President Donald Trump’s return to the White House will also mean a return to the old normal for the Boca Raton Airport for the next four years.
About a month after the election, the airport reminded the community on social media of “temporary increases in flight activity” at the airport east of Florida Atlantic University when Trump visits his home in Palm Beach. News reports indicate that Trump may spend more time at Mar-a-Lago than he did during his first term, now that he’s a Florida resident.
During those visits, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restricts traffic over Trump’s estate. Because of those restrictions, some flights use Boca Raton rather than Palm Beach International, which is just west of Mar-a-Lago. That will mean more air traffic for those living under the airport’s flight paths, generally to the northeast and southwest.
Pilots also will have to turn more quickly when taking off to the northeast. Though the FAA sets a 10-nautical mile “inner core” around Mar-a-Lago, there is a 30-mile “outer core.” Boca Raton Airport Authority Executive Director Clara Bennett told me, “It’s hard to predict” what the effect will be this time, though the airport stresses that it won’t be “constant.”
Upgrades and additions to Boca Raton Airport
Trump isn’t the only reason for added activity at the airport.
One of the two fixed-base operators, Atlantic, is spending $40 million on upgrades to its facilities. Among those upgrades are a new hangar and fuel tanks. Bennett said the work is a condition of the 40-year lease that Atlantic signed in 2022.
In addition, the airport’s observation tower officially opens next week. Bennett calls it “a great amenity.” Another is the customs facility that opened in 2018. It draws passengers who want to avoid long lines at Palm Beach International. Airport officials say traffic is almost double what they had predicted, running between 1,300 and 1,600 a year. There were roughly 83,000 overall takeoffs and landings in 2023.
Last October, the airport gained control over the roughly 15-acre commercial parcel on Airport Road north of the Cinemark movie theater. That came as part of the settlement of a lawsuit against the airport by the company that had leased the site from the state.
The airport now controls all three properties that are home to non-airport businesses. On the south side of Cinemark is the Boomers entertainment complex. The airport receives no tax money. Most of its revenue comes from leases and fees. It is not part of the county airport system that includes PBIA. A seven-member board oversees the agency. City council members appoint five members. The county commission appoints two.
Boca Downtown Campus bidders set to give presentations
Bidders seeking to redevelop the area around Boca Raton City Hall will make presentations to city council members on Monday at 12:30 p.m. That’s an hour earlier than the normal start time for a workshop meeting. The public can attend, but only council members will be able to ask questions.
Camino Square developer seeks site plan change
The developer of Camino Square in Boca Raton wants to change the site plan and more than double the number of apartments at that location on the edge of downtown.
Kimco owns the roughly nine-acre site that had been home to a mostly abandoned shopping center. It’s north of Camino Real, on the west side of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks.
In 2019, the city council approved what Kimco had said would be the first phase—346 apartments on half the property. According to the developer, an unspecified retail component would take up the other half.
Now, though, Kimco wants another 400 apartments and only about 4,000 square feet of retail that would primarily serve Camino Square residents. Like the first phase, the apartments would be in a pair of eight-story buildings that would have Mediterranean architecture.
Six years ago, residents of Camino Gardens—the large community west of the property—packed the council chambers to oppose Camino Square. They claimed that the project would create a traffic bottleneck along Camino Real.
But the city had secured money from county impact fees to add turn lanes on Camino Real and to make other improvements near the project. City planners said Camino Square would bring overall benefits, notably ending blight on the property.
Critics again may raise traffic concerns. The preliminary staff review asks many questions about “transportation.” Some relate to how cars would get around within the project. Others seek to encourage more reliance on public transit.
But residential generates less traffic than retail. And council members—acting as the community redevelopment agency—may want to review the history of the first phase. Two council members voted against it for reasons that did not relate to the application itself. Mayor Scott Singer cast the tie-breaking vote and noted that if the council had rejected the project, a lawsuit “would not be entirely frivolous.”
Boca High teacher files defamation suit against administrators
A Boca Raton High School teacher has accused the principal and other administrators of failing to protect him against what he calls a student’s unfounded accusations.
In a lawsuit filed last month, Jordan Hernandez said Principal Suzanne King, Assistant Principal Tom Welter and Guidance Counselor Kristin Wasserman “turned their backs” on him when Kristin Moreno, a student in Hernandez’s mental health leadership class, began making “false and malicious rumors” in November 2022.
According to the lawsuit, Moreno said Hernandez bullied her, made late-night phone calls to her, drank alcohol with students, stole money from non-profit groups and made plans to see Moreno after she went to college. The lawsuit accuses the administrators of negligence and Moreno of defamation.
In January 2023, the lawsuit says, the school arranged a meeting with Moreno’s parents. Four students, the lawsuit said, had given statements that undercut Moreno’s accusations. Hernandez wanted Moreno removed from his class.
Instead, the lawsuit says, the parents accused the students of bullying their daughter. Moreno stayed in the class. Hernandez alleges that administrators feared “retaliation” by the parents, who believed that leaving the class would hurt their daughter’s college admission prospects.
In May, Hernandez—a former Coach of the Year and Teacher of the Year—was told that he was being investigated for policy violations. “Despite his longstanding reputation for integrity,” the lawsuit says, “the unfounded accusations … were publicly shared within the school community, causing substantial harm to Mr. Hernandez’s personal and professional reputation.”
The lawsuit is especially critical of Welter, saying that he repeatedly “scolded and belittled” Hernandez. Yet in August 2024, King found “no reason or evidence to penalize” Hernandez. Moreno’s claims were “unsubstantiated.”
The lawsuit seeks $200,000 in damages “and such further relief as the Court may deem.”
Boca-based private prison company stands to benefit from mass deportations
I reported Monday that Adam Hasner, a former Republican state legislator who works for Boca Raton-based GEO Group, is a finalist to be president of Florida Atlantic University. I also wrote that GEO Group, which runs detention centers and prisons, expects to profit from Trump’s plan for mass deportations.
GEO Group Chairman George Zoley believed that several months ago. According to Investing.com, in August Zoley bought 200,000 more GEO Group shares at roughly $12.25 per share. Based on GEO Group’s closing price Wednesday of $34.35, Zoley has made a paper profit of $4.4 million just on those purchases.
But that number vastly understates how much Zoley has benefited from Trump’s election. Yahoo Finance says Zoley owns 4,147,890 shares of GEO Group. Based on that $12.25 value in August, Zoley’s holdings were worth $50.8 million at the time. They now are worth $142 million.
