. <strong>Joseph Liguori</strong>, <strong>Carmen D’Angelo Jr.</strong> and <strong>Gerard Liguori</strong> of Premier Estate Properties represented Hamister’s estate in the recent deal. <strong>Marcy Javor</strong> of Signature One Luxury Estates represented the Saunderses. <br /> Gerard Liguori said an estate at 3715 S. Ocean previously held the record for Highland Beach. Public records show that it sold for $29.5 million in late 2021. <br /> “We’ve just returned from a conference, and there’s a sense of uncertainty with inflation and the stock market, and what’s happening in Ukraine, and people are going into hard assets such as real estate,” Gerard Liguori said. </p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">Speaking of <strong>Premier Estate Properties</strong>, the firm has represented properties exclusively in excess of $1 million for 28 years, and it has paid off. The 2021 rankings by T3 Sixty Almanac, an independent report that analyzes and quantifies top real estate companies in the United States, put Premier Estate Properties No. 1 for highest sales volume per agent, No. 2 as the brokerage achieving the highest sales price, and No. 225 among the Mega 1,000 top brokerages. <br /> Additionally, Premier garnered $4.9 billion in sales and new listings over 12 months, all with only 42 agents. <br /> “The reason we earn market dominance year after year is that our agents function as trusted advisers to our high-net-worth clientele,” says Gerard Liguori, one of the broker/owners at Premier. “We have the in-depth knowledge of these communities and of the market to enable us to skillfully tailor the buying or selling experience to each client’s needs.” </p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">3545 North Ocean Trust, managed by Palm Beach attorney Guy Rabideau, bought the 14,000-square-foot mansion at <strong>3545 N. Ocean Blvd., Gulf Stream</strong>, for $33 million in a sale recorded March 3. Built in 1958, the five-bedroom mansion rests on a 1.96-acre lot with 230 feet of ocean frontage. The seller of the property, Gulf Stream Ocean Properties FL, is a Florida limited liability company managed by Gary Clinton Scheier, who paid $14.25 million for the property in 2018.<br /> <strong>Candace and Phillip Friis</strong>, agents with the Corcoran Group, represented the buyer and seller, according to realtor.com. The property was listed for $34 million one day prior to the sale.</p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>Lang Realty</strong>, through its community outreach arm Lang Cares, is leading a month-long diaper drive in April to benefit several South Florida charities through <strong>The Diaper Bank, Covering South Florida</strong>.<br /> Diapers can be dropped off at these Lang offices in South County: 4400 N. Federal Highway, Suite 100, Boca Raton; 9858 Clint Moore Rd., Suite C-124, Boca Raton; 2901 Clint Moore Rd., Suite 9, Boca Raton; 8855 Boynton Beach Blvd., Suite 340, Boynton Beach; 3700 Clubhouse Lane, Boynton Beach; 900 E. Atlantic Avenue, Suite 16B, Delray Beach. <br /> Donate via Amazon at <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/registries/custom/3GK2RJJINGME/guest-view">https://smile.amazon.com/registries/custom/3GK2RJJINGME/guest-view</a>.</p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">The B<strong>oynton Beach City Library</strong> has received a grant of $93,084 that will fund “Technology Training for Entrepreneurs and Career Advancement.” <br />This grant is funded under provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /> The money will be used for a mobile laptop cart with 24 laptops, a printer, a projector and a full-time professional trainer to teach classes for library cardholders.<br /> Classes cover topics such as basic computer literacy, Microsoft Office products, Adobe Photoshop Elements, QuickBooks, creating art with software, job-interview preparation, and résumés. <br />Classes are posted on <a href="http://www.boynton-beach.org/city-library">www.boynton-beach.org/city-library</a> in the Library Program Calendar. For more information or questions about obtaining a card, call 561-742-6390. </p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">The <strong>Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum</strong> hosts “The Future Began Here/The Future is Here,” a talk about the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, which will be held at the museum at 6 p.m. April 7. <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10248947094,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10248947094,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" width="100" alt="10248947094?profile=RESIZE_180x180" /></a>What began as a location for IBM’s research and development is now a 1.7 million-square-foot office park known as the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, home to 18 national and 19 regional office tenants with up to 6,000 employees. Boca-based CP Group acquired the office park in 2018. <br />As part of the program, CP Group managing partner <strong>Angelo Bianco</strong> will share IBM anecdotes as well as the firm’s progress toward transforming BRiC with amenities that include a food hall, STEAM lab, and presentation space. <br />Before and after the session, attendees can visit the museum’s IBM Gallery. The cost is free for museum members and $10 for nonmembers. To RSVP, email office@bocahistory.org or call 561-395-6766, ext. 100. The museum is at 71 N. Federal Highway. </p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">The <strong>YMCA of South Palm Beach County</strong>’s drowning prevention program was chosen by the <strong>USA Swimming Foundation</strong> to receive $4,000 in grant money toward providing free or reduced-cost swim lessons. The foundation vetted more than 250 applications and chose 102 youth and 40 adult programs to receive funding. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.ymcaspbc.org">www.ymcaspbc.org</a>.</p>
<p><em>Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.</em></p></div>Boca Raton: A peek inside renovated museum ahead of November reopeninghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-a-peek-inside-renovated-museum-ahead-of-november-reope2021-09-29T14:37:11.000Z2021-09-29T14:37:11.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9624158090,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9624158090,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9624158090?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong><em>The Addison Mizner room at the History Museum honors the architect whose designs set the tone for early development in Boca Raton. It includes original furniture from the Boca Resort. </em><strong>Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>The newly renamed Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum will reopen to the public in Nov. 3 after a complete renovation of the nearly 100-year-old historic Town Hall building.<br /> The $3.5 million project, initially paid for with reserve funds, donations and a $650,000 grant from the city, transforms the entire building and adds new interactive historical exhibits.<br /> The renovation was bolstered in late September when longtime museum supporters Barbara and Dick Schmidt donated $1 million. Mary Csar, executive director of the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum, described the donation as one of the largest in the museum’s history.<br /> The building’s golden dome has been regilded and the exterior painted a creamy shade of white.<br /> But the big changes are inside, where Csar gave a reporter and photographer a guided tour.<br /> A timeline, dating from the pre-Columbian era to the 21st century, runs along the interior hallway.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9624168689,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9624168689,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9624168689?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>With more than 8,000 local employees at its peak, IBM changed the world when it unveiled the personal computer in 1987 from its Boca campus. </em></p>
<p>Among the events highlighted are the first settlers, the Yamato Colony, famed architect Addison Mizner’s Cloister Inn, the massive World War II Boca Raton Army-Air Base, Florida Atlantic University’s groundbreaking, IBM’s production of the first personal computer, construction of the Town Center mall and the 2001 anthrax attack on the AMI building.<br /> Visitors may well find that there’s city history they never knew or had forgotten.<br /> Does Boca Raton really mean “mouth of the rat”? The answer is yes, but there’s more to know about how that name was affixed to the city.<br /> Rooms off the hallway are devoted to specific subjects.<br /> The Addison Mizner room includes original furniture from the resort that is now rebranded as The Boca Raton and a model of a castle Mizner intended to build on a now-gone island in Lake Boca but never did.<br /> The IBM room underscores the company’s impact locally and across the world. Retired IBM employees donated original PCs to the museum. A recording of a former employee recounts the absolute secrecy under which the company operated.<br /> The World War II room showcases a B-17 in a dogfight and includes the history of radar and U-boats.<br /> The largest room is the former City Council chamber, which now will house changing exhibits and a lecture hall.<br /> The Town Hall building at 71 N. Federal Highway doubles as the city’s visitor center and has a gift shop.<br /> The building renovation became very complicated, delaying the completion many months. The coronavirus pandemic also created difficulties, making it hard to get enough workers and causing supply chain disruptions. <br /> Plumbers found that the building’s cast iron pipes had disintegrated, causing leaks that probably had existed for years and undermined the foundation, which had to be shored up, said architect Derek Vander Ploeg, who volunteered his services to the project.<br /> “We are lucky we caught it,” he said. <br /> FPL discovered the building had an undersized transformer, which explained various electrical glitches plaguing the building. It was replaced.<br /> All this increased the project’s cost, prompting Csar to ask the City Council on July 29 to make an additional $590,000 grant. The city is the Town Hall’s landlord.<br /> Council members were enthusiastic about the building’s transformation.<br /> “We are excited to see this open,” said Mayor Scott Singer.<br /> “These exhibits are amazingly exciting,” said Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke.<br /> But they were noncommittal about providing additional funding. Singer could not recall a time when a nonprofit completed a huge project, paid all the costs and then came to the council for money.<br /> Both Csar and Vander Ploeg said city staff was aware of what work was being done, and why, every step of the way. Both said the project contractor used a competitive bidding process.<br /> The City Council resumed discussion on the request on Sept. 13. <br /> The building’s problems were serious and “could not be ignored,” Csar said. “This was not done without anybody’s knowledge. And it had to be done fast.”<br /> Deputy City Manager Mike Woika said some city staffers were aware of the problems, but no one advised historical society officials on what they should do or how to pay for it.<br /> After briefly considering negotiating a compromise, council members agreed to provide the requested amount. <br /> “We need to give them the money they spent on necessary repairs,” said council member Andy Thomson.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">On display in October</span><br /> <strong>What:</strong> The Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum’s traveling “HERstory” exhibit runs through Oct. 30.<br /> <strong>Where:</strong> Boca Raton Community Center, 150 Crawford Boulevard.<br /> <strong>Highlights:</strong> The exhibit features Boca Raton’s first female pioneers, who came to farm South Florida at the turn of the 20th century. Many were from northern middle-class families, accustomed to electricity, indoor plumbing, markets and department stores.<br /> <strong>Hours:</strong> 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 to 4 Saturday. <br /> I<strong>nfo:</strong> 561-395-6766 or <a href="http://www.BocaHistory.org">www.BocaHistory.org</a>.</p></div>