By JAN SJOSTROM
DAILY NEWS ARTS EDITOR
Posted: 4:34 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012

The Palm Beach County Cultural Council raised a little more than $3 million to finance its move to 601 Lake Ave. in Lake Worth.

The sum includes the $1.35 million value of the building. The remainder paid for remodeling the facility and transitional expenses. The City of Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency contributed $700,000 to the venture. The agency regards the council’s presence as a stimulus to attract more artists and art-related businesses to downtown.

The move won’t balloon the council’s annual operating budget, which stands at about $1.8 million, said Rena Blades, president and chief executive officer. The cost of maintaining the building will be about the same as the organization paid in rent in its old space, she said.

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By JAN SJOSTROM
DAILY NEWS ARTS EDITOR

Larger-than-life Palm Beachers figured prominently in the history of 601 Lake Ave. in Lake Worth.

In the 1980s, it housed J. Patrick Lannan’s world-famous contemporary art collection. In 1999, the building was bought by Bob and Mary Montgomery, who transformed it into the short-lived but much-praised Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art.

Last year, the Montgomery family donated the facility, vacant since 2005, to the Palm Beach County Cultural Council for its new headquarters. After undergoing a $1.5 million renovation, the Robert M. Montgomery Jr. Building will open to the public Thursday.

“I feel the warmth and the embrace of the long arts history of this building,” said Rena Blades, the council’s president and chief executive officer. “But I also feel the responsibility to continue that legacy and build on it.”

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Link to the Lake Worth CRA Website

By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:18p.m.Tuesday,March1,2011
Posted: 10:09p.m.Tuesday,March1,2011

LAKE WORTH A seven-member, volunteer board will continue to run the Community Redevelopment Agency, but city commissioners want better communication.
Commissioners rejected a proposal by Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden that would have placed the commission in charge of the CRA.
In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, with Mayor Rene Varela and Commissioner Scott Maxwell dissenting, the commission decided to require that the CRA:

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By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 7:03p.m.Sunday,Feb.27,2011

LAKE WORTH Citing "missed opportunities" and "poor decision-making," Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden says the city commission should take control of its Community Redevelopment Agency.
The agency that brought in the new Publix grocery store and persuaded the Palm Beach County Cultural Council to move its headquarters to Lake Avenue is governed by a seven-member board of volunteers appointed by the commission.
Golden will ask other commissioners to move forward with her proposal Tuesday night. She made a similar request in 2009, but it failed in a 3-2 vote.
The proposal is expected to spark a debate over whether the agency, which has a $3.3 million budget and a full-time staff of five, is better off sheltered from political winds or run by elected officials who are accountable to voters.

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3/10/10

Lots of home make-overs are coming to parts of Lake Worth.

The city's Community Redevelopment Agency, working in a consortium with 20 non-profit partners and contractors, recently won a $23.2 million federal grant to buy and refurbish about 130 homes in a T-shaped target area in the heart of the city.

The goal is ambitious. The CRA, working with partners such as Adopt-A-Family and Habitat for Humanity, must spend half the money within two years and complete all purchases within three years.

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By Willie Howard

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Posted: 5:49 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, 2010

LAKE WORTH — The city's Community Redevelopment Agency has signed a lease-to-purchase agreement for a 1927 building one block west of city hall at 1000 Lake Ave.

The CRA plans to use the building for art exhibits and eventually renovate and sell it as part of the Cultural Renaissance Program, which is expected to attract artists to the city to boost downtown business activity and stabilize blighted neighborhoods.

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Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 8:47 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010
Posted: 7:18 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010
 
LAKE WORTH — The Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency is buying foreclosed homes, apartments and lots using a $23.2 million federal grant awarded this year to increase homeownership and improve property values in the heart of the city.
Signs bearing the letters "NSP," denoting the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, are appearing on acquired properties in the grant target area, mostly west of Dixie Highway. The area qualified for federal grant money in part because of high rates of vacancy and foreclosure following the real estate bust.
The CRA won the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development grant in January, working in a consortium with 20 nonprofit partners and contractors including Adopt-A-Family and Habitat for Humanity.
Goals include providing affordable housing to qualified buyers and improving neighborhoods by increasing the number of owner-occupied dwellings.
"Once you have home ownership, you have a stronger sense of community pride," said Joan Oliva, CRA executive director. "We want to have as much impact as possible."
 

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