Eyesore no more?

One West Palm, the partly-built complex that stopped construction earlier this year, is starting up construction again, according to the project’s developer.

“We’re back to work,” Jeff Greene, a Palm Beach billionaire and real estate developer, said of the unfinished twin-tower complex in West Palm Beach. “We’re building out. We’re not going to skimp on anything.”

Plans are to complete the 30-story, mixed-use complex by the summer of 2022.

Greene is seeking city approval for design tweaks he said will improve the project and give him more flexibility. Although all the details aren’t yet ironed out, city officials are pleased by the restart.

“I am excited about the prospects of seeing this project completed and becoming a part of the city’s rapidly growing skyline,” Mayor Keith James wrote in an October letter to Greene’s attorney.

One tower in the $250M project will house a 200-room hotel

One West Palm, at 550 Quadrille Boulevard, is slated to feature 328 apartments in one tower plus 200,000 square feet of office space and a 201-room hotel in the second tower.

The $250 million, twin-tower project halted construction in April when the buildings’ shells were being finished. At the time, Greene cited the coronavirus pandemic as the reason he decided to stop construction.

Greene said the pandemic had killed demand for office space, due to people switching to work-from-home arrangements. He also said the pandemic had dashed the travel and tourism market, decimating the hotel industry.

The pandemic prompted Greene to seek city permission to build apartments in the second tower instead of the planned hotel and offices. 

But the city refused to grant the OK.

At the time, James said Greene received special permission to build past the 10-story height limit on the Quadrille Boulevard site because Greene agreed to build offices and a hotel.

James also said allowing a developer to change plans midstream would set a bad precedent.

The city’s refusal to grant a zoning change led Greene to halt construction, leaving the towers as windowless, concrete eyesores rising 30 stories just north of the city’s core.

“I have no intention of dumping more money into this,” Greene said in April. “I’ll leave the shell up. It’s going to to look like a skeleton because there’s no glass.”

Throughout the year, residents and businesses have lived with the unsightly complex, which has hardly augmented the city’s efforts to be an appealing destination for residents and businesses.

Now, with the year drawing to a close, Greene said he’ll finish the complex, with a few tweaks needing city permission.

Greene wants more glass in apartments for better views 

For instance, he wants the apartment tower to feature more glass and less concrete block to allow for better views by residents living in the units.

And in the tower set to feature a hotel and offices, Greene said he’ll build the hotel and complete the extras, too, including a 10,000-square-foot gym, indoor pool, food court, game room and meeting space.

But he wants to make the office space, which starts at the 17th floor and goes up to the 30th, more flexible in design.

Instead of a curtain wall of glass surrounding all the offices, Greene wants to build sliding glass doors that open onto newly-planned terraces, four per floor.  The raw office space will feature 13- to 14-foot ceilings and exposed ductwork.

The office space floors will stand out because of their soaring views and inviting patios, unlike anything else in the city, Greene said.

“It’s going to be the coolest space,” Greene said.

Greene said his change of heart on One West Palm’s office space came about after he viewed other offices with open spaces and terraces. He said he realized his project could be changed to feature these elements, augmenting his existing advantage of having the tallest views in town.

Greene hopes to switch office space to residences if space doesn’t fill up

If all the office space doesn’t find tenants within a year, however, Greene wants the city’s permission to convert the remaining space to residences.

In an Oct. 26 letter to Greene’s attorney, James nixed the idea of allowing Greene to unilaterally convert the offices to residences after one year. 

But James kept the door open to allow Greene to offer “financial incentives” to the city.  Prior efforts to resolve the building stalemate involved Greene giving the city cash to create workforce housing.

Harvey Oyer, Greene’s West Palm Beach attorney, is optimistic the city and Greene can come to an agreement on the office space use, possibly through an ordinance providing for the workforce cash compromise.

Oyer said everyone in the city gains by having a finished building on the city’s tax rolls and filled with people and businesses spending money.

The project “is a much needed economic boost to the downtown merchants, who continue to suffer during the pandemic,” Oyer said. “It’s also a welcome addition to the north end of the downtown, where redevelopment and property values have lagged behind other parts of the downtown.”

Back in April, James said it was “too early to throw in the towel” on office space. He predicted the West Palm Beach office market could gain if Northeast-based companies decided they wanted to relocate to Florida due to the wake of the pandemic.

Time is proving James right.

The Elliott Management Corp., a  $41 billion hedge fund based in New York, plans to temporarily lease space in the Phillips Point office complex as part of a larger move to bring its headquarters to West Palm Beach, possibly to the 360 Rosemary tower under construction next to Rosemary Square.

Real estate sources say Point72, a Connecticut-based fund owned by billionaire Steve Cohen, is close to finalizing a lease at the 360 Rosemary tower, too. And investment bank Goldman Sachs also is looking for additional space to cater to the county’s growing roster of relocating millionaires.

Greene doesn’t think big-city spenders will lease large spaces here

Greene said he remains doubtful that big-city billionaires, many of whom he said he knows, will lease large amounts of space, preferring instead to dip into the market with small offices.

The small-office financial firm trend has been taking place during the past several years with the opening of family offices, private equity firms and satellite offices for various hedge funds.

But Greene acknowledged that the pandemic has hastened the move by many residents and businesses out of crowded urban cities.

Rebel Cook, chairman of the Economic Forum, a Palm Beach County business group, said Greene’s proposed changes to the office space are valid.”The office market is going through so many dramatic changes that you are going to have to be flexible in what you’re offering,” said Cook, owner of Rebel Cook Real Estate. “The terrace is a great idea.”