WEST PALM BEACH – Aug. 30, 2022 – The West Palm Beach City Commission paid tribute Aug. 22 to Greenberg Traurig Government Law & Policy Of Counsel Robert “Bob” Sanders for his many contributions to the growth and improvement of West Palm Beach over the past four decades. Sanders was recognized for the significant role he has played in key developments ranging from CityPlace, now renamed The Square, to the Phillips Point office complex.
Mayor Keith A. James proclaimed Aug. 22 as “Robert Sanders Day” in West Palm Beach. The proclamation honors Sanders for overseeing the “development of transformational projects” and for his longstanding involvement in the community, including serving three terms as chairman of the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
Dozens of business, community, and government leaders, as well as friends and family and current and former work colleagues, turned out for the event at City Hall. Among those in attendance were former West Palm Beach Mayors Nancy Graham and Lois Frankel, currently a U.S. representative in Congress, and Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
“I am sincerely grateful to all those who helped me along the way during the last 40 years that I have lived and worked in West Palm Beach,” Sanders said in public remarks to the City Commission. “When we become successful, we usually achieve that success because others have helped us. It would have been impossible for me to have been able to devote so many volunteer hours, and have accomplished so many volunteer achievements, without the guidance and support from my law firm for which I am tremendously grateful.”
Sanders, who focuses his practice on governmental, administrative, and real estate matters, is based in Greenberg Traurig’s West Palm Beach office. Before joining the firm in 2000, he served as a deputy city attorney and as city administrator under Graham, leading West Palm Beach’s revitalization efforts.
While with the mayor’s office, Sanders was instrumental in several high-profile projects, including the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the redevelopment of the West Palm Beach Auditorium and baseball stadium site, and The Square. Years prior, while serving as President and General Counsel of The Goodman Company, he supervised the development of the Phillips Point twin office towers in West Palm Beach and the Esplanade shopping via on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. Among his recent achievements, Sanders represented developer Al Adelson in obtaining the necessary land-use approvals for The Bristol, considered to have elevated the luxury residential condominium market in West Palm Beach.
“Bob has played a vital role in downtown’s evolution into a major business center and a great place to live and work, although he doesn’t like to take credit and instead points to the work of others,” said West Palm Beach Co-Managing Shareholders Mark F. Bideau and Tracy L. Gerber. “A natural connector, Bob has a unique ability to forge relationships for the benefit of the city and his clients. He’s not only a wonderful colleague, and a great friend, but also someone who gives selflessly of his time and talents to innumerable civic organizations that are vital to the city and its residents.”
A Philadelphia native, Sanders spent the first eight years of his life in an orphanage, then worked as a teenager in a warehouse loading truck pallets before going on to earn both his J.D. and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Temple University. He moved along with The Goodman Company from Allentown, Pa., to West Palm Beach in the early 1980s and quickly embraced the city as his new home.
Well-known within the non-profit community, Sanders has been a fundraiser and board member for many local charities and organizations, including the West Palm Beach Library Foundation, the Adam Walsh Children’s Fund, the Palm Beach International Film Festival, the Epilepsy Foundation of Eastern Florida, and Cities in Schools, a high school dropout prevention program. He is a three-time former chairman of the West Palm Beach DDA, as well as a former chair of The Governors Club of the Palm Beaches, and a past president of the Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce.
“As chair of the West Palm Beach DDA Board, Bob was integral in creating the economic engine that is downtown West Palm Beach,” said West Palm Beach DDA Executive Director Raphael Clemente. “His tireless dedication to the success of downtown carved a path that the DDA is still following to this day. In addition, Bob is one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met.”