Related Ross Curio Hotel Clears West Palm Beach 3-2 Tax Vote
A divided vote on forgone tax revenue is now the template other South Florida hotel developers will point to when they ask a city to waive the same thing.
West Palm Beach city commissioners voted 3-2 on August 5 to rescind a 14-year-old requirement that a downtown parking lot keep paying city property taxes, clearing the last local hurdle for Related Ross’s second convention-center hotel before the deal moves to Palm Beach County. Commissioners Christy Fox and Shalonda Warren voted no; Mayor Keith James and Commissioner Joe Peduzzi voted yes, backing a third commissioner to form the majority.
Why it matters
The vote is the missing piece in a structure this newsroom first reported August 4: Palm Beach County plans to buy the 1.8-acre site at 900 South Rosemary Avenue for $26 million and lease it back to Related Ross for up to 99 years, taking the parcel off the tax rolls as public property. That structure only works if the city first drops its own tax claim on the land, which is what commissioners took up on August 5. For developers structuring similar public-land deals in South Florida, this is the visible cost side of the ledger: the city is giving up real, recurring revenue in exchange for a project it does not otherwise have leverage to compel.
The numbers
City administrators estimate West Palm Beach will forgo more than $1 million a year in property tax once the 18-story, 400-room Curio by Hilton hotel is built, according to the Palm Beach Post. The site currently generates roughly $38,631 in annual property tax, per CBS12’s reporting on the underlying deal. Related Ross’s own contribution to the county runs separately: a lease of 590 spaces in the county’s convention-center parking garage at roughly $1.8 million a year once the hotel opens. Commissioner Fox summed up the dissent during the meeting: “I also don’t want our taxpayers to have to subsidize it.” Warren made the same point in her own vote against the item, arguing that giving up tax revenue is a real cost even without a direct city payment.
What’s next
Palm Beach County commissioners still have to approve the $26 million sale-leaseback and an amendment to the existing convention-center hotel’s development agreement before Related Ross can close on the parcel and start construction on the second tower. The city’s rescission removes one condition precedent to that county vote, but the sale-leaseback itself, and the parking garage lease terms underneath it, remain unapproved at the county level.