Oak Lane Partners plans to develop a 243-unit Live Local Act project next to its headquarters in Boca Raton, and is seeking streamlined approval under the state’s affordable housing law.
Oak Lane, led by founder and managing partner Bhavin Shah, plans 226 apartments and 17 townhouses next to an office building that houses its headquarters in Boca Raton’s “light industrial and research park” (LIRP) zoning district.
The Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Board unanimously voted Thursday to amend the previously approved site plan for Oak Lane’s two-story office building in Boca Raton to allow construction of an eight-story apartment building on the west side of the building, and five three-story rental townhouse buildings on the east side.
Oak Lane intends to designate 10 percent of the apartments and townhouses as affordable housing units and 5 percent as workforce housing units. The apartment building would include 23 affordable housing units and 12 workforce housing units. The rental townhouse units would include two designated as affordable housing units and one as workforce housing, according to its amended site plan proposal.
Oak Lane also plans to replace about two-thirds of the space in the 130,150-square-foot office building that houses its headquarters with an 11,447-square-foot restaurant, a 2,570-square-feet outdoor dining area and an indoor recreation space spanning 72,428 square feet, the amended site plan proposal shows.
The planning and zoning board voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend conditional use approval of the recreation space planned inside the office building, which would include racquet courts, climbing walls, a miniature golf course and a toddler area.
Property records show that a company controlled by Oak Lane paid $20 million in 2023 to acquire its 10-acre office property at 791 Park of Commerce Boulevard in Park at Broken Sound, a 700-acre commercial and residential hub in Boca Raton.
The Live Local Act encourages commercial-industrial multifamily developments with an affordable housing component in areas not zoned for residential property.
Under the state law, municipal government staff can approve residential developments in non-residential zones, without review by elected city leaders, if the developments include affordable housing with below-market rents.“The project meets the eligibility requirements and development standards for CIMDs,” Heather Hansen, a senior planner for the city of Boca Raton, said at the city’s planning and zoning board meeting on Thursday, referring to Oak Lane’s development.
