Glazer Hall for the Performing Arts, a $30 million theater and cultural arts center under construction at the Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach, is moving toward a year-end opening with the announcement of a recent donation in excess of $15 million from Palm Beach residents Avram “Avie” and Jill Glazer.
The Glazers are playing the lead role in turning the long-shuttered island landmark into a sustainable performing arts and events space.
“This is the first theater and nonprofit cultural arts center in Palm Beach in 60 years,” said Jill Glazer, co-founder and president of Glazer Hall.
The 800-seat playhouse that once played host to comedian Bob Hope and to European royalty, closed in 2004. WS Development of Chestnut Hill, Mass., tore down most of the structure in 2023 and began building a 400-seat venue, expected to open before Christmas.
WS brought in a nonprofit founded by the Glazers called The Innovate in 2021 to oversee programming of the rebuilt playhouse. The Innovate operates under the name Palm Beach Cultural Innovation Center and is now doing business as Glazer Hall.
Avie Glazer is the son of Malcolm Glazer, who bought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team in 1995 and passed it on to his family after his death in 2014. Avie Glazer is co-chair of the English Premier League club Manchester United, which his father bought for $1.4 billion in 2005.
He and Jill have lived in Palm Beach since 2002.
Campaign underway
Often, when it comes to such endeavors, the real work starts after the initial fundraising, said Amy Schiller, author of the 2023 book, “The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong and How to Fix It.”
Knowing the difficulty of balancing the books on theater alone, Jill Glazer said in an interview that the center on the Intracoastal Waterway just south of the north bridge will offer much more.
“We are going to offer private spaces overlooking the intracoastal with event rentals, such as wedding receptions,” she said in an interview. “We need revenue.”
The most recent tax forms publicly available offer a snapshot of Glazer Hall in 2022, when it had just $264,400 in grants and $648,500 in assets, mostly ascribed to the construction project.
Since that time, the campaign to raise money to support the playhouse has begun in full force.
The amounts raised have not been publicly released but the Glazer Hall website lists 250 supporters, including Tommy Hilfiger, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Gail Coniglio, Tim Huizenga, Paulette Koch, Barron Hilton, Stephen Levin, William Meyer and the Rooney family.
Among the many ways supporters can give is to inscribe a seat in their name with a $10,000 donation. A recent advertisement said just 100 of the 400 seats remain.
Donors also can pick from an array of membership and naming options.
“Through our fundraising efforts, we aim to build Glazer Hall into a beacon of inspiration, offering guests the opportunity to experience the arts in all its forms,” Chief Philanthropic Officer Victoria Peyton said in a statement. “With generous support from the greater community, Glazer Hall will become a one-of-a-kind cultural arts center, attracting not only locals but also visitors across the country and around the world.”
Rena Blades, former CEO of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County and Glazer Hall board member, touted the effort with a post on Instagram saying, “The Glazers have gone far beyond what most of us will ever do to give back and support a community. Their vision, commitment, passion and, frankly, love for this town is unique.”
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The Kravis Center, with its 300-seat Rinker Playhouse just two miles west, said it’s thrilled to see the restoration.
“It’s a beloved Palm Beach landmark with a deep cultural legacy and its return is a meaningful moment for the community,” said Georgiana Young, Kravis’ programming and marketing vice president.
Tutto Mare restaurant next door
Glazer Hall must reassure potential donors and the community that it will solve potential problems with parking, staff turnover, fundraising and familiarity with programming, philanthropist and retired Palm Beach accountant Richard Rampell pointed out.
“I used to go to lots of shows at the playhouse, before the Kravis (Center in West Palm Beach) was built (in 1992),” Rampell said. “The parking lot was always packed (especially for matinees).
“So, if you have a 400-seat theater, there will be 200 cars wanting to park where there was no parking to begin with,” Rampell said.
Compounding the crowding issues will be Tutto Mare, a 200-seat Mediterranean restaurant to open immediately south of the theater along the intracoastal.
Town officials approved WS’ plan for the restaurant, co-owned by fashion designer Donna Karan’s daughter, despite concerns about parking, noise and becoming a regional destination instead of “town-centric.”
The 11-acre plaza has 679 parking spaces and the playhouse will have valet parking.
The project has undergone some pivots, as the initial schedule called for construction to be completed last fall. It is now scheduled for late 2025.
And the executive director hired in July, Jared Shahid, has left, returning to the Hudson Valley in New York where he previously ran a playhouse in Ridgefield, Conn., called The Ridgefield.
Staff departures stemmed from construction delays and “the executive director decided to go back to New York,” Jill Glazer said.
The staff includes Audrey Votaw, development and operations officer, and the newest hire, Peyton, formerly with Cleveland Clinic. Another staffer is Jill Glazer’s sister-in-law, Susan Henkin, a former executive director of the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation.
The search is on for a programming manager and a chief executive.
“The Glazers are locals who know the importance of this project and have the resources” to hire the best programming experts, a publicist for WS Development said.
Building on a rich history
The Royal Poinciana Plaza, built in 1957, is on the site of Henry Flagler’s Royal Poinciana Hotel, demolished in 1935. Acclaimed architect John Volk designed the plaza in the Regency Revival style and the playhouse opened a year later, in February 1958.
The playhouse started as a producing theater but in 1979, under new ownership, it emphasized touring shows. Over the years, it played host to stars such as Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.
Theatrical legends Helen Hayes, Dame Judith Anderson and Christopher Plummer performed there. The Kennedys and European royalty were frequent visitors.
In the early 1990s, with the opening of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, the playhouse began to suffer from competition.
In 2002, Louis Tyrrell, then head of Florida Stage in Manalapan, wanted to move his company to the playhouse, borrow $8 million to gut it and create a 400-seat theater, but the deal never materialized.
The final curtain at the playhouse dropped in 2004.
The next year, Royal Poinciana Plaza owner Sydney Spiegel sued the town for not considering his plans to build condos on the site.
He lost two years later. The judge ruled that he could not demolish the 787-seat playhouse because a 1979 agreement with the town required it be maintained as a performing arts venue.
Plans to move Ballet Florida and the Palm Beach Symphony there fell through as well.
Since 2014, WS Development has controlled the plaza and the playhouse under a long-term lease. While the plaza has been transformed into a desirable destination, home to Cartier, Hermés and Oscar De La Renta, the playhouse is mostly a construction site, with one store opening recently next to the theater and two more to open soon.
In 2023, “a near-total demolition” of the old playhouse caught town officials by surprise, with Council Member Julie Araskog telling the town council she was “devastated” when she saw the site in July after returning from vacation, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.
“I came over the north bridge and saw no more of the playhouse,” the Daily News reported her saying. “Gobsmacked isn’t even a word that reveals how I felt.”
A vice president for WS Development told the Daily News that the town had approved the tear-down, which was needed to meet code requirements.
Photos showed the interior gutted, with several exterior walls propped up by beams.
But as construction advanced, enthusiasm for the playhouse has grown. The Palm Beach Town Council had good things to say about the Glazers’ efforts when they approved the nonprofits’ name change last month.
“The extensive renovation and reconstruction of the former Royal Poinciana Playhouse into a new place for performing arts in Palm Beach will be welcomed later this year,” Council President Bobbie Lindsay told the Daily News. “The Glazers’ unwavering support and dedication to ensure a first-class arts venue operates at the former playhouse site will benefit us all.”
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
