A moviehouse, a mix of upscale stores and eateries including the fabled F.A.O. Schwarz toy store, and Max’s Grille will be the first to gamble on the latest and largest redevelopment project in the county: CityPlace.
“It took more people to get us here today than it took to make the Titanic,” Mayor Nancy Graham told the invitation-only crowd of more than 1,000 who gathered on Friday morning for the announcement of the first tenants signed at CityPlace’s retail center.
The center, across Hibiscus Street from the old First United Methodist Church, is considered the core of the 77-acre, $600 million mixed-use CityPlace project near the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
City officials are banking that CityPlace, a mix of retail stores, performing-arts plaza, convention center, hotel, office space and apartments will transform the area between Fern and N streets, Sapodilla and Lake avenues and push west the success of the Clematis Street revitalization.
The stores and restaurants _ 35 in all _ are a mix of trendy specialty stores like Williams-Sonoma and Urban Outfitters, popular restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory, and retailers found in more traditional shopping malls such as Barnes & Noble and Champs Sporting Goods.
General Cinemas also has signed on to open a 16-screen movie theater.
Sixteen of the retailers have signed leases and the rest are committed to leases, locking in about 70 percent of the 550,000-square-foot retail area.
Among the other retailers aboard are Betsey Johnson, Legal Sea Foods restaurant, an Equinox Health Club, the Pottery Barn, a gourmet market and Brookstone.
The F.A.O. Schwarz will be the largest store in the chain, outside of those in Boston and New York, said John Eyler, F.A.O Schwarz chairman and chief executive officer who flew from New York for Friday’s ceremony.
Developers unveiled a 180-foot illustration of what CityPlace will look like when complete, which the public can view from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday next to the church.
“Downtown is getting bigger and better,” said Bill Fountain, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority.
The project is a public-private partnership between CityPlace Partners, the developer, and West Palm Beach, which through its Community Redevelopment Agency already has $25 million invested in the land. The CRA will sink another $53 million, through a bond issue, into public improvements such as fountains, parking garages and plazas. The city has leased the land to the developers for 75 years.
Construction crews are expected to begin demolishing or moving existing buildings on the CityPlace site over the next few weeks. Developers hope to open CityPlace in the fall of 2000.
The development arrangement is similar to the one that created Boca Raton’s Mizner Park in 1989 _ right down to the Mediterranean and Addison Mizner-inspired architectural renderings, but is nearly four times the size.
Still, regional economic and development officials said they doubt the CityPlace project will hurt the crop of funky downtown projects _ like Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue _ that have popped up or are being planned in south Palm Beach County.
“They have a lot more space but yes, we have a lot of the same elements as CityPlace at Mizner Park,” said Wanda Thayer, chairwoman of Boca Raton’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which developed Mizner Park. “But I’m not going to go up to West Palm Beach for Starbucks coffee when I can get it in Boca. The economy is strong and each city has its own identity.”
Boynton Beach, which has lagged behind other Palm Beach cities in its efforts to bring people back into its downtown, is about to break ground on a project that will put apartments, office and retail space along the waterfront at Ocean Avenue.
After years of false starts, Boynton Beach officials expect developer Edward Garcia to begin construction within about two months on the first phase of the project.
“We’ve stopped talking and we’re going forward no matter what happens around us,” said Bob Donovan, supervisor of plan review for Boynton Beach. “This kind of thing is happening everywhere now and it’s about boosting our downtown and drawing people who live in the city down to the marina. I think the success has a mushroom effect and these projects will complement each other.”
John Weaver, chairman of the Community Redevelopment Agency in Delray Beach, which engineered the rebirth of East Atlantic Avenue with small redevelopment deals, agreed.
“I think CityPlace is just going to be another opportunity, another destination option,” Weaver said. “Investment has a ripple effect, block by block, and maybe even city by city. I see us as all offering something a little bit different.”
Even so, a little competition can’t hurt, some business leaders say.
“We’re all nearby, but far enough that it’s different trade areas and I don’t think we’ll be drawing from the same markets,” said Mike Arts, chairman of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. “Boynton may pick up some fresh competition, but that does nothing but make them better because if they can’t compete, they’ll make changes. Everybody is going to have to find something special to offer.”
