Boca Raton to Choose From Four Proposals for New Government Complex, Apartments, Stores

A proposed new city government and redevelopment plan from Boca City Center. (Planning Document)

A marathon, five-and-a-half hour meeting on Monday saw the Boca Raton city council hear proposals from four development firms, each of which pitched their ideas for a public-private partnership in which they would build a new city government complex and effectively an entire new neighborhood of apartments, stores and restaurants.

The proposals were solicited after the city decided last year to place the new seat of municipal government on a swath of land adjacent to the Brightline high-speed rail station, just beside the downtown district. The area is already home to several city-owned buildings which would be demolished as part of what will almost certainly prove to be one of the most bold and wide-reaching development projects in city history.

Boca Daily News will share more details of the specific proposals in a future, more comprehensive article, given the breadth of information that was presented Tuesday. With the help of international real estate planning firm CBRE, the city will consider a total of four proposals:

• Boca City Center LLC (A partnership of development firms Terra and Frisbie.)
• Namdar Group
• Related Ross Company
• RocaPoint Partners

The frame work of three of the four proposals was similar – a mixed-use development that will include a new city hall, community meeting space, and police headquarters flanked by multifamily housing and commercial space, all built in the city’s signature Mediterranean architectural style. RocaPoint took a slightly different tack, proposing to develop the public facilities itself and finding a second partner to develop the residential and commercial portion.

“Each of these proposals has some nuance to them,” said Michael McShea, a CBRE executive who summarized the proposals at the start of the meeting.

Boca City Center, for example, would construct a city hall up to 100,000 square feet plus a 50,600 square foot community center. Namdar proposed a 170,000 square foot city hall, a 50,000 square foot community center, and 10,000 square foot synagogue. Related Ross would build a 75,000 square foot city hall and community center combined, while RocaPoint would build a 162,000 sqaure foot government building and a 35,000 square foot community center.

A proposed new city government and redevelopment plan from Namdar. (Planning Document)

Several of the proposals include unique items. Namdar’s pitch envisions a 50,000 square foot performing arts center, a public plaza with interactive water features and public art installations, and multiple playgrounds and dog parks. Boca City Center would develop a racquet sports center, a rooftop athletic court, a “grassy playscape” called The Meadows, and an “urban meeting point” called The Nook. Related Ross would focus on a “live-work-play” theme, with a network of open spaces linked together, curbless streets that could be closed for events and festivals, myriad recreational facilities to be built at the city’s discretion, and an expansion of the Brightline station with a push toward making transit and accessibility central to the development. RocaPoint, for its part, would provide an open-air market and pavilion, recreational space, a purpose-built theme of pedestrian-friendly access, open space, traffic calming measures, a dog park and rooftop tennis courts.

All of the plans include the development of a hotel between 150 and 180 rooms, except for the Related Ross proposal, which envisions a 400-room hotel.

Most of the plans would require moving nearby athletic fields to a new location in another part of town, which officials have said is feasible with land that is already publicly owned. There may be a small amount of overlapping time in which the number of fields are reduced.

A proposed new city government and redevelopment plan from Related Ross. (Planning Document)

The number of residential units varies wildly between the plans. Boca City Center would build 1,129 units in a 10-story building, Namdar would build 8,015 units including 3,206 affordable or workforce rent-controlled units, Related Ross would build 650 units, and RocaPoint would develop 1,050 units.

The massive development project will take years to complete, with most of the proposals estimating completion in 2028 to 2033 following three to five phases of work.

A proposed new city government and redevelopment plan from RocaPoint. (Planning Document)

City officials are planning an open house Feb. 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Studio in Mizner Park. Comments from the public will be taken at all of the meetings through March 17-18, when it is expected that one of the proposals will be chosen and a partnership agreement will be created.