Palm Beach hotel plan quashed

Officials, many of whom stayed at other hotels owned by Ocean Properties, put an end to development plans for a hotel at the convention center after a vote by Palm Beach County commissioners. A federal investigation that yielded an FBI search of Mary McCarty’s home nearly two weeks ago has colored the hotel deal, which would have cost at least $35 million in public money. Commissioners McCarty, Karen Marcus and Burt Aaronson all admitted to staying at Ocean Properties’ hotels on the advice of county attorneys. Ocean asked the county for an additional $10 million in public money to build a scaled-down version of the project it had originally proposed, citing the sudden freeze-up in credit following the collapse of the real estate market. The project will go back to the drawing board when the market improves, commissioners said.