By Everett Potter

West Palm Beach has long played second fiddle to its far more glamorous sister, Palm Beach, on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida. The divide was clear: the wealthy came to stay and play in Palm Beach, while those who weren’t quite so well off stayed in West Palm, which also served as the service city to its wealthier sibling.

That said, I’ve always been fond of West Palm, which has been on the ascendency for at least two decades with developments like Cityplace, Rosemary Square, Clematis Street, a bevy of good restaurants and well-preserved neighborhoods like Flamingo Park and El Cid, with their tree-lined streets lined with vintage Spanish Mission and Mediterranean style homes. It was always more down to earth, more dress down casual, a place with wonderful weather and perhaps a slight inferiority complex. But what West Palm really seemed to lack was a good hotel, a place that could rival a few of the properties in Palm Beach.

It may have found it with the recent opening of The Ben, an Autograph Collection Hotel … continue reading