Palm Beach landmarks panel sends Paramount Building revitalization project back to drawing board

A plan to revitalize the historic Paramount Theatre Building has been sent back to the drawing board for revisions, after review by the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Commissioners voted unanimously during a marathon April 19 meeting to defer the project to their May 17 meeting, asking the project’s team to address issues raised by the commission and members of the community.

“We’re here to work with you and we’re available to help you,” commission chair Sue Patterson said as officials moved for the deferral.

The project to renovate the historic Paramount Theater on the southeast corner of North County Road and Sunrise Avenue includes not only a major renovation of the building itself, but also the surface parking lot directly to the south.

While the revitalization portion of the project has wide-ranging support from the community, there is major opposition to the portion of the project that would develop the parking lot into four three-story houses with retail space.

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The property’s owners, WEG Paramount LLC — helmed by 20-year Palm Beach resident Lester Woerner — brought in a team of internationally renowned architects and landscape designers to work on the project, which drew a packed room of residents who spoke in opposition at the April 19 meeting. WEG Paramount bought the building in March of 2021 for $14 million, county records show.

The commission reviewed the project in two pieces, first reviewing the ambitious revitalization of the Paramount, then the residential-retail development planned for the parking lot.

The Paramount, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1926. It was designed by noted architect Joseph Urban, who also designed Mar-a-Lago and the Bath and Tennis Club. Over the years, it has seen several lives, including as a live theater, a movie theater and a church. The building is in need of many repairs, and work over the years have left what one of Woerner’s consultants called “a rabbit warren,” with awkwardly apportioned offices and stores where there used to be a 1,250-seat theater.

“It really is a shadow of what it once was,” said Daniel Lobitz with Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the lead architecture firm on the Paramount project.

The work on the Paramount would include creating a new 250-seat event space, in addition to reconfiguring the site plan for retail and offices.

The exterior architectural plans draw on historical photos and sketches of the original Paramount Theater, bringing back many of the features that have been removed over the years, including reintroducing awnings over the windows, and returning the doors and windows to their original designs, Lobitz said.

The landscaping would be updated to provide more greenery around the Paramount and inside the courtyard, said Keith Williams with Nievera Williams Design.

“I think it’s always missed landscaping,” Williams said of the Paramount, noting that his design includes more green space than currently exists.

The design would “invite people to come in and kind of walk closer to the building, and have more of an experience, I guess you could say garden experience,” he said, describing it as romantic.

The second piece of the project would include building four three-story houses on the current parking lot, with two below-ground parking levels and retail on the first floor of the three houses that would face North County Road.

Each of the houses would have its own distinct architectural inspiration, with one reminiscent of architect Addison Mizner’s distinctive Mediterranean style and another drawing on Moroccan architecture, Lobitz said. A motor court would provide parking for only the residences, and each house would have its own open space and pool, plans show.

The four houses would total about 30,000 square feet, with each coming in at about 7,500 square feet.

“Of course the idea behind this residential development is that it does help raise funds to help fund the theater development as well,” Lobitz said.

While commenters and the commission seemed encouraged by the historical inspiration taken to develop the Paramount’s revitalization plans, they seemed just as concerned, if not more so, by the scale of the development proposed for the parking lot.

In expressing support for the Paramount’s renovation and concern about the development plans, Aimee Sunny of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach said her organization acknowledges the best practices that were followed in creating the residential and retail design.

“We want to be sure the new construction does not overshadow the theater, but rather blends in and supports the theater,” she said.

Architect Rick Gonzalez with REG Architects shared similar sentiments. Gonzalez has worked on many of the historical landmarks in Palm Beach, including many projects over the past 26 years at Mar-a-Lago.

Gonzalez attended the meeting representing Ted and Jessica Babbitt, who live in the townhome immediately east of the parking lot. “We are in concurrence with the historic project,” Gonzalez said following presentations about the Paramount. “We think it’s a fantastic restoration of a landmark.”

However, they do not support the development of the parking lot, Gonzalez said later, after the presentation about the residential and retail portion of the project. “It’s just extremely large and it's out of scale,” he said. The Babbitts are so close to the project that they would lose all privacy in their backyard, Gonzalez said.

“Their lifestyle, the way they’re going to be living, is going to be completely destroyed by this,” he said.

There’s not enough room for a landscape buffer on the Paramount side of the property line, Ted Babbitt said. “I’m not going to have any light,” he told commissioners. “I’m going to be in the shade constantly.”

Attorney Harvey Oyer III of Shutts and Bowen, who attended the meeting to represent the residents of the neighboring Sun and Surf condominium, said he spent many hours in the Paramount during his 10 years on the board for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.

“There is no more poorly modified historic building in our community than that one,” he said. “And I congratulate and thank the applicant for wanting to do what they propose to do.”

But there are serious concerns about the size and legality of the development project, which proposes residential on the first floor in an area where first-floor residential is not permitted, Oyer said.

“It’s way too much,” he said. “It’s 10 pounds of you-know-what in a 5-pound bag, and it’s your job and your jurisdiction to ensure that does not happen,” he said.

Commissioners said they would like to see the developers come back with changes that reflect the feedback provided by the board and by those who spoke at the meeting.

“I do think that there needs to be more respect given to the prominence of the Paramount building itself,” alternate commission member Alexander Ives said.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach board sends project for historic Paramount Building back to drawing board