“We’re bringing back that vibrancy to the hotel. . .”

Why isn’t the owner of the Gulfstream Hotel giving our City residents any updates? Has anyone seen any press releases about the Gulfstream Hotel and what is going on? Do you remember the “vibrant” headline (see below) in the Sun Sentinel 3½ months ago?

Have you seen the latest “Weekly Progress Report” about the Gulfstream Hotel that — once again — shows no progress?

Headline: “Lake Worth’s historic Gulfstream Hotel slated for $80 million makeover”.

There are several excerpts below from this article in the Sun Sentinel by reporter Arlene Satchell, published on April 14th. It’s a short article but interestingly, the words “vibrant” and “vibrancy” are peppered throughout.

Here are three of them:

     “We’re bringing back that vibrancy to the hotel, which in turn brings back vibrancy to the downtown district,” said Michael [Steven Michael, principal of developer Hudson Holdings]. “Lake Worth has tremendous, tremendous potential… [it’s] a sleeping giant. Once this is renovated and this is vibrant again, it will be the catalyst to really bring more investors and development into downtown Lake Worth.”

and two more. . .

     “Lake Worth has tremendous potential to become a super vibrant downtown district,” Michael said. “It’s already a vibrant downtown district but it could be grown to a much bigger level.”

and a not-so-very-vibrant quote. . .

     “The city has been looking at this for the last 10 or so years as an empty facility and we can’t wait for it to be revitalized and rejuvenated because it means so much to this city in terms of its economics,” said Scott Maxwell, Lake Worth’s vice mayor.

On the upside, it was not reported in the Sun Sentinel article that Code Enforcement was responsible in any way for the Gulfstream Hotel being shuttered, as was falsely reported by the Post’s beat reporter here in the City of Lake Worth.

Everyone is waiting for more vibrant news about the Gulfstream:

     With its site plan approved for the renovation of the historic hotel, Hudson is estimating it’ll begin construction by this fall on the main building following completion of construction drawings and the finalization of its construction loan, Michael said.

There really is no Fall season in Florida. However, the official start of Fall in the United States begins with the Fall Equinox on September 22nd at 4:00 p.m. this year.

Stay tuned. That’s only about 2 months away.