Palm Beach neighbors pan Paramount project as council pushes discussion to March

A controversial plan to redevelop and restore the historic Paramount Theatre building and neighboring parking lot in Palm Beach drew dozens of residents to Wednesday's Town Council Development Review Committee meeting — resulting in at least a two-month deferment before the council will again consider the plans.

The council voted unanimously to delay consideration of the project following discussion that ran for more than five hours and included dozens of comments from residents who oppose the project, as the development team sought to address concerns about traffic, building heights, proposed uses and more.

With their vote, council members and the development team's representative, attorney James Crowley with Gunster law firm, set the Paramount project's return for the March 13 Development Review Committee meeting, while also saying they most likely would defer again to another day when the council could review the project by itself.

"This is a long road to hoe, and as I've looked through these prior meetings on this project, it’s always been a conversation that starts and ultimately it’s never come to be," Crowley said of the Paramount's restoration.

"And this is really what we want to happen. We want to get to that point where we can all agree on what’s an appropriate use for this very, very important building."

Paramount Theatre received 'unsympathetic renovation' in 1980s

The Paramount Theatre, on the southeast corner of North County Road and Sunrise Avenue, was built in 1926 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was designed by architect Joseph Urban, who also designed Mar-a-Lago and the Bath and Tennis Club. It has had several lives, as a theater for live performances and then for films, and as a church.

After the cinema closed in 1980, the theater space was gutted and transformed into a mix of office and retail uses. It reopened in 1985. That renovation has been widely criticized for its destruction of key architectural elements of the original building. In the developer's letter of intent, his team called that work "an unsympathetic renovation."

Consultants for the project told the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in April that the Paramount is in serious need of repairs, with one consultant calling the awkward configuration of offices and retail space created by the 1980s work "a rabbit warren."

The building and the neighboring parking lot to the south are both included in the application. Both parcels were bought in 2021 for $14 million by WEG Paramount LLC, led by 20-year Palm Beach resident Lester Woerner and his son, Trent, the Palm Beach Daily News reported at the time.

The developers have changed the project several times. The version presented to the council on Wednesday included:

• A private club with 475 members and a 200-seat house of worship, with a maximum occupancy of 412 people, updated from a special-event space that had been proposed. Now, no events will be held there, Crowley said. More than 50% of the club's members would be Palm Beach residents to ensure it is a "town-serving" use, he said.

• Four houses proposed on what is now the parking lot, with a total of 25,887 square feet, lowered from the previously proposed 27,867 square feet.

• No public restaurant, as had been proposed.

• An increase in green space from 1,749 square feet to 2,617 square feet, or about 4.5% of the overall square footage of the site.

• An underground parking area that will be valet-only. The project is proposed to have 162 parking spaces, up from 130 in a previous plan.

Traffic top complaint of Paramount Theatre plan critics

Those who attended Wednesday's meeting were largely in opposition, with many coming from neighboring condominiums including the Sun and Surf buildings directly to the east of the Paramount, and the Leverett House on Sunset, which counts New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft among its residents.

Some who spoke said they understood and supported the need to preserve the Paramount, but they disagreed with the redevelopment aspect of the project. While some had asked for the restaurant and event space to be removed at previous meetings, others said they would prefer that the theater return to its intended use for live performances, so that it is open for the public to enjoy, rather than restricting access as a private club.

Theodore "Ted" and Jessica Babbitt live in the townhome on Sunset that is immediately east of the parking lot, where WEG Paramount plans to develop four residences that would be anywhere from two to three stories tall.

"I think it's undisputed that I'm more affected by this project than anyone else," Ted Babbitt told the council. He noted that he has met with the developers four or five times, and he feels that they could work out many of the issues that he has with the plans. However, he said, his concerns about traffic and the project's scale remain.

"There's a real issue with the traffic and the departure of traffic onto Sunset Avenue" from the existing parking lot, Babbitt said. There is a great deal of pedestrian traffic as people walk to the public beach access at the east end of Sunset, and people pulling out of the proposed underground parking garage onto Sunset could pose a threat to those walking along the road, he said.

"You're going to have valets doing this, cresting that thing, not being able to see," Babbitt said.

His concerns about traffic and safety were cited by most of the others who spoke against the project.

Jerry Zaro, president of the Sun and Surf 100 building's association, said traffic in the area already is gridlocked. Traffic from the proposed uses would only compound the existing issues, he said. And while the developers describe the project as preserving the theater, Zaro said it actually overwhelms and obscures it, describing it as "gross overreaching."

Longtime Palm Beach resident KT Catlin said she had fond memories of spending time with her grandfather in the Paramount's courtyard. But she agreed that more needs to be done to mitigate traffic issues.

"With all due respect to the traffic professionals, all one needs to do is drive through that area at any time of the day to realize what exists doesn't work, and what's proposed will exacerbate it," she said, adding, "We just need to have it work for everyone, especially the town residents."

Catlin questioned having traffic from the proposed underground parking garage exit south onto Sunset, but suggested that some of the safety concerns could be alleviated by adding more spaces to the garage, making it available to the public and eliminating on-street parking along that block.

"I have full confidence the owners and their team can and will get there," Catlin said of the project.

Crowley and Chris Heggen, the Kimley-Horn traffic engineer working as a consultant for the developer, said the proposed use of a private club and valet-only parking would not add to the current congestion on North County Road and Sunrise and Sunset avenues.

Crowley also said the development team is willing to work with the town to provide data from its studies that could help to alleviate the existing traffic signal issues at the intersection of North County with both Sunrise and Sunset.

Some question why Paramount Theatre overhaul needs 20 variances

Many of those who spoke at Wednesday's meeting also objected to the 20 variances the development team requested, which WEG Paramount says would be necessary to make its plans a reality.

Attorney Harvey Oyer III, representing the Sun and Surf condominiums, said the requested variances do not comply with town code, because they do not meet the required standards for granting a variance. The project also cannot use existing nonconformities as grounds for granting a variance, Oyer said.

"Even if you felt compelled to grant any of these variances, you are not on safe legal grounds to do so, and if challenged, you would lose," he said.

Crowley disputed that, saying the Paramount is a nonconforming landmark building. "I don't think you can just focus on what the code allows, because we are already exceeding a lot of what the code allows," Crowley said.

The developers are trying to come up with a use for the Paramount that is appropriate not just for that building but also the surrounding streets and neighbors, he said.

Aimee Sunny of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach said the organization supports the Paramount's rehabilitation. "The historic theater is an important landmark and it is greatly in need of appropriate renovation efforts," she said, adding, "The renovation completed in the 1980s, while keeping the building in use, greatly damaged portions of the interior, and it is now necessary to rehabilitate the theater again."

While the updated plans are "more sensitive" than previous iterations, Sunny said the foundation hopes the theater can once again be a hub of community and culture.

She shared some historical insight into elements like arcades, which have been removed from the current proposal, and building setbacks, or how far back they sit from the property line. In urban planning, some setbacks are used to recognize "areas of greater importance," she said.

"Background buildings, those that tend to make up more of an urban streetscape, are often characterized by holding closer to the sidewalk line with continuous retail that invites the pedestrians to continue their journey and pulls them along from one place to the next," Sunny said. Buildings that have very large setbacks may discourage walking and shopping, she added.

The foundation would also encourage more height differences among the buildings, with greater attention to detail paid to the building that is proposed for the northeast corner of Sunset Avenue and North County Road.

"We recommend to prioritize good design over incompatible code mandates," Sunny said. "This means that some variances are likely necessary to create a proposal that respects the urban fabric of Palm Beach."

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach neighbors pan Paramount project as council pushes discussion