Miami-based Rosetta Bakery fails in bid to add Palm Beach location

Miami-based Rosetta Bakery's push to expand to Palm Beach came to a halt Wednesday after Town Council members said the proposed location and affordable menu would bring more visitors, including beachgoers, to Worth Avenue.

“It’s going to be one of the least expensive places on the island. So, who isn’t going to try to go there?” council member Julie Araskog said.

Seeking the council's approval to convert a retail space in the Salvatore Ferragamo building at 200 Worth Ave ., attorney Maura Ziska, representing Rosetta Bakery, said the business would only sell and prep food. All bakery items would be cooked at the company’s commissary kitchen in Miami, and delivered every other day at any time chosen by the council, she said.

Tomasso Bulfon, Rosetta's co-founder and chief operating officer, said they were aware of the town’s traffic and parking issues , and noted that he chose the Ferragamo building because of the southern parking lot that comes with the retail space, which has an address of 450 S. County Road.

“That’s why I turned down several proposals before this place because (they) didn’t have the dedicated parking spot for employees and for running the operation,” he said.

However, that location means converting a retail space into an eatery, a change Araskog and fellow council member Bridget Moran said would increase foot and automobile traffic in an already congested area.

Moran questioned who would benefit from the bakery.

“It worries me to have this type of food and beverage place so close to our public beach. So, I can envision people coming up and down Worth Avenue, because they don’t want to pack a picnic to go to the beach,” Moran said.

The bakery's primary target is employees and residents who may not have the time to dine at the town's restaurants, Ziska told Moran, citing herself as an example.

“I don’t want to sit down at a restaurant, I don’t have the time for that (during the day),” Ziska said.

Araskog said the town has enough bakeries and that the project's approval would set a harmful precedent of allowing retail spaces to be converted into eateries. She also said that the well-known South Florida chain can be considered a regional attraction, which is prohibited under the town's comprehensive plan.

The development review hearing for the Italian bakery also brought to light an issue with trucks offloading near the South County Road and Worth Avenue intersection.

Daniel Ponton, who lives on nearby Golfview Road, said he and other residents on the street have to contend with constant noise and traffic created by trucks parking in the Ferragamo building's parking lot or on South County Road's sidewalk.

The new bakery could exacerbate an already dire traffic situation in the area, Ponton said during the hearing's public comments.

He said most of the trucks don't even deliver to the Salvatore Ferragamo building, but instead make deliveries to The Colony Hotel on South County Road, or to locations farther west on Worth Avenue.

"The loading zone at the (Colony) hotel across the street from me is not big enough to take a semi truck ... So where do they park? They park right on the street, now some of them go halfway on the sidewalk, but then you can't use the sidewalk," said Ponton, who also sent in a letter of concern prior to the hearing.

While he was not against the town having a new bakery, Ponton said he could not support a project that would increase the amount of trucks coming to the area.

Council member Ted Cooney acknowledged Ponton's concerns, while noting that a takeout café would fit right at home in Worth Avenue, albeit not in the location proposed.

"Unfortunately this backs up to residences, which is why we have some other concerns, but philosophically a business like this in a commercial district is appropriate," Cooney said.

Council member Lew Crampton and President Bobbie Lindsay agreed with Cooney that a takeout bakery would be ideal for a pedestrian-focused commercial district, but also agreed with Moran and Araskog that a bakery would bring more business and foot traffic compared to a retail shop.

The council voted 4-1 to reject the proposal, with Cooney casting the nay vote. The council also called for the town's code enforcement officers to investigate the trucks off-loading near the South County Road and Worth Avenue intersection.

Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News , part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Miami-based Rosetta Bakery fails in bid to add Palm Beach location