partners - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T08:19:41Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/partnersBoca Raton: Underperforming Boca Resort & Club aims to reclaim former gloryhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-underperforming-boca-resort-club-aims-to-reclaim-forme2020-07-01T15:48:50.000Z2020-07-01T15:48:50.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960954693,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960954693,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960954693?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>The proposed Mizner Ballroom will occupy 10,000 square feet and house conference and meeting facilities now in the resort’s Great Hall. <strong>Rendering provided</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>The new owner of the Boca Raton Resort & Club is planning a massive makeover of the iconic property.<br />In a frank admission that the 337-acre luxury resort has lost its luster, MSD Partners said in documents filed with the city that improvements are needed.<br />Despite renovations over the years, the resort “is not the global player in the luxury hotel market that it once was,” the company said in submissions filed by the Dunay, Miskel and Backman law firm. “Significant renovations internal to the building … improvements to the property and new world-class amenities are required to transform the property back to such a world-class resort.”<br />MSD Partners, formed by billionaire Michael S. Dell’s private investment firm, bought the resort last year for $875 million in Palm Beach County’s biggest-ever property deal.<br />While the planned changes will touch most parts of the resort, key elements include the demolition of the nearly 42,000-square-foot Great Hall and construction of a 10,000-square-foot Mizner Ballroom. The plans emphasize making better use of the resort’s location on the Intracoastal Waterway.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960955695,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960955695,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960955695?profile=original" /></a>Built in 1969, the Great Hall is now dated, said John Tolbert, the resort’s president and managing director. What he and MSD Partners envision is the “most elegant” ballroom for all types of celebrations.<br />They also want to better connect members and guests to water views. “One of the most underutilized parts of the club is the 800 feet of waterfront,” he said.<br />Meeting and conference space will decrease, but “we will have better, more flexible and more relevant space,” he said, that is part of “revisioning our conference space for today’s market.”<br />The improvements “will allow us to have the foremost club and hotel and resort in the country,” he said.<br />Members of the city’s Community Appearance Board got their first look at the designs at their June 16 meeting.<br />Scott LaMont, principal of the planning and design firm EDSA, said the resort had “fallen behind” other resorts and that “we are trying to bring the resort back to its former glory.”<br />CAB members liked what they saw.<br />“I think you guys have done a crazy good thing,” Tiery Boykin told architects Jorge Garcia and Peter Stromberg of GarciaStromberg/GS4Studios in West Palm Beach. “I really like this project.”<br />Once the Great Hall is gone, its conference and meeting facilities would be relocated to the Mizner Ballroom, which will be located adjacent to the existing Mizner Center.<br />The Great Hall space would be redeveloped as a new luxury pool club and amenity area. The existing Flowrider wave simulator, slide, cafes and cabanas, now located north of the Great Hall, would relocate to this area.<br />The company also plans to upgrade the main resort entrance with new landscaping and add a new porte cochere, allowing improvements to valet service. <br />The Morimoto restaurant, which is open only to members and guests, will move and replace the existing Monkey Bar. The Lucca, Garden room and Palm Court restaurant area will be enhanced.<br />MSD Partners also plans renovations to hotel rooms and common areas.<br />The company’s plans were submitted to the city on May 12, and some of the changes will require city approval. The Planning and Zoning Board will review them on July 9 and will make a recommendation to the City Council. More presentations also will be made to the CAB.<br />A Fitch Ratings report one year ago said MSD Partners planned to invest $75 million over four years.<br />Tolbert said the cost of the project is still being calculated, but $75 million is the minimum. He said it would be “one of the most significant capital investments into a resort and club in the world.”<br />The project completion date is not yet set. Tolbert said the work would move forward as quickly as possible but will be done in a way that minimizes disruption to resort and club operations.<br />Tolbert, a high-profile member of the city’s business and philanthropic community, will depart in July after accepting an executive position with BRE Hotels & Resorts, Blackstone’s hospitality platform. An affiliate of Blackstone acquired the resort in 2004 and invested more than $300 million in the property before selling to Dell.<br />While the Fitch report described the resort as well maintained, it said the resort’s room revenues underperform those of its competitors, including PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, The Breakers in Palm Beach and Eau Palm Beach resort in Manalapan.