Beautiful fountains, old-world architecture and sidewalk cafes brings visitors back to a small European town as they stroll through West Palm Beach's newest downtown project -- $550 million CityPlace, off Interstate-95 near the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and minutes from the airport, Worth Avenue, The Breakers Hotel and Clematis Street Retail District.
This mixed-use development offers an entertainment-retail concept with a restored 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival church adapted to a new role as the Harriet Himmel Gilman Theater. National retailers, regional specialty shops, restaurants, a 20-screen Muvico cinema, premium office spaces, a 400-room hotel, private town homes, live/work lofts, and rental apartments for the anticipated 1,000 residents complete the ambitious 55-acre project.
The CityPlace story actually began in 1986 when the late real estate magnate, Henry Rolfs and his associate, David Paladino, quietly purchased 340 parcels of land in nine months, using 20 individual real estate agents, to keep quiet their plans of creating a project called Downtown/Uptown, which was planned to be a gateway to Palm Beach.
The story takes a turn when the real estate depression of the late 1980s created the downfall of the project, resulting in multiple foreclosures and personal losses of $55 million for Rolfs. He died impoverished a few years later but his vision was brought back to life by former mayor Nancy M. Graham.
Graham wanted to see the razed acreage filled with a retail, office, cultural and residential project that had public spaces that encouraged community interaction. The city of West Palm Beach issued a nationwide request for proposals and selected CityPlace Partners. Four years later the city celebrated the grand opening of CityPlace, complete with a statue of Rolfs at the boundary of the five acres he donated to the group building the Kravis Center.
CityPlace, one of the most ambitious urban developments in the country, was planned and designed by acclaimed Boston architect and urban planner, Howard Elkus, of Elkus/Manfredi Architects. Its graceful, Mediterranean design features a "town square", lanterns inspired by those that illuminate Venice, and a spectacular "show" fountain with 186 arching water and air jets and 200 lights for a nightly show choreographed to music.
The demand for downtown living was overwhelming - all 51 townhomes were sold in 10 days, 33 garden condos sold out, and the market is clamoring for the tower residences and courtyard apartments. Young singles and couples, professionals in their 30s to 50s, and retirees were all attracted to CityPlace residences which feature ivy and bougainvillea-covered balconies and courtyards, old world tile, hand-forged wrought-iron fences and Mediterranean-style barrel tile roofs.
The Palladium Company, a leading developer of urban mixed-use projects, was responsible for CityPlace. They have more than $4 billion projects in various stages of planning and construction -- Columbus Centre in New York City, Victory in Dallas, Palladium Center in Bellevue, Washington, Palladium at Kenmore Square, Boston and Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan.
CityPlace is drawing area residents for shopping, dining, and entertainment. Joan Sutton, a nearby resident of Wellington, states, "CityPlace has something for everyone with its restaurants, movies, theater and shopping. I enjoy being able to browse at Barnes & Noble and get a cup of coffee at the café. It reminds me of a small hometown where you could stroll downtown, window-shop and enjoy the outdoors. For me, it is a great place to escape the working world and kick back. CityPlace is a 'must' for entertaining my out-of-town guests."
Pat Rioux
