The fingerprints of Bob Sanders are all over the Kravis, Convention Center and The Square
Palm Beach County's government and business elite turned out in force this week to honor former West Palm Beach City Administrator Bob Sanders as a dedicated public servant who helped transform the city from a sleepy coastal town to a bustling metropolis that draws millions of tourists and convention-goers each year.
"Mr. Sanders has served the city, its residents and businesses during the past four decades," Mayor Keith James said Monday evening before reading off the various posts Sanders held, which included assistant city attorney and city administrator. "Mr. Sanders has overseen the development of many transformational projects and has been a dedicated board member and fundraiser for so many numerous charities."
Many of the big development projects that define West Palm Beach today — everything from the Kravis Center and the Palm Beach County Convention Center to the sprawling retail and residential hub now known as The Square — bear Sanders' fingerprints.
That helps explain why so many packed City Commission chambers Monday night. Audience members included the current mayor, James, as well as two of his predecessors, Nancy Graham and Lois Frankel, who is now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg was in the audience along with Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss and Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks.
The packed chambers and the standing ovation audience members gave when James read the proclamation honoring Sanders left him visibly emotional.
"I'm immensely gratified, and I sincerely acknowledge my heartfelt gratitude for receiving this precious tribute," Sanders said. "I am literally overwhelmed by this proclamation."
Bob Sanders lived in a Philadelphia orphanage for eight years
Sanders, now 86, spent the first eight years of his life in an orphanage in Philadelphia, according to biographical information supplied by his law firm, Greenberg Traurig.
As a teenager, Sanders worked odd jobs, including one where he loaded and unloaded truck pallets, before going on to get his undergraduate and law degrees from Temple University.
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He got a job with then-Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Goodman Company, a development firm. Sanders moved with the company to West Palm Beach in the early 1980s.
“We thought West Palm Beach presented an exciting opportunity for the company because there was not a lot of development activity happening up to that point,” Sanders said. “We saw a lot of economic potential in West Palm Beach.”
As Goodman's vice president and general counsel, Sanders oversaw the development of Phillips Point, the residential and dining building on South Flagler Drive, and the Esplanade, the luxury retail strip on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.
Sanders served in a variety of unglamorous but key community positions, including chairman of the Downtown Development Authority, president of the Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Governors Club of the Palm Beaches.
It was Graham, whose stint as mayor stretched from 1991 to 1999, who pulled Sanders into government.
On Monday night, she recalled leading a city in transition, with development taking place in patches and with a massive, unutilized chunk of land in the heart of the city.
"If you remember about the mid '90s, we still had about 80 acres of moonscape, I guess you'd call it," Graham said.
As one development effort after another fizzled, Graham said she huddled with her staff in an effort to answer a series of urgent questions.
"Who can we hire?" she asked. "Who can we bring in that will make sure everything gets done — all the i's get dotted, all the t's get crossed? Who can we trust? Who's smart enough?"
Sanders, seated not far from where Graham spoke, looked on as she told the audience that he was the answer to all of those questions.
"We just came up with Bob Sanders, and it was the smartest decision we ever made with that project," Graham said.
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That project was CityPlace, the sprawling residential, retail and dining district that became the entertainment hub of the city.
"I don't think I can say enough about the importance of Bob and what he contributed to making CityPlace a reality," Graham said. "It was an incredibly complicated project with so many issues."
Sanders had credited his old boss, Graham, for pushing West Palm Beach forward.
"It is Mayor Graham who deserves so much credit because it was her vision and her administration that put the city of West Palm Beach on its path to greatness," he had said.
But Frankel, who served as West Palm Beach's mayor from 2003 to 2011 before winning a seat in Congress, said Sanders was a key player in that work, particularly as it related to CityPlace.
"Bob really was the person who put together all the pieces for what was then CityPlace, I guess now Rosemary Square, now The Square," Frankel said, drawing chuckles with the various name changes the area has seen.
After his own remarks — offered in a halting voice on occasionally unsteady legs, which more than once spurred audience members to spring forward with a steadying hand — Sanders was assisted out of the chambers to applause.
His final words to the audience were those often attributed to the 18th century English theologian, John Wesley.
"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” Sanders said.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter @waynewashpbpost. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: City of West Palm, mayor honor Bob Sanders for his contributions
