Boca Raton’s proposed downtown redevelopment would bring the city roughly $3 billion over 99 years, according to a principal of the project team.
Rob Frisbie made that projection during Monday’s city council workshop meeting. Frisbie Group and Terra Development form the team that the council chose to redevelop the 30 acres around City Hall.
Frisbie added that the team is working with a consultant to survey the infrastructure, some of which he said dates to the 1940s. The city, he said, must upgrade those facilities one way or the other. Revenue from the redevelopment, he said, would pay for that work. Specifics will come soon.
Monday’s presentation was the city’s latest public attempt to tout the project as opponents organize to block it through a petition drive that would force a referendum. Before Frisbie, Deputy City Manager Andy Lukasik made the case for the project. Like Frisbie, Lukasik talked money.
Boca Raton, Lukasik said, faces many financial “challenges.” Costs are increasing, but council members want to keep taxes low. The city’s infrastructure is “aging.” The community redevelopment agency will go away in 2042, stopping a revenue source. And the Legislature seems intent on demanding a cut—or more—in property taxes, which are the main source of local government revenue.
The Terra/Frisbie project, Lukasik said, would address those challenges by providing “a diverse revenue stream.” In addition, the project would create “civic vibrancy” and allow Boca Raton to provide recreation “in a different way” by building a softball complex, skate park and tennis courts elsewhere to replace outdated downtown facilities.
Lukasik also said the project would provide a second life for the Singing Pines Children’s Museum, which has been closed since the pandemic. It and another historic home will go to Meadows Park. That move happens next month. A related item is on tonight’s council agenda.
Despite the promotion, which included a presentation by Councilman Marc Wigder, questions remain as the city sticks with a schedule to approve the permanent master plan in late October. City consultants have not finished vetting Frisbie’s revenue projection. There are still no specifics about the total public cost—such as for City Hall and the community center—and when those costs would need to be paid.
Deputy City Manager James Zervis said the project would need “layered financing.” He promised to bring the council “a responsible approach.”
Save Boca movement highlights Terra’s lawsuit over 2021 Surfside condo collapse
Project opponents have raised a new issue: the lawsuit against Terra and other parties after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside.
Families of the victims named Terra and several entities that helped to build the company’s Eighty Seven Park condo on the south side of where Champlain Towers stood. The plaintiffs claimed that construction in 2016 of Eighty Seven Park, where units sell for between $2 million and $15 million, destabilized Champlain Towers, leading to the collapse.
According to reporting in the Miami Herald, Terra and other entities related to Eighty Seven Park paid $400 million of the roughly $1 billion settlement.
Terra’s attorney said, “Our clients’ participation in any eventual settlement is neither an admission of liability nor recognition of the validity of any of the plaintiffs’ claims. The design, development, and construction of Eighty Seven Park in no way caused or contributed to the collapse of Champlain Towers South. Hopefully, ending this litigation will help bring some closure to the survivors of this tragic event.”
Construction of Eighty Seven Park took place as near as 12 feet from the wall around the pool deck. Seven minutes after the deck broke away from the wall, the south side of the condo fell.
As the Herald article noted, though, “The majority of the wall connection did not fail, including in areas where measured vibrations were highest. Experts consulted by the Herald said vibrations five years earlier could not have triggered the collapse nor were they strong enough to damage a healthy structure. But Champlain South was under-designed and poorly maintained.”
Mizner Plaza inches toward approval
A luxury hotel near Mizner Park that would displace Boca Raton’s downtown post office is one step from approval.
Planning and Zoning Board members last week recommended 5-1 that the city council approve Mizner Plaza. It would have 242 rooms, plus some retail, and rise 12 stories on Northeast Second Street, facing Mizner Park. The developers are James and Marta Batmasian of Investments Limited.
Residents of Tower 155, the luxury condo that would abut the hotel to the south hired attorney Richard DeWitt to argue against the project. He brought Jeff Costello, a former director of the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
DeWitt claimed that the staff analysis of city-owned land that would be part of the project was “deficient.” The Batmasians propose buying the parcel, which now provides parking for the post office, and making it a park. Costello said downtown development is “busting at the seams” and that the plan for Mizner Plaza “could be better.”
Costello and some residents also complained about the 20-foot width of the alley that would separate Tower 155 and the hotel. Between deliveries and garbage pickup, they said, the alley could be impassable at times. Residents worried that the hotel would block their views.
The Batmasians’ attorney, Ele Zachariades, responded with diagrams showing, she said, how the hotel was designed to minimize disruptions to the views from Tower 155. And views, she noted correctly, “are not guaranteed.”
