By Alexandra Seltzer - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

When one door closes, another one opens.
There’s a new restaurant proposal for Boynton Beach’s historic Ruth Jones cottage at 480 E. Ocean Ave.
Richard Lucibella and Barbara Ceuleers have partnered to pay the Boynton Community Redevelopment Agency $325,000 for the property and plan to lease it to Lisa Mercado, the owner of Boynton’s The Living Room restaurant on Congress Avenue.
Mercado would open a restaurant that serves “light, eclectic cuisine,” according to CRA documents. The restaurant would be open five to seven days per week for lunch and dinner. In the future it might be open for breakfast and marketed for wedding parties and similar events.
The CRA’s hired restaurant broker, Tom Prakas, has already received the $325,000, according to the documents. CRA staff is recommending the board ask for the property’s appraised value of $335,000.
The previous plan for the Jones cottage was for Boynton resident Sal Campanile to open The Little Pizza Shack. The CRA also chose him to open a restaurant at the Oscar Magnuson home at 211 E. Ocean Ave. However, both deals fell through after Campanile said his investors backed out.
The CRA sees both properties as sites that could help develop downtown. They are near 500 Ocean, the retail-residential development under construction at Federal Highway and Ocean.