Not all of Lake Worth Beach loves WMODA: Developer spends $6,000 to counter opposition's 'disinformation campaign'
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SINCE ITS PUBLIC unveiling in February 2024, the Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts proposal for a mixed-use “cultural arts campus” in the heart of downtown Lake Worth Beach has basked in a virtual love fest from a camp of ardent supporters.
Made up of many of the same influential residents, power brokers and elected officials who supported the Gulfstream Hotel renovation and other pro-business city projects, they want WMODA NOW — a rallying cry amplified online, at public meetings, and on yard and shop window signs.
But over the past two months, a much less enthusiastic message has slowly gained traction, a rallying cry sounding an urgent alarm: STOP WMODA .
Made up of many of the same residents known for raising questions about how city leaders spend public money, the STOP WMODA movement is dubious of Brooklyn-based developer Arthur Wiener’s promise of a 33,000-square-foot “world class” museum on Lake Avenue, with a rear “arts alley” connecting a 110-unit apartment building and 265-space public parking garage.
They’re worried Lake Worth Beach leaders are rushing too quickly into a complex deal that could ruin the city's downtown vibe and give Wiener $19 million in public assets — an amount the WMODA development team vehemently disputes.
Their concerns — delivered mainly online, at times using guerilla marketing tactics — are facing fierce resistance, fueled in part by a WMODA-financed rebuttal campaign.
The WMODA development team has spent about $1.1 million so far on architects, attorneys and consultants to usher the project through the city’s planning review process, said project representative Renee Miller.
Separate from that, WMODA spent about $6,000 earlier this year to hire two marketing consultants to counter what Miller described as “a professional disinformation campaign” being waged by the STOP movement.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and not everyone is going to like it, and that's OK for that discourse to happen,’’ said Miller, a former Hallandale Beach city manager who founded R. Miller Consulting Group.
“But when we felt” the opposition “was coming with straight-up false information, intellectual dishonesty, taking pieces of the truth and putting it together to make it look like something else, we said we’ve got to say something,’’ she said.
David vs Goliath
Though WMODA’s rebuttals have been endorsed by the city, project opponents insist their concerns are backed by information in the development agreement, the public private partnership agreement and other public records.
Opponents say they’re just trying to protect taxpayers and promote a better quality of downtown development.
“This is a real David and Goliath situation,’’ said Kim Stokes, who lost a city commission reelection bid in 2024 to Commissioner Mimi May, a WMODA supporter.
“We don't have the money, we don't have the marketing, we don't have the professionals,’’ Stokes said. “We are up against an established professional large-scale development group with access to lots of funds who is willing to attack anyone who expresses concern.’’
Those attacks have extended to the dais where opponents say Mayor Betty Resch and Commissioner Sarah Malega have sought to silence Commissioner Chris McVoy, a vocal WMODA critic, at times leading to tense public clashes.
McVoy has been the loudest, and for the past month the only, voice of WMODA dissent on the commission. A majority — Resch, Malega and May — has embraced the project and its promises of long-term economic benefits, including $7 million in taxes paid by the museum and apartments over the first 10 years and millions in revenue from downtown visitors.
Project supporters have praised Wiener and his team for being transparent and active with community outreach from the day they pitched the unsolicited proposal to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The Wiener team approached the city in late 2023, after negotiations for a similar mixed-use museum project in Broward County broke down over Wiener’s refusal to meet the city of Tamarac’s affordable housing needs.
The Lake Worth Beach project — which will include eight affordable housing apartments financed in part by a $1.4 million CRA grant — has been discussed at nearly 20 public meetings since February 2024. Another will be held at 6 p.m. April 28 at the Lake Worth Beach Casino & Beach Complex ballroom.
Those meetings, opponents say, are almost always attended by the same WMODA supporters, a group that doesn’t speak for the city’s 44,000 residents, the majority of whom rarely tune into city meetings.
As more and more residents learned about the project, Stokes said, a loose opposition movement starting taking shape last October.
The movement gained momentum in late February, weeks ahead of the March election, as McVoy’s campaign attacked his challenger, CRA Chair Carla Blockson, over her WMODA support. The CRA donated to WMODA 1.78 acres of prime downtown land worth $3.3 million (an amount opponents say is higher).
Red octagon STOP WMODA signs, mimicking a traffic stop sign, started popping up around town days before thousands of visitors attended the city’s Street Painting Festival.
A STOP website went live Feb. 28, followed in early March by a Facebook page.
Social media battlefield
Meanwhile, on the other side of the online battlefield, WMODA supporters were digging in, too. A LWB LOVES WMODA Facebook page went live Feb. 7, followed by a WMODA NOW page Feb 28.
In early April, STOP launched an online fundraising platform to raise $8,000 for, among other things, a lawyer to “fight a wealthy developer planning to pillage public land and budget,’’ according to the fundraising link.
The social media battle has raged around several fronts.
