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The Palm Beach Post, Fla., Eve Samples column(Palm Beach Post, The (FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 31--The credit crunch has crimped a Boca Raton developer's plans to convert an aging Fort Pierce outlet mall into a biotechnology mecca. After months of work, ComNet Realty Inc. lost its financing last week for a $40 million project to renovate the 160,000-square-foot Florida Furniture Mart on Okeechobee Road just west of Interstate 95, ComNet President Harry Zuker said. "We have a real, what I call, sexy deal. It has biotech, it involves creating jobs in the community," Zuker said. "It's just a lot of banks are hurting lately." ComNet's proposal certainly is bold. It calls for converting the storefronts to labs and offices and building a security wall around the property, which sits between I-95 and Florida's Turnpike -- about 10 minutes north of Port St. Lucie's already-under-construction biotech park at Tradition. Zuker opted not to reveal the local bank that he says backed out of the deal at the last minute. But he said plans for the site -- which ComNet has dubbed Crossroads Enterprise Park -- are not dead. They simply will take longer. "The issue is really the banking crisis," Zuker said. ComNet bought the 2-decades-old shopping center in July for $11.5 million, and it owns 100 acres surrounding the mall. It originally planned to tear down the buildings and develop a big-box shopping center, but it changed course last year and decided to go the biotech route. For now, at least, the property remains a retail center. Scratch and Dent Appliances recently moved in to 32,000 square feet there. The Lauderdale Lakes-based company is leasing the space on a month-to-month basis. "If I'm not successful with biotech there, they're going to stay," Zuker said. ARTHUR'S DOCKSIDE gets new name as he awaits trial on charges that he failed to pay $187,122 in sales tax, Arthur Dombrose is reinventing the downtown Stuart restaurant where the alleged crime occurred. Arthur's Dockside opened last week under a new name, Club 131, and Dombrose said he's lined up live entertainment five nights a week at the spot on the St. Lucie River. Without specifying the amount, he said he invested "a lot" in renovations of the restaurant. He expects the work to be completed in June for an official grand opening. "The whole building's changed," he said. Dombrose was arrested in January on charges that he failed to pay sales taxes collected from customers at Arthur's Dockside. He wouldn't say much last week about the case, except: "It's being taken care of." Assistant State Attorney Lev Evans said nothing has been taken care of yet -- and that Dombrose's case is awaiting a trial date. DUFFY'S CHIEF LAMENTS ROADHOUSE BID: It was a painful experience, but Palm Beach Gardens-based Duffy's Sports Grill has one small thing to show for its failed attempt to take over the Roadhouse Grill chain: a new restaurant location. The consolation prize Duffy's walked away with after its $29 million acquisition went bad in October was the Roadhouse on U.S. 1. in Jensen Beach. Duffy's invested about $700,000 in converting the spot to its brand, owner Paul Emmett said, and opened the restaurant over the weekend. Another Roadhouse that Duffy's originally planned to keep in Coral Springs ended up being too costly to convert, Emmett said. And a third Roadhouse in west Boca that Emmett expected to get after Roadhouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October didn't go to Duffy's after all, Emmett said. Roadhouse is now controlled by West Palm Beach-based entrepreneur John Metz, whose company is seeing the chain through bankruptcy. "Roadhouse was a stupid thing ... and it was very financially costly for us," Emmett said. "But the core Duffy's business is great." Eve Samples covers Treasure Coast business. Contact her at The Palm Beach Post, 2101 S. Kanner Highway, Stuart, Fla. 34994; (772) 223-3559; or [email protected]. To see more of The Palm Beach Post -- including its homes, jobs, cars and other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.palmbeachpost.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Palm Beach Post, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |