Riviera Beach council to vote next week on $59 million marina plan.
RIVIERA BEACH — The city council is expected to vote May 18 on agreements with Viking Developers LLC and Rybovich Portside LLC that would launch a $59 million plan to rebuild the marina and surrounding property.
But the marina deal will not move ahead until the city gets approvals from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that would allow submerged lands at the marina to be used for a megayacht service yard proposed by Rybovich. And the city will need Palm Beach County commissioners’ approval to use $5 million in waterfront access bond money for the revised marina plan.
The council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, will take up the agreements first at the meeting. A special city council meeting has been scheduled following the CRA meeting for the council to vote on the agreements – including Rybovich’s proposal to lease the south end of the marina for 25 years for a megayacht service yard.
As proposed, the Rybovich facility at Riviera Beach Marina would service big yachts, generally 125 feet long and longer, that are too large or require too much water depth to be serviced at the company’s West Palm Beach marina.
Terms of the deal call for Rybovich to pay $60 a square foot to lease 2.8 acres at the south end of the marina. That’s about 35 percent of the upland property at the marina. The boat company also would lease 3.4 acres of submerged land for docking megayachts.
The city and the boat company are still working with state regulators to determine whether submerged lands at the marina, which were dedicated to the city for “municipal park and recreation purposes only,” can be used for a commercial yacht service yard.
Rybovich has agreed to pay the city $2.2 million up front to cover the first five years of the lease. Money would be held in escrow to make bond payments due on the marina for the next three years. Beginning in the sixth year, Rybovich would pay the city $217,890 annually, or 6 percent of gross revenue, whichever is greater.
Will Beck of Riviera Beach’s Seatow Services helps with Gulf oil spill cleanup
By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 7:00p.m.Sunday,May9,2010
Posted: 4:02p.m.Sunday,May9,2010
As spilled oil lapped at the shores of Louisiana islands last week, Will Beck was pointing a supply truck north out of Riviera Beach and stepping on the gas.
Ahead of him was his older brother, Richard, floating somewhere out in the Gulf of Mexico, making long, slow passes over the site of what was shaping up to be the worst environmental disaster in American history.
Behind him, for the moment, were his obligations in Palm Beach County, where he runs Seatow Services of the Palm Beaches, Inc., a company that specializes in salvage, towing and cleanup efforts.
On contract as a first-responder, Beck’s company is paid to speed within an hour to the aid of damaged or stranded vessels, but on this Thursday afternoon, his mind was miles north and leagues offshore.
Gripping the steering wheel of a truck loaded with extra boom, pumps and cleaning gear, Beck imagined what was going on at the site of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 in a disaster that has sent at least 200,000 gallons of oil per day coursing into the Gulf of Mexico.
As BP officials tried to fit a giant containment dome over the rupture, oil-skimming ships were sweeping back and forth, trying to corral fast-spreading crude.
“It’s exhausting work. You’ve got so many vessels working in the area, you’ve got to constantly pay attention to what’s going on. You get worn out just from the ongoing stress level,” Beck said. “It’s hot. The stench from it is just overwhelming.
“Your eyes are completely bloodshot and your sinuses are just going nuts,” he said. “That’s every day, all day long.”
The scene was familiar to Beck, who started his Riviera Beach salvage and towing company with his brother 24 years ago. Richard and Will Beck first specialized in pulling disabled or wrecked boats to safety but soon mastered techniques for cleaning up spills that accompanied maritime emergencies.
On a far larger scale, those techniques were being used in the gulf by workers racing against wind, tide and wave action, Beck said.
Cleanup vessels tow booms, floating devices designed to capture oil, tied in a U shape behind sterns. As the ships travel back and forth over a spill, oil pools in the bottom of the U, and deck hands use a skimmer to vacuum the crude into tanks submerged along the boat. When tanks fill up, they surface and are off-loaded onto barges, and the process continues.
Richard Beck, who now runs a boat-selling business, and a deckhand made it to the gulf last week. The equipment Will Beck was hauling Thursday will help them and other contractors in the Herculean effort.
After unloading in Destin, Beck sped back to Palm Beach County, where he was readying local fishermen to protect beaches if the spill spreads down and round the Keys and into the Gulf Stream. If that happens, he’s hoping the crews he’s aiding in the gulf will return the favor.
“I’m trying to get ready for the eventuality,” Beck said. “If the oil does come to South Florida, they will come.”