Dolphin Tower work causes headaches

As workers conduct demolition and clean the inside of Dolphin Tower, nearby merchants along Palm Avenue worry they’re being left out of the loop.

Ken Taksen, owner of M.L. Gosling Gift Gallery and vice president of the Palm Avenue Merchants Association, spoke at Tuesday’s Downtown Improvement District meeting about the work. Dolphin Tower was evacuated in 2010 due to structural issues with a concrete slab within the building and has been vacant since then.

The building’s owners are still waiting for a building permit to begin repairs in earnest, but some work began about three weeks ago. Although Taksen said he is supportive of the building’s renovation, merchants on Palm are worried about the lack of information regarding the project.

“The Palm Avenue merchants are very concerned about the renovations going on at the Dolphin, in part because we are in the dark about what’s going on there,” Taksen said.

Charlotte Ryan, president of the Dolphin Tower Condominium Association, said the association sent a letter regarding the work to 40 merchants and residents one week ago. She said she has spoken with interested parties and recommended that the city take the lead on coordinating any communication efforts.

“The DID has communicated with me, and I have suggested that Larry Murphy with the city’s building department be the point person for them to meet with,” Ryan said.

Murphy is overseeing the project for the city. He was scheduled to speak at Tuesday’s DID meeting regarding the work at Dolphin Tower but was on vacation and unable to attend.

Taksen said the merchants were first bothered by the noise that came from water jets inside the building, noise that started without warning. Eileen Hampshire, DID board member and owner of the Palm Avenue shop Art to Walk On, agreed that the noise was a disruption for nearby businesses.

“This was noise that was constant,” Hampshire said. “You almost couldn’t hear yourself think.”

Pat Dabbert is the owner of Dabbert Gallery, which sits just behind Dolphin Tower on Palm Avenue. The noise of workers was constantly audible Tuesday at the gallery, and Dabbert said it was worse earlier in the month. Although measures had been put in place to attempt to deaden the noise, Dabbert believes more can be done.

The major hurdle, she said, is that she didn’t know what was going on or whom to speak with to register her complaint.

“We’d like a better flow of information,” Dabbert said. “We need to know more from the people involved.”
Taksen agreed that better communication was essential. He said people were mostly worried that, if street closures were necessary as part of the repairs, merchants would be unaware and unable to voice their concerns to the city.

DID Operations Manager John Moran said he would reach out to the city to see if it was possible to hold regular meetings to update nearby businesses about the work as it continues at the tower.

Murphy said she was hopeful that the city would approve the building’s permit application soon, and that construction at Dolphin Tower would be completed within about a year. Gretchen Schneider, the city’s general manager of planning and development, said it was still unclear when the city would authorize a building permit.

“It’s a pretty complicated proposal,” Schneider said. “We have a third-party engineer assisting with the review of the permit application so we can make sure that the methodology that they’re approaching the project with is sound and reasonable.”

Whatever happens, Taksen said the city should strive to minimize the effect construction has on nearby businesses.

“We can ill afford another disruption to what should be a great business environment on Palm,” Taksen said.

Contact David Conway at [email protected]