Pompano’s new parking garage waits for business
POMPANO BEACH — With giant sails festooning its sides and a glass elevator that lifts to a million-dollar view, Pompano Beach’s parking garage was envisioned as just the attraction that would help put the city on the map. Most days, it sits empty. Street parking is more convenient to the beach, and no merchants have opened on the first floor of the five-story garage. Parking garage revenues may come in nearly $1 million behind projections by the end of the year.
But city officials say they are not worried.
Since investing about $40 million into the city’s beachside re--
vitalization— and about $36 million more to come for building a new pier and paying off the interest costs of the $20 million garage — new, private investment is right around the corner, they say.
Under construction is the Pompano Beach House — a restaurant owned by the same company that operates Grille 401 Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, the Piñon Grill in Boca Raton and Brimstone Woodfire Grill in Pembroke Pines. It will be the city’s first oceanside dining in 12 years when it opens around Thanksgiving this year.
Another restaurant, Oceanic, is in the permitting stage and is expected to break ground sometime this year.
In all, the developer expects an eight-building “fishing village” — 40,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurants — that will rise up around the pier and be completed by 2020, including brands such as Burger Fi and Kilwins, to namea few.
The iconic 663-space parking garage is near State Road A1A and Pompano Beach Boulevard, just west of the pier. It was a crucial step toward making all this happen, according to Suzette Sibble, assistant city manager.
“If we did not build the garage, we would not have been able to support the private development and the developer would not have been able to attract the highend restaurants on the horizon … prior to the garage coming to fruition,” Sibble said.
The garage, which opened in June 2016, collected about $20,000 in garage fees in the last fiscal year, far short of the $310,000 a parking consultant told the City Commission itwould get.
So far, for this year, the city has collected $112,000. It’s unclear if it will collect $912,000 in 2017, as the city’s consultant predicted in a 2015 report.
Nevertheless, people drawn for years to Pompano’s beachside say they’re impressed by the upgrades.
Marie-Helene Sabbagh, 52, of Montreal, said she first laid eyes on Pompano’s beachside in 2011 and found it not only run-down but “scary” — so desolate she said she felt unsafe.
But her real estate agent convinced her it was a worthy investment.
“She said, ‘I promise you, the city is about to rejuvenate the area,’ ” Sabbagh, a specialist in medical sales, recalled. “I trusted her. And every time since I’ve come back, I couldn’t believe what theywere doing.”
A narrow sidewalk was widened along Pompano Beach Boulevard, where you now find a steady stream of strollers.
Utility poles and wires went underground. Shade trees, a lawn and sea oats were added to the landscaping, along with fitness equipment and a splash park for the kids.
“I feel so lucky,” Sabbagh said.
The city wants people from all across Florida and beyond to come, not just local residents. But its new hotel and dining haven’t come just yet.
Hurricane Wilma in 2005 damaged the previous oceanside dining attraction, Fisherman’s Wharf, so that it never re-opened. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 damaged the pier so badly that the easternmost end — and best place to catch fish — was closed for safety.
A prime piece of real estate, at the northeast corner of Atlantic Boulevard and State Road A1A, has been approved for a hotel and condo development for more than a decade but nothing has ever been built.
But early returns on the first few improvements completed in 2013 have persuaded the city that if Pompano were to build it, the crowds would flock to the city’s easternmost extremity.
Beachside parking revenues in 2014 — $1.69 million — were triple those of 2009, for example.
Natalia Rasted, 28, grew up in other parts of Broward but has lived in Pompano for the past two years. She loves taking her daughter, Victoria, 3, to the beach because it’s quiet and easy to navigate. But “I’m interested to see some of the new shops,” she added.
Commissioners approved a “rent-to-own” payment structure for the garage in 2015, and the city is counting on more traffic to pay off the debt.
Records show that the city’s payments on its garage are going to increase from this year’ s $814,000 payment to $1.4 million next year. The last year of the loan, in 2030, the city is scheduled tomake nearly a $2.5 million payment.
A recent move by the city may encourage visitors to park more often at the garage.
The City Commission on Tuesday agreed to increase parking rates elsewhere along the beach, including for street parking spots. Under the new plan, people attending special events on the beach also will paymore for parking, both at the garage and on the street.
The changes are expected to increase revenues by $800,000 per year, Sibble said.
The rates are going up “to control parking demand in high-demand areas,” in addition to paying for other parking-system improvements, Sibble said.
The City Commission, concerned about how the city will pay off the parking garage debt, has asked Sibble several “what-if” questions. If the city can’t make the payments on the garage, it will be owned by a set of private investors, she said.
Commissioner Michael Sobel said he thinks the parking rates are going to have to go a lot higher to pay off the debt, and could potentially skyrocket if a private company operates it.
Sobel calculated that for Pompano to meet the $1.35 million scheduled payment on the loan in 2020, the garage would need at least 493 cars parked for five hours every day at its current rates. The “garage will never be able to support the underlying debt structure, no matter how successful,” Sobel said.
But city officials say that the entire parking system will support the debt. And it will be worth it in the long run, because it means the beachside will be bustling with beachgoers, new jobs and cars lining up to fill that parking garage.