<br />About 60% of the resort’s demand in 2018 came from meeting and group business, compared to 49% for the overall hotel market. Meeting and group bookings are at lower rates than leisure bookings. <br />That brought down overall room revenue. But the resort’s total revenue per available room in April 2019 was $620, “which is considered strong,” the report said.<br />The resort dates to 1926, when famed architect Addison Mizner opened the Cloister Inn on the shore of Lake Boca Raton.<br />It has since grown to 1,047 hotel rooms, two 18-hole golf courses, a 50,000-square-foot spa, seven swimming pools, 30 tennis courts, a 32-slip marina, 13 restaurants and bars and 200,000 square feet of meeting space.<br />The Boca Raton Resort & Club partly reopened on June 4 with new safety protocols after the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of hotels and resorts in March.<br />While he is pleased with the number of people booking rooms, Tolbert said “our emphasis is on quality and luxury and not quantity at this time.”<br />Like other properties, the resort is offering incentives to lure back guests. Its website announces a “Your Summer Restored” package that offers a fourth night’s stay at no charge and a waiver of resort fees.</p></div>Health Notes: Boca Raton hospital reduces choice of partners to twohttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/health-notes-boca-raton-hospital-reduces-choice-of-partners-to-tw2018-05-29T20:18:18.000Z2018-05-29T20:18:18.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960789889,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960789889,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960789889?profile=original" /></a>In a nod to history, nurses at Boca Raton Regional Hospital wore traditional uniforms and caps during National Nurses Week in May. <b>Photo provided</b></em></p>
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<p class="p1" style="text-align:left;"><em><b>By Christine Davis</b></em></p>
<p class="p1">In a process that began a year ago, <b>Boca Raton Regional Hospital</b> has narrowed its choice of potential strategic partners to <b>Baptist Health South Florida</b> and <b>Cleveland Clinic</b>.</p>
<p class="p3">“Each of the five health care systems that we selected to explore are impressive organizations that presented exciting and robust proposals,” said Jerry Fedele, president and CEO of Boca Raton Regional Hospital. “While each brought interesting and innovative ideas to the table, in the final analysis we believe the two chosen presented offerings that were best suited to meet the goals and objectives the board established for the partnership.”</p>
<p class="p3">Those aims include enhancing Boca Regional’s ability to develop nationally recognized clinical programs, mitigate the challenges of a stand-alone organization in the health care industry, and provide greater access to capital.</p>
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<p class="p3">Boca Raton Regional Hospital has two new reasons to celebrate when it comes to its care for stroke patients. The hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s <b>Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus quality achievement award</b>, in recognition for the hospital’s commitment to ensure that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment.</p>
<p class="p3">To earn the award, the hospital met quality achievement measures that evaluated the proper use of medications and up-to-date guidelines for speeding recovery and reducing mortality and disability for stroke patients. </p>
<p class="p3">The hospital also received the association’s <b>Target Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus award</b>. To qualify, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.</p>
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<p class="p3">In honor of <b>National Nurses Week</b>, May 6-12, nurses at Boca Raton Regional Hospital participated in a “Throwback Thursday” event by wearing traditional white nursing uniforms and caps during their shifts.</p>
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<p class="p3">In May, <b>Delray Medical Center</b> received a Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award for superior performance in preventing the occurrence of serious complications for patients during hospital stays. The distinction places Delray Medical Center among the top 10 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, an online resource for information about physicians and hospitals.</p>
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<p class="p3"><b>David C. Brodner, M.D.</b>, has begun offering a new procedure to treat postnasal drip. He uses a special cooling probe, part of the new ClariFix device, to freeze a small area of nasal tissue in the back of the nose. It is performed in his office with local or topical anesthesia.</p>
<p class="p3">“The ability to select out the nasal nerve and to reduce its function without actually severing the nerve is a huge advance in the treatment of these disorders,” Brodner says. “ClariFix works by selectively freezing the ‘runny nose nerve.’ The procedure involves no cutting or suturing.”</p>
<p class="p3">Brodner’s office is at 8794 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach.</p>
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<p class="p3"><b>Ken Dawson-Scully</b> recently became associate vice president for strategic initiatives and head of institutional partnerships for <b>Florida Atlantic University</b> and <b>Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience</b>. He will develop and implement co-branding programs, develop new educational programs, secure joint-funding opportunities, conduct research training, build partnerships and foster collaboration between academic and administrative units.</p>
