Palm Beach board OKs windows for Esplanade's former restaurant site — but with conditions

The Esplanade is a step closer to adding eight windows to its now-windowless south side in order to illuminate the inside of an empty suite the Worth Avenue shopping center is marketing to prospective tenants.

The windows are intended to help brighten the 5,000-plus-square-foot space, suite No. 234, that The Esplanade is marketing for office use. The suite previously was home to restaurants for years, but after a string of recent restaurant failures, Esplanade officials are shifting gears.

The town’s Architectural Commission unanimously approved the second-story windows at its Aug. 24 meeting — but with two conditions aimed at appeasing a neighbor immediately south, The Colony, which has been opposed to the windows.

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The Esplanade first presented its window plan to the architectural board in July, when the matter was deferred to Wednesday’s meeting — in part because of the Colony’s concerns the windows’ sight lines might compromise guests’ privacy.

The Colony and The Esplanade have worked together in recent weeks to find compromise, including a new window design the architectural panel approved Wednesday: inoperable gray-tinted windows with Bahama-style shutters.

But two sticking points have remained — landscaping and the construction timetable, which are the focus of the conditions the architectural board set when it approved the windows.

The Esplanade must create a landscaping plan that screens all eight windows from viewing — or being viewed from — The Colony’s grounds.

Also, a construction timetable must be drawn up that doesn’t interfere with The Colony’s scheduled upcoming special events.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Esplanade in Palm Beach gets OK for window addition