Zachariades then showed how the Batmasians proposed to build less than downtown rules allow. She pointed out that the alley would be wider than it is now. A consultant showed how the alley design would make traffic move better than it does now. Zachariades pointed out that the hotel could have been just 11 feet from Tower 155 but would be 54 feet away.
Finally, Zachariades pointed out “the history” of Tower 155. The residents who complain about the hotel being too tall live in a building that got extra height a decade ago did so because the developer—a major donor to council campaigns—requested a reduction in the lot size eligible for that height. The council went along.
Board member Timothy Dornblaser agreed. The complaints about Mizner Plaza “are the same complaints that were made about Tower 155.” Board member Christen Ritchey called it “a beautiful project. Ritchey is running for the Boca Raton City Council in March. Her contributions include $1,000 from Zachariades’ firm.
Dorothy MacDiarmid cast the only no vote. That was odd, since she had said of the design, “It looks beautiful.” MacDiarmid also recalled that the project might finally allow connection of Mizner Park to Palmetto Park Road. The Batmasian properties had been “the holdout.”
Mizner Plaza could go to the council next month or in October.
Delray Beach approves police contract
Delray Beach finally has a police contract.
City commissioners approved the proposal during last week’s special meeting. Though it remains subject to a ratification vote, Police Benevolent Association representatives said union members will support it. The agreement will be retroactive to this budget year, which ends Sept. 30, and expire on Sept. 30, 2027.
The union declared an impasse in February. That action triggered a hearing in May before a special magistrate. He sided with the city on two remaining work-rule issues and mostly with the union on wages and pensions.
The salary increases in the new contract will cost the city roughly $200,000 a year. City Manager Terrence Moore said there will be no need to amend the current budget to accommodate the raises. Union representatives said the increases will help Delray Beach attract and retain officers.
Though Mayor Tom Carney and Commissioner Juli Casale had been the most vocal opponents of the union’s wage proposal, they voted for it. Commissioners Angela Burns, Rob Long and Thomas Markert provided the majority. Oddly, Carney and Casale voted against an extension of the retirement program that analysts said could save the city money.
Long called the process “idiotic.” Carney responded that the “idiocy” was the union’s original demand. Though the impasse delayed things, the magistrate’s report might have provided the impetus for last week’s outcome.
But did it have to get that far? As the dispute dragged on, as many as two dozen officers left. Former Police Chief Russ Mager said the departures, combined with officers on leave, had caused severe staffing shortages.
Hiring and training will cost the department. Then there’s the money for labor attorneys. As the magistrate wrote, the no-new-taxes approach that Carney, Casale and Markert approved last year boxed in the city. Without that decision, from my reading, a new contract could have come much sooner.
P&Z board recommends approval of Martin Manor and Camino Square Phase 2
Also at last week’s meeting, the Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Board recommended that the council approve the plan for Martin Manor and the proposed second phase of Camino Square.
Martin Manor will replace Dixie Manor in Boca Raton’s Pearl City neighborhood. The new subsidized housing complex will have 200 apartments. The item is on the agenda for tonight’s council meeting.
Camino Square, near Camino Real and Dixie Highway, was supposed to be half residential and half retail. If the council approves the revised version of Phase 2, the project will have 740 apartments and just a small amount of retail, mostly for restaurants. No one spoke against the change.
The Boca Raton seeks approval for new residential tower
On the agenda for tonight’s regular city council meeting is approval of an amendment that would allow The Boca Raton to build a 100-foot residential tower.
Current rules allow The Boca Raton—formerly the Boca Raton Resort & Club—just 85 feet. The project would add 76 private residences. The amendment would apply only to planned unit developments (PUDs) of at least 100 acres—meaning only to The Boca Raton. The planning and zoning board unanimously recommended approval. The staff recommends approval.
New residential development on city agenda
Another item tonight’s agenda is approval of changes that would allow a 20-unit residential development on vacant land at 6800 N. Federal Highway. The item covers three properties, to ensure that the housing—on the inverted-L-shaped site—would be compatible with single-family houses to the east and Arturo’s Ristorante to the north.
Both review boards unanimously recommended approval. City planners also recommend approval.
A plan to connect Federal Highway and NW Second Avenue
Also on tonight’s agenda is the first step toward opening Jeffrey Street from Federal Highway to Northwest Second Avenue. The change is designed to provide a direct east-west route across northern Boca Raton.
Tonight’s item is approval of the design contract. The project would unfold in three phases. The first will include improvements to the intersection at Jeffrey Street and Northwest Second Avenue. The second will extend Jeffrey Street to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. The third will complete the extension to Federal Highway.
