A hotel could return to the downtown waterfront, the city’s docks would extend farther out into the Intracoastal Waterway and the city would finally free itself from a loser of a lease under a complex plan for a major overhaul of the city’s Palm Harbor Marina to be announced today.

The plan, which also calls for restaurants, would unfold over the next four years. It would come at the same time the city expects to revitalize the rest of the downtown waterfront to the south with public piers, a man-made beach and a performance area.

If it comes to pass, the plan would awaken a marina that occupies premium city land officials have long considered under-used.

The city also would benefit from a revamped lease with marina operator Leisure Resorts that would see its share of revenue from dock fees rise between $150,000 and nearly $600,000 a year, city officials say.

The city now takes in $27,000 a year under the lease, which doesn’t end until 2073 - such a bad deal it is sometimes the object of jokes.

“I think it’s a great match and it complements our revitalization,” said Mayor Lois Frankel, who’s had city attorneys and finance people negotiating with the marina operators for about two years. “This is a great start, I think, to a new waterfront.”

The plans amount to a truce between the city and the marina, which were engaged in legal battle as recently as 2002 over Leisure’s claims that the city spoiled its plans to expand.

David Chase, chief executive officer of Chase Enterprises, which owns Leisure Resorts, said the two sides finally see eye to eye.

“We both agreed that we were going to do something that would be mutually beneficial,” he said.

The new lease terms and a development agreement, kept under wraps for weeks as the details were finalized, are now on the fast track.

They’re to be considered by city commissioners on Monday.

Here are the major elements of the plans:

• A six-story hotel with 85 to 90 rooms and a two-story garage. The garage would be topped with a landscaped area and a pool. The buildings would be located on the marina land east of Flagler Drive just south of the 25-story Waterview Towers condominium.

• Expansion of the marina’s docking area from 14 acres to 25 acres. The number of slips would increase only from 160 to 165 but there would be room for a greater number of larger slips so that bigger boats could dock there.

• A changed lease between the city and Leisure Resorts in which the city would collect 8 percent of the revenue from dock rentals, but not less than $180,000 a year. According to projections of marina revenues, that percentage could eventually amount to $600,000 a year because of the jump in fees expected from the new docks.

• A public walkway along the sea wall that would extend onto the marina property, expanding the public’s access to the water.

The dock expansion would come first. Then, within two years, the marina would have to start work on developments on the land - most likely a hotel - which would have to be finished in 21/2 years.

It remains to be seen how the public will react.

Early plans have the hotel at six stories, one story more than a 1996 voter-approved limit on most land east of Olive Avenue.

The marina is legally exempt from that limit and is allowed to build a 75-foot building under the lease, but it still might be tough for some residents to swallow, Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell said.

“Legally, I could see how you make a point,” she said. “Morally, I don’t.”

Commissioner Bill Moss notes that the five-story limit, which he approved as a voter before becoming a commissioner, didn’t limit the number of feet in height a building could be.

So the limit is that imposed by the downtown master plan, which is 92 feet. The hotel would be about 75 feet tall.

Considering Leisure Resorts’ rights, it’s a good deal for the city, he said.

“It doesn’t change the fact that they’re entitled by right to build that,” he said.

If six stories is a sticking point, Chase said he would be willing to limit the hotel to five stories in exchange for a bigger “footprint” - a wider building.

Critical to the whole deal is a swap of underwater land in the Intracoastal between the city and the state.

Because the state owns most of the submerged land at the marina now, most of the new dock-rental money would go to the state.

But in an arrangement expected to be approved by the state Cabinet on June 12, the state would turn over that land to West Palm Beach, allowing the city to capture the entire 8 percent of the dock fees.

In exchange, the city would give to the state about 9 acres of land under the three new piers it expects to build, guaranteeing that those piers and any other piers built over the land in the future would be reserved for public use.

The city also would pledge to spend $600,000 on improvements to the Grassy Waters Preserve, including a canoe and kayaking facility and linking the preserve with the Loxahatchee Slough.

Frankel pitched the deal to the state when she was in Tallahassee last month, emphasizing the idea of increased public use of waterfronts.

“There’s a tremendous incentive for the state to help us because we are the poster child of the working waterfront,” City Attorney Claudia McKenna said.

“If they did not have the agreement with the state, if the city would have not gone along with them, it would have been very difficult to make the deal,” Chase said.

The plans still are somewhat open-ended.

A development agreement between the city and Leisure Resorts calls for a two-year negotiating period with the Waterview condo next to the proposed hotel.

Any plan devised during those negotiations would have to include a “white tablecloth” restaurant and at least one additional moderately priced restaurant, plus pedestrian sidewalks and bike lanes.

But the agreement doesn’t require a hotel, according to a draft of the agreement to be considered Monday, though both sides say that’s the intention.

Frankel said there’s time to sort out those details.

“I know we all want them to be comfortable with it,” she said. “There’s enough time to work out those kinds of things.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Hotel, Real Estate. Tags: City Commission Claudia McKenna Commissioners Condo development finance Intracoastal Waterway Kimberly Mitchell Leisure Lois Frankel Loxahatchee Mitchell Palm Beach Property proposed hotel Resort restaurant Slough Tallahassee The Buildings waterfront hotel Waterview Tower West Palm Beach wraps . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.