The Palm Beach Cultural Council, with a budget twice that of our CRA's with a little over $4.8 million, gave a presentation at last night’s CRA meeting. This council has been in the County for 31 years promoting the arts. It seems that they are now looking for a new headquarters and Lake Worth has caught their interest because of the CRA’s Cultural Redevelopment Project as well as the fact that Lake Worth is centrally located in the County.
The Council is considering the location at 1000 Lake Avenue adjacent to City Hall consisting of 14, 381 sq. ft. of office space. This property sold in January 2005 for $1,760,000. Taxes on the property are $30,361 in 2008. It was said that the building can now be acquired for around $900,000. This location could not be in a better locale for their purpose—right near City Hall and in the heart of the Cultural Redevelopment area.
Three of their staff were present and Bill Nix, Vice President of Marketing and Government Affairs told us that the name of Lake Worth will be on everything they do, even on major highway signs. Their mission is to strategically promote the arts and artists and their vision is to be the primary catalyst for arts and cultural excellence in the State of Florida.
They focus on Grants to Cultural organizations and artists; they are an advocacy for issues related to arts in Palm Beach County; they market and promote the arts; they give technical assistance and networking opportunities for artists; they are interested in education and research on arts related matters.
The caveat—they are looking for “seed” money to entice them to actually come to Lake Worth. The amount of money was never brought up by anyone last night but this will be the most important factor to consider because the City has no money and neither does the CRA. I am not sure that we could even compete with Lois Frankel and what she might offer them.
I could actually envision this city twenty years down the road. Even Tropical Ridge would do a 180^ if this was a destination City and Vince, NA President of Tropical Ridge, would no longer have to worry. His neighborhood would change and possibly end up being the most valuable in the City. Now how's that for optimism?
4 comments:
How will we ever rise above all the illegals and the homeless the slums and blight. A dream is good but lets' take care of reality first.
This would be an incredible asset for the entire city and jump start the revitalization of the west side. The city should do everything in it's power to make this happen. Contributing some seed money will certainly come back 10 fold in the near future if this deal happens.
I would like to see the City buy this building.
They gave a great presentation, but it just seems like, here we go again. Someone else coming to Lake Worth with their damn HANDS OUT !!! Lake Worth is BROKE ,people !Donna Ross asked a very good question- why would West Palm ever let these people go ? These people want to buy the building. I would LOVE ,LOVE LOVE to see them come here, but they are going to have to do it on their own money.Will they still be so in love with our town if we tell them that very hard but true fact ? Our piggy bank is bare.Besides,how can Lake Worth be some huge tourist destination? We don't even have a hotel for people to stay in. Or a trolley to get them around the town.
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