The Gulfstream Hotel Debacle

The Gulf Stream Hotel is an historic hotel in Lake Worth, Florida. It is located at 1 Lake Avenue. On January 11, 1983, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The Gulfstream was bought on July 13, 2005 for $12,910,000.00 by CSC Lake Worth Limited Partnership. Schlesinger promised to open a luxury hotel within a year. It still sits empty nearly four years later, left to the elements, eventually to blend into the rest of the city that has gone to blight. Nothing whatsoever has been done to the hotel property. The owner could have opened the hotel that sits on the eastern side of the property. He told me that he can’t open it because of aging wiring, piping, the Celi law suit. I know that all the citizens of Lake Worth have had it.

We continue to be fed carrots by the Schlesinger silver spoon, and the P&Z, as well as the Commission that swallow the line that something is going to get done.

The Phase 1 Plan for the western parcel at the Gulfstream Hotel was presented on July 16, 2008 at a P&Z meeting. Schlesinger, the owner of the Gulfstream, was looking for approval of his Interim Plan of Phase 1. It was introduced and approved at the July 16, 2008, meeting as an Interim Plan.

At the January 6, 2009 commission meeting, the attorney for the owner, Lake Worth resident Frank Palen, withdrew the 4-6 story building, 51 bed spa/hotel with parking for 200 cars. Special Conditions CLICK HERE

So now the Plan is called Phase 1 which is now a Permanent Plan, originally the Interim Plan and consists of 4 tennis courts, a 49 car parking lot with room for 14 additional cars when valet parked and a 1,200 sq. ft. building. So the Plan that was approved is really not the Plan that was approved. Get it?

Perhaps we can put the blame on the economy, with our own Planning and Zoning board as an accomplice to the delays and stalls. It was wrong timing for Mr. Schlesinger and a wrong time for Lake Worth.

Mr. Charles Celi appealed the decision made at the July 16, 2008 meeting when Phase 1 was approved saying that it is now a totally different Plan. Mr. Celi has numerous valid complaints. The P&Z on Wednesday, February 18th as well as the Commission on February 17th treated him rudely. He is a citizen here and deserves to be heard and UNDERSTOOD. The City Commission asked former City Attorney Karns for a definition of Unity of Title and he did not have one.

It is wrong to take an historical building and add to it. The Site plan was changed and what was originally approved was changed. Everything keeps changing except the reality that the hotel is dormant and will stay that way for quite some time as Mr. Schlesinger just got another one year extension on the hotel and will get eighteen months on the western side of the property to develop that property. Now remember, he bought this property almost 4 years ago!

The parking at this facility will be a nightmare and those who live in the vicinity are wondering if they will even be able to park their cars on the street if this ever gets developed. I don’t even want to get into the supposed drainage problems. Mr. Schlesinger said, when speaking about the off-street parking, “First come, first serve.” In other words, screw the condo owners across the street. He plans on having valet parking for his hotel guests.

Frank Palen not only is Adam Schlesinger’s lawyer in this matter but Mr. Palen is the former Chair of our P&Z Board and a former member of our CRA Board. The owner of the Gulfstream Hotel certainly knew who to hire as a lawyer. Hire the guy with the connections, the guy who knows all the ins and outs of getting things approved by some of the very same people who know him well. Hire the guy who specializes in land use and development, the guy who has the expertise to convince and lobby volunteer Boards, the guy who used to be on these Boards. Frank Palen threatened an injunction on February 18th and then withdrew it.

The P&Z as well as the City Commission have been giving Schlesinger everything he asks and it has been going on for years now….time extensions, plan after plan changed and then subsequent approval. This is one big bad joke. It is time for him to get off the pot. And it is time for the P&Z to stop giving him everything he asks just to be jerked around over and over again with the hopes that the owners are dealing in good faith. What really is going on here?

We all want this hotel to open. There is no reason why it hasn’t. I have grave doubts of that ever happening under the present ownership that is just waiting for the financial market to turn. He will be ready then with a much more valuable property thanks to Lake Worth and the citizens who live close by who will be greatly impacted by his project or someone else he flips the property to with all the land uses in place.

According to the Tax Collector's Office, taxes are unpaid in the amount of 134,657.85 with $43,355.40 owed to Lake Worth. There is a rumor flying around town that the hotel recently sold.