Palm Beach International Raceway: Portman Industrial’s warehouse plan spins out

Owner IRG Sports & Entertainment says it isn’t considering offers to reopen the former Moroso racetrack.

Warehouse builder Portman Industrial is no longer the driving force behind plans for the now-shuttered Palm Beach International Raceway.

While the demise of the warehouse giant has race fans hoping the property could be snatched up by a racetrack operator, the owner of the nearly 60-year-old venue slammed the brakes on that option.

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Rifle-toting challenger takes aim at Congressman Brian Mast

Melissa Martz’ point: the AR-15 is not to blame for mass shootings and Mast is weak on the Second Amendment.

In the past two weeks, after a gunman killed 21 people at a school in Uvalde, Texas, a Republican congressional candidate posted about two dozen signs throughout northern Palm Beach County of herself wielding an AR-15 rifle with a baby on her back.

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Gardens council heaps praise on City Manager Ron Ferris

Palm Beach Gardens City Council makes no mention of city manager’s open-ended contract, signed without public discussion in 2019.

To say that Palm Beach Gardens City Council members are happy with their city manager is an understatement. 

At their most recent meeting, all five council members evaluated longtime City Manager Ron Ferris in glowing terms.

They said nothing, however, about Ferris’ contract, which according to a recent Palm Beach Post survey makes him Palm Beach County’s highest-paid city manager, at $314,487. 

They don’t have to. His contract is open-ended. Unlike his past contracts, which if not extended would terminate after five years, Ferris signed a contract in 2019 that allows him to remain on the job “for an indeterminate term.

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Sharp rise in tax base for Palm Beach Gardens

After two slow years, Palm Beach Gardens property values rises 13.9 percent, most in north county. It remains to be seen if that translates into rising tax bills.

Palm Beach Gardens property values rose 13.9 percent, the highest gain since the run up to the 2008 housing crash, preliminary figures released May 27 by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office show. 

It’s the first double-digit increase in taxable values for the city since 2006, when values rose a housing boom-fueled 29 percent after four straight years of double-digit increases. It puts the city tax base at $15.4 billion, about double what it was 10 years ago.

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