Whelchel Partners has bet $4.2 million that it can secure approval for a controversial adult living facility in Boca Raton.
The real estate company paid that much in April for the 3.6-acre site near Addison Mizner School where Whelchel wants to build the ALF called Park Square. The three-story project would have 128 beds. In 1989, the land sold for $880,000.
In May 2021, Whelchel submitted the ALF application. On March 1, 2022, Development Services Director Brandon Schaad notified Whelchel that the city had denied the application because of “deficiencies.” At the time, the owner of the property was a church that had closed. The owner then sued. Whelchel Partners has become the plaintiff.
At issue is whether the ALF would need a change to the city’s comprehensive plan. Such a change would require four votes on the council, not a simple majority of three.
On Monday, Jay Whelchel reiterated to me the allegation in the lawsuit—the city had told the company three times that the project would not require a plan amendment. “We’re not idiots,” Whelchel said. “We asked.”
But on Dec. 23, 2021—“on the eve of the holidays”—City Attorney Diana Frieser said in a letter that a plan change would be necessary. The letter came after neighbors in the Boca Square neighborhood organized to oppose the project. Many spoke against it during council meetings.
Current rules allow several uses on that site, including single-family homes, but not an ALF. The project began city review only because Councilwoman Monica Mayotte sponsored a text amendment. Critics soon noted that allowing an ALF at the Southwest 12th Avenue location would mean allowing them near other single-family neighborhoods.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order the city to consider the application. Whelchel contends that Frieser is “grinding down” the application through “legal maneuvering” so that the council doesn’t have to deal with the politically sensitive issue.
“This is a city attorney run amok,” Whelchel said. “She thinks she’s all-powerful and can do anything she wants, and it’s not fair. It’s awful. This has cost me a lot of money.”
Given the uncertainty of lawsuits, though, why buy the property? The contract had been conditioned on city approval of the ALF. There were deadlines, Whelchel said. Waiting much longer could have risked the company’s deposit and any chance to acquire the property.
Also, Whelchel said, “I believe that we will win the lawsuit.” He suggested that Frieser feels the same way.
The city’s outside legal team has filed several motions to delay the litigation. Since it was filed, a new judge has taken over. Robert Sweetapple, Whelchel’s attorney, told me that the parties are trying to arrange a mediation session on Aug. 30.
“You know what’s crazy?” Whelchel said. “If we win, I don’t win any money. I just win the chance to go before the council. They can vote it up or down. But that’s all we’ve been asking: Let the council vote.”
BRIC approved for new uses
CP Group’s proposed makeover of the former IBM campus in Boca Raton reached a milestone last week.
The city council gave preliminary approval to an ordinance that would allow many new uses, including housing, on what is now called the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRIC). The 127-acre site is on Yamato Road just west of Interstate 95.
CP Group, formerly Crocker Partners, bought the property in 2018. A 2021 recapitalization with DRA Partners set the value at $320 million. About that time, CP Group began talks with the city on that wide-ranging ordinance.
Though the city is preparing a similar ordinance for the nearby Park at Broken Sound—formerly the Arvida Park of Commerce—the proposal before the council would apply to properties of at least 100 acres that are one-half mile from the Tri-Rail station at Yamato Road. Only BRIC would qualify.
Under the ordinance, CP Group would be able to add all manner of housing, including live-work units. The ordinance also would allow hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, medical offices, child-care facilities and even a performance venue with as many as 5,000 seats.
It’s all part of CP Group’s goal to draw more office tenants and make BRIC the most attractive tech startup location in the southeastern United States. Part of the draw is the history. IBM invented the personal computer there.
Schaad called the 58-page ordinance, which the planning and zoning board approved 5-1, “extremely complicated.” He told council members, however, that after “a number of disagreements,” the city and CP Group had resolved all of them but one. One dealt with requiring what CP Group considers duplicative and costly plats. The other concerned building permits and certificates of occupancy for the buildings in each section of the campus. Construction would happen in sequences.
CP Group Managing Partner Angelo Bianco said the latter issue would harm the company’s ability to secure financing for the makeover. Councilman Mark Wigder agreed, saying that, with any plan, CP Group must “sell it to the bank.”
Schaad countered that the city needed to make sure that development fulfilled the goal of this new “enhanced mobility” district—to reduce car trips. What if anticipated elements to meet that goal didn’t get built?
Even as the meeting went on, it appeared that the two sides had worked out a compromise on that issue. Mayotte called CP Group “trustworthy.” The council voted to send the plan to the state for its review. That will take 30 days. The proposal then would come back to the council.
If the council approves it, Bianco said, the company could have a master plan ready by the end of the year or early 2024. He anticipates no construction before 2025.
Boca delays Live Local Act decision
Council members couldn’t decide last week on how to regulate development that the Legislature has told cities they no longer can regulate.
That would be residential projects in which a certain number of units are classified as affordable housing. Under the Live Local Act, Boca Raton must allow mixed-use projects proposed for certain areas if 65 percent of the project would be housing and 40 percent would be affordable. Council members would have no say.
Regulations for such projects went before the council for approval. After more than an hour of discussion, however, council members delayed a decision until at least next month.
Wigder worried that the proposal was too restrictive. “I have faith in our business community,” he said, to offer responsible projects. Mayotte worried that any restriction could draw fire from Tallahassee. “This could put us on a radar that we don’t want to be on.”
Frieser told the council that the law allows for local ordinances. Deputy City Manager George Brown said other cities are crafting their own ordinances. Mayor Scott Singer was more supportive of staff recommendations designed to keep projects from looking slapped together.
Collectively, though, the council didn’t want to decide hastily about something with potential long-term consequences. Thus the delay.
Singer and Boca council expand staffs
I wrote recently about Singer and council members wanting to expand their personal staffs. They wasted no time.
There would be four new positions for the mayor and council, supposedly to help with scheduling and policy. The cost would be $365,000 a year. A budget amendment would use $90,200 in reserve funds to fill those positions before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30.
New developments in Ag Reserve deal
There’s a new twist in the proposed land swap involving the Palm Beach County Agricultural Reserve Area.
GL Homes wants to trade land outside the reserve in return for building 1,000 homes within the reserve north of Stonebridge Country Club in West Boca. GL is offering to build a water supply project on that northern land—to sweeten the deal for county commissioners.
Now, according to The Palm Beach Post, Commissioner Sara Baxter wants GL Homes to give the county 120 acres as part of the deal. The land would become a park with trails for off-road vehicles and would be next to a proposed motorsports complex. Both would be in Baxter’s west-county district.
GL Homes and Baxter, The Post reported, are having “ongoing discussions.” The commission is scheduled to take up the swap in late October. This new element could explain why the vote was postponed from August. GL may need more time to prepare this latest sweetener.
