SITE PLAN REVIEW AND APPEARANCE BOARD CITY OF DELRAY BEACH REGULAR MEETING

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1 Agenda Item IX B from 7/22/15 Samar Mixed Use 202 SE 5 th Avenue SITE PLAN REVIEW AND APPEARANCE BOARD CITY OF DELRAY BEACH REGULAR MEETING Jim Knight stepped down on this vote as the Applicant is a client of his. Candi Jefferson, Senior Planner, presented the items through a review of the staff report and entered file into the record. Exparte Communication None Applicant s Presentation Alan Mindel, Samar Hospitality Good evening members of the board. Samar is actually a mixture of my father and mother s names: Sam and Mary. We have been in the hospitality business for just under fifty years. It is a family owned and operated business. We have approximately 250 employees. We are a full benefit house, full medical paid in full by the employer, 401K plan with match, as well as paid vacation and sick time. Our proposal this evening is to convert what was the Alamo Rental Car, as well as an auto location and some abandoned homes, into a 122 guest room hotel, with 35 luxury condominiums and 6200 square feet of retail space. We have extensive experience in construction operation, economy, mid-scale and luxury products. All of our products are very highly regarded today. We are currently associated with Starwood and have had an on-going relationship for over 10 years. Aloft is a brand that has been around for about 10 years and has over 100 properties but Starwood overall, has well over 1200 properties in over 100 countries, with over 10 million SPG members. This would be the only SPG Starwood Hotel in Palm Beach County and as you can see, the design is kind of trendy and matches up with the look and feel of the city. With that, I would like to turn the presentation over to our architect, Paul Slattery, of Slattery and Associates. Thank you so much for your consideration. Paul Slattery, Slattery and Associates, 2060 NW Boca Raton Blvd., Boca Raton, FL This has been quite a journey. We actually began designing this project for Samar a little over a year ago and we originally designed it under the old LDRs. We made a submittal, it went through staff review and around December we saw how the new LDRs were progressing so we were compelled to redesign the project under the new LDRs. We made our new resubmittal and here we are today. It s been a bit of a challenge but we are proud to present a project we feel fully meets all the requirements of the new LDRs and probably one of the first projects you ve seen of this scale under the new LDRs. (Presented slide show to board.) 1

2 Public Comments Jim Smith, S.A.F.E., 1225 S. Ocean Blvd. After reviewing his plans with S.A.F.E., Mr. Mindel listened intently and agreed with all that SAFE proposed to make his hotel a place that offered many choices of mobility. When a person is handed a key at check-in, they will be given a Monthly Guide to Delray. That, in addition to current events, provides a street map and information about the free Roundabout. In the lobby, there will be Palm Tran and Tri Rail schedules available. Guests will be provided free, fully-equipped bicycles to ride around town and to the beach. Condo owners will be provided safe, secure and covered bicycle parking and if they request it, an in-unit bike rack installed at no cost. Every new employee who wants it will be given a free monthly Palm Tran pass. The Aloft Hotel will provide benches, waste receptacles, recycle receptacles and a dog waste bag dispenser on Federal Highway subject to City approval. Mr. Mindel will contribute $30,000 toward future infrastructure needs, if warranted, for up to five years in the future. In addition, he is showing his commitment to a maintaining a bike friendly Delray by agreeing to write another check for $100,000 to keep it that way. The Aloft Hotel will bring hundreds of construction jobs to Delray and permanent hotel jobs too. Mr. Mindel is not just a hotel owner, he is an on-the-job teacher. He will be hiring local, unskilled Delray workers and training them to be successes in the hospitality business. There is probably no other development in a hotel that offers more to our downtown economy. New customers almost every day will walk to shop and dine in downtown Delray. It just doesn t get any better than that. Please support the applicant s request. Kevin Homer, 319 SE 3 rd Avenue I live two blocks from this project and as we know, there is tremendous growth occurring from Miami to Seattle and everything in between. Most of these projects I don t understand, but this one I do and I would bet on it for the following reasons: 1) It s uniqueness to the area; we haven t seen something like this as far as I know, where you have condos, a hotel and retail as well. 2) They are not asking for height and density waivers. 3) It doesn t sound like there are safety or traffic concerns like on other projects and selfishly, I own property in Osceola Park and I think it s gonna be terrific for our neighborhood. I support this project as do many of the owners of Osceola Park. Board Comments Andrew Youngross The elevations look good. There aren t going to be any restaurants at this site correct? Paul Slattery Only the restaurant that is associated with the brand of the hotel. Andrew Youngross Where was the grease trap located? Paul Slattery There is a grease trap located in the kitchen area on plan and there is also a secondary grease trap in the retail area, but not for restaurant use. It is only for if we get a market, not a restaurant. Andrew Youngross Yes, but you are going to have a seating area for guests? 2

