PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Two West Palm Beach neighborhood associations filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach County circuit court challenging the county's approval of a $26 million deal for a second convention center hotel, claiming commissioners violated Florida's open meetings law when they voted on the transaction with limited public notice.
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The Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association and the West Palm Beach Neighborhood Alliance filed the complaint October 14 in the 15th Judicial Circuit. The suit names Palm Beach County, Related Ross affiliates CityPlace South Tower II, LLC, CityPlace Hotel, LLC, The Related Companies, L.P., and CityPlace Retail, L.L.C., along with the CityPlace Community Development District, the City of West Palm Beach, and the City of West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency as defendants.
The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners approved the 34-part transaction on Sept. 29 by a vote of 6 to 1. Commissioner Gregg Weiss, who represents the district where the hotel will stand, cast the only dissenting vote, the lawsuit states.
Under the deal, the county will advance $26 million from its General Fund reserves to a Related Ross affiliate as construction deposits, acquire the completed hotel at 940 South Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach, and lease it back to Related Ross for up to 97 years. The project is an 18-story, 400-room hotel replacing a surface parking lot approximately 45 feet from neighboring townhomes.
The Sunshine Law challenge
The lawsuit claims the county gave the public no reasonable notice before voting on the deal. County officials placed the proposed transaction on an "add-on" agenda item just six days before the Sept. 29 vote, invoking a procedure the Board's own rules reserve for emergency circumstances. The complaint says no emergency existed.
The full 715-page transaction file was not made available to the public until 8 a.m. on Sept. 29, ninety minutes before the meeting began. Commissioners themselves received approximately 600 pages of the agreements just five days before the vote.
Margaret Frazzini, president of both plaintiff organizations, spoke at the Sept. 29 meeting.
"Not enough time for us to assemble the people who had something to say," Frazzini said.
She also told the Board the process left residents feeling "unheard and invisible."
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At least one Grandview Heights resident who had participated in previous city hearings on the hotel said he could not rearrange his work schedule on six days' notice to attend the county vote.
The county administrator, Joseph Abruzzo, later acknowledged the county had "verbally agreed" with Related to bring the transaction to a vote in September, and that the timing was set in part to accommodate Related's goal to break ground by the end of that month, the lawsuit states.
At the meeting, the county attorney told the Board that "the law only requires us to provide a minimum of 24 hours" and that five days' notice was "consistent with our agenda processes."
The lawsuit argues that six days' notice — and 90 minutes to read 715 pages of documents — does not constitute reasonable notice of a $26 million, 97-year commitment of public funds and public land. The complaint argues action taken without reasonable notice is void ab initio, meaning invalid from its inception.
The neighborhood and the developer
The plaintiffs' members live in and around the Grandview Heights Historic District, a neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 8, 1999. The neighborhood's one- and two-story homes, built between 1910 and 1948, sit one block south of the hotel site, across L Street.
The hotel is planned for an approximately 1.8-acre parcel at 940 South Rosemary Avenue. The nearest townhomes are approximately 45 feet from the hotel's planned pool deck. The structure would rise 204 feet and include a pool deck and ballroom terrace facing south toward the historic neighborhood.
The developer is Related Ross, controlled by billionaire Stephen M. Ross. A Related Ross executive told an audience of real estate professionals in 2026 that the company's pipeline in Palm Beach County exceeds $10 billion. Ross sat in the front row of the Commission Chambers during the Sept. 29 vote, according to the complaint.
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A history of concerns
Residents said they have raised concerns about the project for years, according to the complaint. At a Feb. 18, 2025 meeting with Related, Grandview Heights residents objected to valet safety hazards and to noise, lighting, and privacy impacts from the planned pool deck and ballroom terrace. The Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association submitted a 14-page written objection to the City's Development Services Director on June 14, 2026.
At a City Planning Board hearing on June 16, 2026, plaintiffs' members opposed the hotel, citing traffic congestion, pedestrian safety, and noise and light pollution from the planned pool deck and ballroom terrace. A pedestrian counter installed at the intersection of L Street and South Rosemary Avenue in May 2026 recorded more than 600 pedestrians per day during the low season. The association estimated the count will exceed 1,000 per day "in season."
On Aug. 31, 2026, the West Palm Beach City Commission authorized the 18-story, 400-room hotel by adopting Ordinance No. 5179-26 and related resolutions. The approved hotel received three development waivers, including one that reduced required ground-level frontage along L Street from 20% to 9.5%.
The financial terms
The county will lease the completed hotel back to Related for an initial 33-year term, with renewal options totaling a potential 97-year lease. Base rent begins at $1,117,000 per year with 3% annual increases, with the first nine months of rent deferred, the lawsuit states.
The county's own consultant, BAE Urban Economics, valued the property-tax benefit that county ownership gives Related at approximately $2.5 million annually and approximately $1.3 billion over the potential lease term. The county also agreed to commit 590 spaces in the county's public Convention Center parking garage to the two hotels, releasing Related from a prior obligation to construct a parking garage on the hotel site.
The complaint also notes that two independent appraisals valued the land at approximately $42.7 million and $43 million, while the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser places the market value of the parcel at $8.8 million. The county agreed to pay $26 million for the land and the completed hotel.
The lawsuit further notes that, according to the county's own financial consultant, all projected payments to the county over 97 years carry a present value of approximately $275 million — roughly 3% of the headline figure of nearly $8.5 billion cited by officials.
What the plaintiffs are asking for
The plaintiffs seek a declaration that the Sept. 29 approval is void and a temporary and permanent injunction barring the county from executing, recording, or funding the transaction until the Board considers it at a properly noticed public meeting, with the full transaction documents made available to the public in advance.
"The residents of Grandview Heights and the others affected by this program deserve that much," the complaint states.
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