What's the future of Benny's on the Beach? Lake Worth Beach commissioners may decide next week

Lake Worth Beach commissioners are expected to meet next week for a vote that may decide the future of Benny’s on the Beach, a local restaurant and landmark that opened on the pier in 1986.

City attorney Glen Torcivia said he was in constant contact with the restaurant after commissioners voted down a lease renewal for Benny’s pier location on April 18. Speaking in front of a packed audience of about 50 protesters who attended Tuesday’s commission meeting in support of the restaurant, Torcivia said he hopes to bring several options to the table.

“I believe we’re making progress,” he said of the negotiations, which center on the amount of rent Benny’s is paying for the city-owned building.

A special meeting is tentatively scheduled for 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 10. Once finalized, the date, time and agenda will be posted to lakeworthbeachfl.gov, under the “Commission Agendas and Minutes” section.

Torcivia said the commission might have the option to vote on a full 10-year lease renewal, or a short-term extension to allow for continued negotiations and market research.

The city, he said, has been researching the average rent paid by restaurants in similar locations throughout Florida — a sticking point for several commissioners and critics of Benny’s current lease for the beachfront property.

“He gets free advertising, charges tourist seafood prices and enjoys all the traffic that would be there for any restaurant overlooking our beautiful beach, all for a price less than that of Mamma Mia’s Pizzeria on the boardwalk,” resident Suki Dejong said of Benny’s owner.

A study commissioned by the city found that Benny’s on the Beach has paid the same rate of $32.69 per square foot — or about $240,000 a year — since signing its current lease in 2013.

That’s compared to the $47.70 per square foot, or about $64,000 a year, paid by the pizzeria and the T-shirt shop down the road, across the street from the beach. Both businesses also pay a 3.5% increase in rent each year.

Could a new 10-year lease be on the horizon for Benny's?

After months of negotiation and several versions of the agreement, city leaders and Benny’s owner Lee Lipton agreed to a lease renewal that, in their minds, was likely to pass a vote by the commission.

It would have increased the base rent by about 30% and included the same 3.5% annual increase paid by Benny’s neighbors. The per-square-foot rate would still be several dollars less than other lease agreements in the area, but that was to compensate for Benny’s aging, high-maintenance building, Mayor Betty Resch said at the time.

The mayor joined commissioner Sarah Malega in voting to approve the agreement last month. Calling for more discussion and casting doubt on the fairness of the agreement, Vice Mayor Christopher McVoy and commissioners Kim Stokes and Reinaldo Diaz voted it down.

On Tuesday, during the most recent commission meeting, several public speakers thanked the commissioners for doing their due diligence before locking the city into another 10-year lease.

Why are people so passionate about Benny's on the Beach?

But support for Benny’s has overwhelmed the naysayers in recent weeks. Two pro-Benny's petitions garnered more than 11,000 signatures online. A “Save Benny’s” billboard appeared over Interstate 95, and dozens of protesters voiced their support at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

“It’s a historical landmark destination for our city,” said Adriane Shochet, a Lake Worth Beach resident. “It has such emotional value to thousands of people.”

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For more than an hour, public commenters argued for the lease renewal. Last month’s proposal was fair to the city and to Benny’s, they said, calling the restaurant a vital anchor that kept business alive in the area.

If a chain restaurant were to move in or if the building remained vacant for years, the town would lose countless customers who come for the nostalgia and local flair that Benny’s offers, the supporters argued.

Erin Allen, a longtime Lake Worth Beach resident who helped to start the local Street Painting Festival in 1995, said that Benny’s owners are good tenants who employ about 200 people between the restaurant’s two locations.

She also said Lipton and his partners, including his two sons and executive chef Jeremy Hanlon, are willing to take on the investments and headaches that come with operating an aging building.

Allen is a founding member of Prosper Lake Worth Beach, the grassroots organization behind Tuesday’s protest. She said the group formed about a year ago to push for approval of the Gulfstream Hotel project.

They had packed the commission chambers and pushed the same three commissioners to approve a $104 million plan to reopen the historic hotel, despite the commissioners’ doubts about a large incentive package for the developer.

Now, the group is working to ensure that Benny’s remains a fixture in Lake Worth Beach for the next decade.

“You can’t squeeze the guy to the point of stupidity,” Allen said of Benny's owner. “At some point he’s just going to throw his hands up and walk away.”

Giuseppe Sabella is a reporter covering Boynton Beach and Lake Worth Beach at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at gsabella@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Benny's on the Beach closing: Upcoming Lake Worth vote to decide lease