Boca Raton Planning Board OK’s Furniture Store for Federal Highway Parcel

The property at 1000 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL, July 2026. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Boca Raton’s planning board has approved the construction of a large furniture store to be constructed near what is now the parking lot of a bank building.

The board, last week, approved the request for the property at 1000 N. Federal Highway, which spans about 2.3 acres in area. The remainder of the property is currently developed with a bank building that is no longer operating. That building once housed a Bank of America branch and is currently being advertised for lease.

The furniture store will be located in an approximately 10,000-square-foot, one-story commercial building. It will be split between an 8,000 square foot furniture showroom and 2,000 square feet of other retail space.

“We don’t have the end user solidified,” attorney Ele Zachariades told board members.

In addition to the construction of the new building, the project includes site improvements, including removing the existing egress-only driveway along North Federal Highway, widening the existing sidewalk on N. Federal Highway, and enhancing the property’s landscaping. The number of parking spaces on the property will increase from 58 to 90 in order to accommodate the new 10,000 square foot building. By code, Zachariades said, the property is required to have 84 spaces.

The property at 1000 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL, July 2026. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The property at 1000 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL, July 2026. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The owner of the property, 1000 Federal Investments LLC, which is linked to local businessman James Batmasian, requested through his attorney that a voluntary median beautification fee be reduced from approximately $43,000 to $14,000. The basis of the request centered on the fact that a beautification fee had already been paid by the property owner for nearly the entirety of the lot when it was first constructed. The $14,000 figure represented the area of the property where the new building was slated to be constructed. The beautification fee is assessed, but not actually required by law to be remitted and is paid voluntarily by developers. It is set at $70 per foot of frontage.

The board unanimously approved the application, including the request to reduce the beautification fee. The original bank building was approved in 1971 and was expanded in 1984, according to city land records. In 2004, a garden center and nursery was approved for the site, but did not come to fruition.