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<p class="p6"><i>Send health news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.</i></p></div>Obituary: Bill Finleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/obituary-bill-finley2017-02-01T17:00:00.000Z2017-02-01T17:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong><br /> <br /> OCEAN RIDGE — Bill Finley died while putting the finishing touches on a science fiction novel called <em>Saving the Moon</em>.<br /> He’d already made his mark on Earth.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960701084,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960701084,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="89" alt="7960701084?profile=original" /></a> At his death from congestive heart failure on Jan. 25, Mr. Finley left behind 93 years filled with innovation and adventure. He had been a warrior, a scholar, a planner, a builder, a writer, a husband, a father, a dreamer and a doer.<br /> In Palm Beach County, the Community Partners exists because he did, and so does SunFest.<br /> “Bill was a genius in many ways,” said his wife, Anita Finley. “Creative, but such a kind, loving soul. He thought in big terms, and whatever he did had to be good for the community.”<br /> A resident of Ocean Ridge for 28 years, Mr. Finley was born in Chicago on Oct. 29, 1923.<br /> After graduating from high school, Mr. Finley enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 and flew 35 bombing missions over Germany, for which he was awarded five Air Medals, three Battle Stars and two unit commendations.<br /> He earned an A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1949 and, two years later, that school’s first master’s degree in city and regional planning.<br /> In 1958, he arrived in Washington, D.C., to serve as director of the National Capital Planning Commission under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.<br /> Leaving government in 1962, he made one of his most lasting contributions by joining the Rouse Co. to develop a new city in Maryland. In June, Columbia, Maryland, pop. 100,000, will celebrate its 50th anniversary.<br /> Mr. Finley came to Miami in 1972 to help create INTERAMA, the Inter-American Trade and Cultural Center, scheduled to open in 1976 to mark the American Bicentennial. However, the bond market collapsed, and the $200 million project was never completed. Today, it is the site of Florida International University.<br /> In Florida, Mr. Finley lost INTERAMA, but found a wife who would share his life for the next 43 years.<br /> “I saw her from a distance,” he told <em>The Coastal Star</em> last year. “She was tall and gorgeous with a big smile and waving to everyone.”<br /> The couple were married in 1974, and for the next four decades, Florida would benefit from Bill Finley’s presence.<br /> In 1980, he went to work for the Banker’s Land Co., a subsidiary of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to develop the city of Palm Beach Gardens.<br /> He helped turn the Royal Palm Festival into SunFest and a 1939 armory building into the Armory Art Center. With his wife, he co-founded Boomer Times and Senior Life, a multimedia company.<br /> Mr. Finley’s greatest service to the area came in 1986 when, as chairman of the county’s Affordable Housing Task Force, he led the effort to create and fund the Housing Partnership. In 2001, the partnership took over management of the struggling Parent-Child Center, providing mental health services to families. Today, both agencies operate as Community Partners.<br /> In 2012, he received the agency’s first William E. Finley Founder’s Award for his “courageous and visionary leadership.”<br /> In his later years, Mr. Finley turned to writing, publishing both light fiction, <em>Killing in BocaLand</em> (2012), and serious studies, <em>A Bold Proposal for American Cities</em> (2015).<br /> And then, as his own time on Earth drew to a close, he turned his attention to <em>Saving the Moon</em>.<br /> “I’m so privileged to have had him in my life,” Anita Finley said. “He was just a brilliant guy who was also kind and loving. And now he’s on a new adventure.”<br /> In addition to his wife, Mr. Finley is survived by his sons, Kelly Cuthbertson, of California, and Chandler Finley (Stefania) and Joey Richards, both of Miami; a daughter, Kim Finley, of Oregon; and three grandchildren, Colette, Lawrence and Jasmine Finley, of Miami.<br /> A memorial service will be held at a later date.</p></div>Celebrations: Corporate Partners Business & Breakfast Series, Kravis Center, West Palm Beach – Nov. 17https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/celebrations-corporate-partners-business-breakfast-series-kravis-2016-02-03T17:45:54.000Z2016-02-03T17:45:54.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960620883,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960620883,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960620883?profile=original" /></a> <em>More than 100 local business leaders attended an informational event featuring Paul Leone, president of The Breakers Palm Beach and Flagler System. Leone gave an in-depth presentation of The Breakers’ 119-year history. ABOVE: Jeff Stoops and Leone. BELOW: Danielle Cameron and Nathan Slack.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photos provided by Lila photo</strong></p>
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