Construction of a new village hall and a design for a new recreation center will be the main projects planned by the Village of Royal Palm Beach in 2021.
“Village hall is our big project for next year, to get that under construction, and to get the recreation center under design,” Village Manager Ray Liggins told the Town-Crier.
Plans for the new village hall were unveiled in early 2020. At 24,000 square feet, the project is in its final design phase and will be out to bid and under construction by the end of the year.
“That’s our main goal that we’re focusing on,” Liggins said. “We’re very proud of it. It’s going to be a very useful building. The interesting thing about the building is it’s not necessarily getting larger. The actual offices are getting smaller.”
It’s the modern design and hurricane-safe architecture that will make all the difference. The current building was built in the 1970s and retrofitted several times since.
While the overall building is larger than the current village hall, total office space will drop from about 6,000 to about 5,500 square feet, but plans call for additional office space in the future, as well as conference rooms and storage areas.
“There is also a significant amount of public space,” Liggins said. “There is a large entranceway, which is going to be two stories tall. You’ll have all the departments that deal with customers [in one place].”
The village will also advertise a request for qualifications this year for an architect to renovate and expand the existing Royal Palm Beach Recreation Center at 100 Sweet Bay Lane.
There are also several smaller projects at Royal Palm Beach Commons Park, such as some new paved parking, additional lighting and the addition of two large pavilions around the great lawn. The octagonal-shaped pavilions will be available both for rental and added amenities during activities sponsored by the village.
“We’re looking to do two on either side of the stage, and they’re going to be fairly large,” Liggins said. “They’re going to be the largest ones we have out there.”
For large events, at least one of the pavilions will probably be for the sale of alcohol. “We have the sale of alcohol now, and we typically have it in that area,” he said.
The pavilions will also serve as shelter from the rain during events at the park. “That’s why we located them where we did,” Liggins said. “The two large open areas along the walkway on either side of the stage lend themselves perfectly for these. The concept started as a corporate pavilion rental, and when we started looking at placing it and what makes sense, we wanted to get as much use out of it as possible.”
The village’s recreation staff has also proposed a tram to shuttle people from the great lawn to the parking area. “One of the complaints we get is the pretty long walks,” Liggins said. “We don’t have a boat tram yet, but maybe that’s in the future, because our waterway goes right up to the parking lot up in the front.”