3 Paul Slattery Only in the hotel itself. Andrew Youngross How many seats approximately? Paul Slattery Restaurant seats itself will be a very small number; there really isn t a formal restaurant. It is a breakfast area and there is more to go food and then there will be a certain number of barstools. Andrew Youngross Typically, on something like this, you have to have a grease trap located outside depending on the size. Andrew Youngross On the roof plan I see a parapet height. Is that going to be enough to screen the mechanical equipment? Paul Slattery Absolutely. Andrew Youngross I notice that the photometric plan does not meet any of the criteria of the LDRs. It s going to have to be redone to show your entry level foot candles for the garage for nighttime and daytime use. James Chard Do you have any idea what kind of retail you are going to have? Alan Mindel Obviously, we cannot tell you which tenants will sign leases and that is out of our control but we have targeted specific tenants. We are targeting a food marketplace, salon/spa as well as a fitness center. We are also looking for a bicycle shop or something of that nature. Coming from where we do, we understand what you need to have a pedestrian town and we think that the retail we have here will complement the hospitality as well as the condominium use and make it more of a walkable pedestrian village. In order to have that, you need to have a marketplace and several other services and our goal is to provide that. James Chard You show a lot of shade trees here (motioning to slide show presentation) as I look at the Landscape Plans, I really can t identify what those trees are and whether they are going to cast shade or not. Carol Perez, A. Grant Thornbrough and Associates On 2 nd Street, we have overhead power lines, so we have Right Tree Right Place and we are using Simpson s Stopper trees. Also, same on 3 rd, we have power lines so we are using Simpson s Stoppers on those streets for our street trees. Then along Federal Highway, where we have more room, we are using Bridalveil Trees and cut out planters in the plaza spaces. Then we ve taken Pink Tabebuias and the Royal Palms and brought them out into the FDOT right-ofway, which we need to get approval on from FDOT. So that is how we are getting our shade trees along those streets. James Chard Are the tree planters flat to the ground or above the ground? 3

4 Carol Perez They are flat to the ground and they are being used on Atlantic Avenue already to allow people to walk straight through and not get their heels stuck. James Chard I hear that some of trees being harvested from the property are being made available to the City? Carol Perez Yes, and we are going to coordinate that with Peter. Alice Finst My concerns are about the impact of the one story, single family residences east and west, and what you are going to do as far as not disturbing them during construction. Also, regarding the alley that s behind the project, how many cars a day will be going through the alley? Alan Mindel Well, currently there are FPL poles running down the middle of the alley so it s pretty treacherous right now for cars to travel through it. But upon completion, it should be easy to traverse it. As far as construction itself, it s anticipated to be site contained. Obviously, it does lead to certain issues, but we ve figured out how we can design it as far construction means and methods, to make it as least impactful as possible. Alice Finst So this alley is going to be shared between the entrance to the garage and the residents to the west? Alan Mindel Yes, and that was actually a staff recommended item. Alice Finst Are those stripes on the roof? Alan Mindel Yes, they are metal panels on the soffit area. It s a Starwood/Aloft brand. Roger Cope I just want to go on record as saying I absolutely adore the project. It s absolutely stunning. It s dynamic and very innovative. I love everything that s happening on the exterior. The ins, the outs, the solids, the voids, the rhythm, the playful canopy on the top, the candles, the waterfalls, it s all really well done and I can t think of anything that I m opposed to at all. Terra Spero It s just so well done. I mean, I m really impressed and to hear that you guys went back, after you had already submitted to comply with the new LDRs, I don t know if that is insane or good. Alan Mindel We were compelled by staff. Terra Spero I am incredibly impressed. I think the design is beautiful and I love the fact that you didn t just put one look all the way through; you combined it together to look like they are in harmony and that is amazing. I love the landscape you are using. They are names I don t normally see. 4

5 Jose Aguila Kudos! Good job, nice design. I was struggling to find where you are using the Prodema; I finally found it. It s a good product; we are using it on a fire station. Motion to approve the Waiver was made by Roger Cope and seconded by Terra Spero. Motion to approve the Site Plan made by Andrew Youngross and seconded by Terra Spero subject to the conditions in the staff report and with the following added condition: Revise photometric plan to comply with LDRs. Motion to approve the Landscape Plan was made by Roger Cope and seconded by James Chard. Motion to approve the Architectural Elevations was made by Roger Cope and seconded by Terra Spero. 5