A polarizing one has been STOP’s skepticism that the museum, showcasing Wiener’s personal collection of 15,000 ceramic and glass pottery pieces, will be appealing enough to draw the 50,000 visitors a year projected by the development team.
Supporters say Lake Worth Beach will be lucky to have the museum, which will feature a permanent exhibit by Dale Chihuly, a pioneering glass artist who "famously decorated the ceiling of Las Vegas’ Bellagio casino with 1,800 square feet of handblown glass floral forms,’’ as Smithsonian magazine wrote.
Many opponents aren’t impressed.
“WMODA is presenting a ripoff deal for our city. We should reject every part of it, including their Rinky Dink museum,’’ a $20 donor wrote on the donation website that, as of April 23, has raised $1,160 from 17 donors.
The WMODA team disputes STOP’s contention that Wiener is getting $19 million in public land, subsidies and infrastructure, an opposition figure that includes $7.5 million the city will pay to build an $8.5 million parking garage on K Street.
Miller said the actual amount Wiener will get from the public is around $7 million. He's also investing more than $65 million of his own money in the project.
And he is contributing $1 million to the garage, which was not part of the initial WMODA plan but was added at the city’s request. The garage, approved by the city commission last month, will be built first to cover the loss of 65 surface lot spaces on parcels designated for the WMODA apartment building. (Profits from the apartment rentals will subsidize the museum’s operating costs.)
The garage will be owned by the city and built by WMODA’s principal backer, United Management, operating as Lake Worth Sunshine Development. The company is also loaning the city $3.5 million for the work at 4 percent interest, which city officials say will save city taxpayers $5 million in interest costs.
The garage is expected to offer free parking for the first hour. And it will likely signal the end to free parking on downtown streets, another bone of contention for STOP.
But the bigger question, opponents say, is whether the garage is even needed. They point to an under-used paid parking garage that opened in 2022 at The Bohemian apartments west of U.S. 1. That garage is costing the city $144,000 a year but often “sits empty,” McVoy said.
Miller argues that the K Street garage should not be considered, as STOP contends, the first phase of the WMODA development. Opponents disagree, pointing out that the garage is being built first, will be used by museum patrons and cost taxpayers $7.5 million.
Marketing consultants hired
The WMODA museum has devoted two of its staff-produced e-newsletters, mainly a tool to promote artists and events, to rebut claims by opponents. (The city’s Facebook page includes links to those newsletters.)
But to help spread those rebuttals more directly to Lake Worth Beach residents, Miller said, the WMODA development team hired two consultants:
Amy Ferriter, a Gainesville-based social media influencer who owns an apartment in downtown Lake Worth Beach and is respected by influential city power brokers.
VUP Media, a marketing and advertising agency run by Sandra DoVale with offices in Boca Raton and Rhode Island.
Ferriter is one of three administrators for the LWB Loves WMODA Facebook page. The other two are Realtor Erin Allen and resident Peggy Fisher, both of whom are involved with state-registered political committees that backed pro-WMODA candidates in the last two Lake Worth Beach City Commission elections in 2024 and 2025.
City campaign finance records show Ferriter was paid $1,000 for social media work for two PAC-supported candidates in the most recent election: Blockson, the CRA chair; and Greg Richter, former president of a citywide neighborhood umbrella group.
Blockson lost to McVoy, and Richter lost in a runoff to political newcomer Anthony Segrich, who won the District 4 seat previously held by Reinaldo Diaz. Diaz, a WMODA critic, finished third.
Ferriter, introduced to the WMODA team by supporters in Lake Worth Beach, was instrumental in helping the team respond to opponents on social media, Miller said.
“Lake Worth Beach has a very different kind of vibe in terms of how the community speaks to each other on Facebook through groups, and she was really good at allowing us to get in and understand what the groups are and where we need to post our information,’’ Miller said.
Some opponents have complained that pro-WMODA Facebook page administrators block their access and delete critical comments. Project supporters have accused some STOP members of hiding behind fake online names.
Panagioti Tsolkas, a STOP organizer, said many WMODA opponents are reluctant to individually speak out against the project because they fear retaliation by supporters in the form of bogus code enforcement complaints.
‘Irresponsible’ smear campaign
WMODA supporters say opponents crossed an ethical line by waging a smear campaign against Wiener.
For example, a one-page flyer, posted on some downtown street poles, depicts a collage of news articles mostly about Wiener’s brother, Joel Wiener, who according to published reports has attracted legal scrutiny and complaints from tenants in New York City.
Joel Wiener is not affiliated with WMODA or the Lake Worth Beach project and he is not involved in any of Arthur’s businesses, said Miller.
But he appears several times in the flyer. “Let’s not bring the Wiener slumlord legacy to Lake Worth Beach,’’ a bottom corner says.
