How Wellington is growing: Developer would mix high-end stores, apartments at K-Park site

WELLINGTON — Ten years ago, a Wellington-based developer sought to build the K-Park site into a plaza with a hotel, retailers and homes for seniors. Now, the company is trying again with plans for a walkable area with buildings mixing retail, restaurants and apartments.

W & W VIII LLC., owned by Wellington resident Jim Ward, is offering $54 million to buy the 70-acre village-owned property next to The Mall at Wellington Green.

“Our goal is to up the game on the tenants so that we get to have a streetscape-type facility where you want to take your family and have fun,” said Ward during an August council workshop.

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K-Park is Wellington's largest remaining developable property along State Road 7. The project would require the village council sell the property and approve land-use changes to allow the mixed-use development.

Ward and his daughter, Tricia Holloway, said the project could energize The Mall at Wellington Green and the areas around it by establishing a walkable downtown with high-end retailers, restaurants and apartments. It could even help keep high-end retailers from moving to newer complexes, like Tuttle Royale in Royal Palm Beach.

Council members said they were are worried about selling the village-owned property and later seeing it developed into an outdated shopping plaza.

“I would have to be really confident at the end of the day that what they're going to deliver is going to be something that's not your run-of-the-mill, forgettable commercial development project,” said Council Member Michael Drahos. “But something that's actually going to enhance the lifestyle of Wellington.”

The North London Collegiate School, a set of European top-ranking K-12 educational institutions, also filed plans with the village to build a private campus over half of the K-Park property. The village has not acted on those plans, which would involve leasing the land.

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What has been proposed for K-Park before?

The village acquired K-Park in 2003 for $8.5 million from the family of former Palm Beach County Engineer Herb Kahler, from whose name the site takes its name.

In 2006, Wellington had a contract with West Construction to develop the site into a park with recreational uses. Plans included athletic fields, a tennis center, a swimming pool and a community center.

The proposal, however, never went through the final and construction levels, according to village documents.

Village manager Jim Barnes said that, since then, those recreational facilities have been built in other places around Wellington.

In 2010, the village leased the property to Aldemar Farms for an annual price of $55,000.

Over the years, the site has attracted builders who have proposed K-Park be used for senior living, a Palm Beach State College campus, a research innovation center, a horse park and mixed-use projects.

The village held meetings in 2014 and 2015 at which most residents said they didn’t want it to be sold and favored it remain as open space or be used for recreational uses, according to village documents.

“Almost all residents expressed opposition to any development of residential uses,” stated a village document. “The most common expression of support for options involving development favored the introduction of entertainment and dining uses.”

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Wellington developer eyeing K-Park for almost 10 years.

The Ward family has been eyeing K-Park for almost 10 years.

In 2015, Ward and Halloway proposed to develop K-Park into a plaza with a mixture of retail, office, dining and residences. It also featured lakes, an amenity center and a hotel, all surrounded by parking spaces.

The father-daughter duo developed Village Green, a commercial plaza north of K-Park that helped to bring Trader Joe's and Cleveland Clinic to Wellington.

At the time, the Village Council ultimately decided to toss all proposals for the site and leave it undeveloped.

Ward told the council his company spent $100,000 in the 2015 bid and this time around, he needed to know if the village had an interest in selling the property before investing in the design and site plans for the project.

“We have to know that we have a chance,” Ward said.

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What is being proposed for K-Park?

Ward sent a letter in April to the village stating the company was interested in purchasing the 70-acre property for a mixed-use project. Ever since, the offer has gone through two 60-day extensions and could be heard by the council in December.

The Wellington-based builder offered to purchase the land for $54 million, well over the land’s assessed value estimated to be between $39 million and $46 million.

"I think we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot if we didn't entertain the offer," Councilwoman Tanya Siskind said.

Back in 2015, Ward said, the village had an emphasis on building more residences for seniors. Now, the focus would be on adding a walkable area with commercial spaces and multifamily units towering above.

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Holloway, who also lives in Wellington, said the project has the potential to recapture high-end tenants for the village.

“Ten or 14 years ago, when we submitted this, Wellington wasn't where it is today,” Holloway said. “And those tenants like Houston's, Cooper's Hawk, and Tory Burch wouldn't have even considered Wellington. But now it's different, and they will.”

Does K-Park's future depend on The Mall at Wellington Green?

Drahos said The Mall at Wellington Green looms in every planning workshop for the future of K-Park.

He said the mall’s structure is outdated and that the village has been waiting to see what the owners are planning to do with the property. There are five in all, including the brands that own their individual department stores.

“They've done nothing,” Drahos said. “So what are we supposed to do? Just live in the status quo because the mall has no vision?”

Ward said high-end tenants want to be in Wellington but aren’t interested in moving into the mall. Instead, they are choosing to open in other locations such as Tuttle Royale in Royal Palm Beach.

“Tenants want to be in Wellington but they can't figure out what to do about the mall and they can't find a location,” Ward said. “Now, a lot of them are going out to Westlake and the new center across from Costco on Southern Boulevard.”

What does the village council want for K-Park?

Council member John McGovern said Wellington needs more places for residents to dine and be entertained without leaving the village.

“The constant refrain from our residences is we still want more walkable, commercial type mixed-use space that is yet to arrive,” McGovern said. “We want more restaurants, we still want more of those amenities, and we don't want them to be in Westlake or in Delray, or in Palm Beach Gardens or in Jupiter.”

Drahos said it is crucial that the project be designed for pedestrian access and not as the traditional plaza model where storefronts are surrounded by parking lots. He would like to see luxury retailers such as Tory Burch and Tiffany’s.

“The Trader Joe's shopping centers, wonderful,” Drahos said. “But that's not what I'm looking for in K-Park."

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Mayor Anne Gerwig said Ward and Halloway needed to prove the development would benefit village residents.

“You are going to have to show them that this is going to create that synergy that I think the community has asked for,” Gerwig said.

Drahos said he needed to see renderings and a list of possible tenants for the project before considering selling the property.

“I won't sell it if I don't ultimately feel like it’s going to benefit the community,” Drahos said.

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New K-Park plan would bring apartments, high-end stores to Wellington