West Palm Beach's CRA to hold special meeting Monday, with Sunset Lounge deal in the works

Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post
Updated ·2 min read

A proposed management agreement for the built-but-yet-unopened Sunset Lounge will be the chief topic of a meeting Monday, say multiple sources familiar with discussions between West Palm Beach's Community Redevelopment Agency and a local group hoping to manage the lounge.

The city's CRA's special meeting will be at 2:30 p.m., Monday, April 29 at City Commission chambers.

As of 2 p.m. on Friday, the city's website did not include a link to the meeting agenda. The meeting is scheduled to begin 90 minutes before CRA meetings are usually held.

The CRA, which uses taxpayer money to redevelop distressed areas of the city, has been negotiating for months with Vita Lounge, a local group of Black business officials that won its bid to manage the Sunset Lounge, a 1920s-era supper club the city bought and rebuilt at a cost of at least $16 million.

The newly renovated Sunset Lounge in West Palm Beach on Aprl 14, 2022. Musical legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, James Brown, Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong performed at the venue before it fell on hard times and was closed.
The newly renovated Sunset Lounge in West Palm Beach on Aprl 14, 2022. Musical legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, James Brown, Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong performed at the venue before it fell on hard times and was closed.

The Sunset was supposed to open two years ago, but it has not as first a protracted legal dispute between Vita and the CRA, and then management negotiations delayed that re-opening.

City officials plan to have the Sunset resume its place as the cultural hub of the largely Black Northwest community, which saw such luminaries as Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong perform at the lounge during its heyday.

RELATED: As renovated Sunset Lounge sits idle, leaders assure they have a plan, reopening timetable

The club, like the Northwest, ran into hard times. West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James has directed millions toward the revitalization of the Northwest and has pledged that the Sunset will be reopened in due course.

City Commission members serve as the CRA's board of directors and would need to approve any agreement between the agency and Vita Lounge.

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Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Sunset Lounge deal? West Palm Beach CRA to hold special meeting Monday