HOLLYWOOD BEACH REDEVELOPMENT HONORED WITH TOP RANKING

BEST PRACTICE CITIES' CATHY SWANSON-RIVENBARK LED COMPLEX PROCESS THAT CREATED WINNING PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Founded out of a passion for public sector excellence, Best Practice Cities (www.bestpracticecities.com) is a strategic and innovative association of high-integrity, high-performing experts that help local governments reach and sustain operational and organizational success. 

It is led by Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, who served as City Manager for two dynamic full-service South Florida cities.

In addition to designing successful strategic plans and operational alignments that are still followed today, she led economic development activities resulting in multimillion-dollar private sector investments, diversification of the economic base, enhanced quality of life and increased property values.

HOLLYWOOD BEACH REDEVELOPMENT HONORED WITH TOP RANKING

BEST PRACTICE CITIES' CATHY SWANSON-RIVENBARK LED COMPLEX PROCESS THAT CREATED WINNING PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Swanson-Rivenbark praised Bober for his leadership and the Commission’s political courage to allow a professionally-run RFP process that addressed the public’s need for transparency.

"The true test of a public/private redevelopment is not a signed deal or completed construction – it is once it’s fully operational and you can ask the question: `did it capture the dreams, fulfill the goals and meet the expectations of the community?’,” she said. 

“For Margaritaville and Hollywood Beach, it’s a resounding `yes’.”

HOLLYWOOD BEACH REDEVELOPMENT HONORED WITH TOP RANKING

BEST PRACTICE CITIES' CATHY SWANSON-RIVENBARK LED COMPLEX PROCESS THAT CREATED WINNING PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Debra Case -- owner of Ocean Alley restaurant and bar -- has served as president of the Hollywood Beach Association, a small business organization, and as a Hollywood City Commissioner. She said the beach had a lot of slum and blight before the Margaritaville project.

“Margaritaville opened and all of a sudden, people were here. Mom and pop shops have cleaned up, put in landscaping and tapped into CRA grants to upgrade,” said Case. 

“Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark pulled us up by the bootstraps. If she hadn’t gotten Margaritaville off the ground, we may not have an anchor here in the central beach.”

HOLLYWOOD BEACH REDEVELOPMENT HONORED WITH TOP RANKING

BEST PRACTICE CITIES' CATHY SWANSON-RIVENBARK LED COMPLEX PROCESS THAT CREATED WINNING PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Bober said Margaritaville has transformed the beach and created the spinoff development and reinvestment that it promised. 

“But for the tenacity -- within the context of a very difficult economy – of Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, myself and the developer, I don’t think this project would have come to fruition.”

HOLLYWOOD BEACH REDEVELOPMENT HONORED WITH TOP RANKING

BEST PRACTICE CITIES' CATHY SWANSON-RIVENBARK LED COMPLEX PROCESS THAT CREATED WINNING PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Lon Tabatchnick, who developed Margaritaville in partnership with Starwood Capital, from concept to opening in 2015, said the project delivered everything promised, including a resort with a coveted Four Diamond rating. 

Margaritaville enhances the beach with free concerts at the historic bandshell at the edge of the resort and it achieves a goal of linking the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway – with a water taxi stop at the resort’s 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill on the intracoastal.