🏗️ Building cities, businesses
😎 Hello, Sunshine. For you today, the biggest civic reimagining in 50 years; an unworried state attorney; where are the businesses; farewell to the vitamin king; local UFOs; and making a better Stet.
Today’s newsletter is a 6-minute read.
🏔️ ‘This is our Everest:’ Riviera Beach’s massive rebuild
Riviera Beach City Hall would move from Blue Heron to Broadway.
The police station would be built at the current site of the Barracuda Bay Aquatic Center.
The aquatic center would be rebuilt as part of an athletic complex next to Inlet Grove Community High School.
The old City Hall site and the ballfields across the street would be leased to a developer, 39 acres along Blue Heron Boulevard on the gateway to Singer Island.
Riviera Beach is engaging in what could be the most ambitious municipal rebuild in Palm Beach County over the past 50 years. At stake: Projects worth $665 million.
“Let’s be honest, this is our Everest, right? This is the mountain that we have to try to climb,” Finance Director Randy Sherman told the council in a July 22 workshop.
“We just have to figure out how to stack all of our revenues, and take every resource that we have, get creative and we’ll be able to get all of these projects done over time,” he said.
On the drawing board:
Three new fire stations (one already opened).
A $100 million City Hall.
A $200 million water plant.
A $45 million athletic complex, a $35 million police station and a $25 million fire station.
It’s city building at its most foundational level.
“All of the facilities in our community are at the end of their useful life,” City Manager Jonathan Evans said Friday. “The do-nothing option was not an alternative for us.”
For years, this waterfront city hatched no shortage of development schemes. They had one thing in common. They never happened.
Something different is in the air.
The city paid $2.4 million in September 2020 to buy the old Walgreens site at Congress and Blue Heron. Fire Station 88, a $20 million project, opened there in July.
The city paid $2.2 million in January 2021 to buy a building at Congress off Blue Heron. The library moved there in July 2021, the first step to vacating the old City Hall complex east of the railroad tracks on Blue Heron.
The City Council agreed Aug. 2 to ask voters in March 2024 to support higher taxes to pay for the $45 million athletic complex and the $25 million fire station.
What’s next? The board on Wednesday will consider asking voters to support a third bond referendum, $55 million for park improvements, including the athletic complex next to Inlet Grove.
For more, check out the story coming to your inboxes Wednesday from Stet.
🫏 Next in line? Aronberg shrugs off speculation he could be DeSantis’ third ousted state attorney
What, me worry?
With two elected Democratic state attorneys now ousted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg next?
A regular guest on liberal-leaning MSNBC, Aronberg cuts the highest profile of any Florida state attorney, Republican or Democrat.
Is he worried? Nope, says a spokesman for Aronberg.
For one thing, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell was tanked because of what DeSantis described as a failure to aggressively prosecute serious crimes, culminating in the shooting of two police officers by a man who police said should have been held without bond.
Aronberg’s office points to stats showing his office has prosecuted far more cases than Worrell.
Plus: Aronberg has GOP friends in high places. He worked for Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2010 and supported her reelection in 2014. Further, much of his criticism on MSNBC has been aimed at DeSantis' rival, former President Donald Trump.
And Aronberg is leaving office when his term expires next year.
But his successor may not be home free.
Less publicized than the state attorney removals but just as politically charged is a move by state GOP lawmakers to combine Florida’s court systems.
Consolidating the current 20 judicial districts would whittle down the number of elected state attorneys and public defenders.
It might be time: Airlines still served full meals on good china the last time judicial lines were drawn.
Given the willingness to oust state attorneys, though, critics suspect gerrymandering of the state’s judiciary.
Voters amended Florida’s constitution in 2010 to prohibit partisan-driven redistricting.
Just last week, a major court agreement in a gerrymandering case was struck, possibly paving the way to reinstate a mostly Black North Florida congressional district erased by redistricting.
Unclear: Whether the anti-gerrymandering amendment would apply to judicial district lines.
Vitamin tycoon Carl DeSantis, 1939-2023
Billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Carl Angus DeSantis of Delray Beach died Thursday. He was 84.
He was a rags-to-riches businessman who turned an idea for cheap suntan oil into a multinational empire.
DeSantis was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Miami Beach where he attended Catholic school and sold newspapers on a street corner.
He married Sylvia and dropped out of Florida State University during his sophomore year to help support her and the first of their three children.
Back in North Miami Beach, he managed a Super X drug store. There, he and a co-worker developed a sunscreen to rival Coppertone. They called it Sundown.
In 1975, he quit his job, bought out his partner and launched Sundown Vitamins inspired by conversations with pharmacy clients who were looking for health products. He took the company public in 1993.
In 2000, the Boca Raton-based Rexall Sundown agreed to be acquired by a Dutch company for $1.8 billion.
DeSantis continued to launch or invest in businesses and real estate projects through his CDS International Holdings firm. They include Atlantic Crossing in Delray Beach, the Gulfstream Hotel in Lake Worth Beach, a hot sauce to take on Tabasco and a restaurant in downtown Delray.
It was his early bet on the breakout Celsius energy drink that propelled him to billionaire status, according to Forbes.
DeSantis has given millions of dollars to American universities. He endowed a foundation to encourage leadership. In a full-circle moment in 1999, FSU awarded DeSantis an honorary business degree.
“We mourn the loss of our founder, mentor, and friend Carl DeSantis,” a statement from his foundation said. “Mr. D was an amazing man, who lived an incredible and magical life. He was a talented entrepreneur, generous philanthropist and most importantly a kind and gentle person. We look forward to extending his legacy by supporting our community. His spirit and generosity will live on forever.”
Services are planned for next week.
This story has been corrected to remove a reference to Damon DeSantis serving as Rexall Sundown CEO. He was the head of a division of the company. The story was also updated to include a statement from the foundation.
🖇️ Where have all the new local businesses gone? They were never here.
The health of the county’s broader economic engine is not in question: Newcomer businesses have leased more than 400,000 square feet of office space.
But behind the good news is a puzzle: The number of new businesses launched in Palm Beach County fell off a cliff between 2021 and 2022.
Start-ups dropped by 9 percent, based on new business data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In fact, the county was one of the worst in the state for business creation.
It wasn’t a stellar year for anyone: Statewide, growth dropped by 4 percent.
Yes, but: It’s not a one-off, either.
True, new local businesses started at a healthy clip between the plague year of 2020 through the rebound years of 2021 and 2022.
But Palm Beach County’s 13 percent growth rate between 2020 and 2022 still trailed the state average of 22 percent.
It lagged behind the state average between 2016-2020, too.
Scratching your head? You’re not alone. Christopher Boudreaux, an associate professor at FAU’s economics department, specializes in small business and entrepreneurship.
Boudreaux points out that larger counties tend to chalk up slower growth rates than smaller counties. That could explain some of it, he said, but not all.
Then, there’s this:
Workers are scarce. Palm Beach County unemployment in May was a mere 2.7 percent.
Office space is pricey. In the central business district, recent rates for top-tier office space — think CityPlace Tower — averaged $73.76 per square foot, the highest in local market history, writes Cushman and Wakefield.
🛸 Quiz: Yes! We want to believe!
Why should Area 51 have all the fun? Palm Beach County was treated to a flurry of unidentified flying objects, several as large as a car, roaming Southern Boulevard on July 7. (Hint: Not a cloud.)
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📺 Joel is still reeling from the tremendous Idris Elba and compelling cliffhangers in Apple TV+’s “Hijack.” He just wonders why they rushed (and blew) the ending.
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