The top of the flyer shows the opening paragraph of an article, published 41 years ago in The New York Times, describing two Manhattan landlords indicted on charges they “hired a gang of thugs and thieves to out tenants by strong-arm tactics …”
Cut and pasted below that was another paragraph, from much lower in the same story, describing a tenant who complained about repeated eviction notices from Arthur Wiener. The placement of the paragraphs in the collage suggests that Wiener was one of the indicted landlords. He was not.
Tsolkas said he stands by the flyer's content. If the city is partnering with Arthur Wiener on a major downtown project, he said, Lake Worth Beach residents deserve to know about his family’s business practices.
The flyer touches on an overriding question opponents have asked about whether the city did its due diligence on Wiener and United Management before approving the development deal, said Tsolkas, who is married to former City Commissioner Cara Jennings, a self-described anarchist agitator.
Opponents say complaints about United Management can be found in the crowd-sourced review website Yelp and other online sources.
Ethics opinion sought
Opponents also wonder if city leaders and staff are trying to shape the public debate in WMODA’s favor.
Parrot Cove resident Catherine Nolan said she submitted a comment card to be read by the city clerk during public comments at the Feb. 4 commission meeting.
But when City Clerk Melissa Coyne read the comment into the record, she left out Nolan’s concern that United Management’s “history and reputation are questionable. A cursory glance reveals a troubling record of tenant mistreatment in their properties.’’
When Nolan asked Coyne for an explanation, the clerk said she “felt those sentences were inappropriate” and violated city rules prohibiting the public from “name-calling” and “making comments of a personal nature regarding others.’’
Nolan pressed the clerk to explain how her deleted comments violated the rules, which were enacted by the commission last August. She said Coyne refused.
At a commission meeting on March 18, Malega called for an ethics investigation into whether McVoy should recuse himself from voting on WMODA.
McVoy is a partner in South Florida Engineering & Consulting, a firm with offices in a federal Historically Underutilized Business zone. If WMODA succeeds, it could threaten the firm’s HUBZone certification, which makes the firm eligible to receive special federal contracts.
“There is a personal gain to keeping our community underdeveloped,’’ she said before commissioners voted to seek an advisory opinion from the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics.
McVoy offered a blunt reply.
“This a BS attempt to try to disqualify the one person who has made sure that (elected officials) listen to the community and hear from the community as to what they want about this project,’’ he said.
‘Stop interrupting me!’
Later in the same meeting, McVoy asked Mayor Resch several times to stop interrupting him as he tried to raise questions about why the city required Wiener to contribute just $1 million to the parking garage.
McVoy, known for a rambling speaking style, tried to lay out his argument for why the developer should pay more. But the mayor kept losing patience with him.
“What’s your question, Mr. McVoy,’’ an exasperated Resch said, talking over him. “If you don’t ask a question –”
McVoy lost his temper.
“Stop interrupting me! That will be enough!” he shouted, drawing gasps and boos from WMODA supporters at City Hall.
Although the outburst quickly ended, Malega summoned a sheriff’s captain to the dais. The interim city manager gently scolded McVoy, “We can’t have that, sir.” Resch moved the discussion without letting McVoy finish.
“Your commitment to good governance is you shut down anyone who's asking questions,’’ he said to Resch.
“You weren’t asking questions,’’ the mayor replied. “You were making speeches.’’
WMODA opponents took issue with the mayor during public comments.
“I want to hear the answers to Chris’ questions,’’ said Tyler Chapman, who runs the Lake Worthian, a Facebook page and blog aligned with the STOP movement.
“Are they sometimes long-winded? Yes. That's not anyone's preference. I get it,’’ Chapman said. “But he asks good questions. Getting to them sooner? Sure, but interrupting him doesn’t help us get there faster. And I want answers to these questions. The public wants answers to the questions.’’
Deputies clear trespassers
The debate’s latest flare up occurred Tuesday evening, April 23, as attendees of a STOP-sponsored Earth Day event planted a "community garden" at the northeast corner of South L Street and First Avenue South — on land owned by the CRA and designated for the WMODA apartments.
Commissioner May showed up with sheriff’s deputies after she said she’d received phone calls from residents complaining about trespassers on the land.
Deputies ordered the gardeners to leave.
“They built a community garden. It's gorgeous. They could have done it on my lawn but they chose to trespass on city property to do it,’’ said May, who said she represents all city residents even though she was elected by District 3 voters in the city's northeast section.
Tsolkas said it was just another move by “the Wiener mob” to strike back at WMODA opponents.
May disagreed, saying the opponents "crossed a line" by trespassing.
She reiterated her trust in the proposal details put forth by the city, CRA and developer. And she took issue with STOP's interpretation of those details.
"When you don't like the answers,'' she said, "you don't change them to suit your narrative."
But Stokes said the entire deal needs more scrutiny.
"Once this project goes through,'' she said, "there is no going back.''
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About the author
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, the birth of the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. View all posts by Joe Capozzi.