Boca Raton approved an interim master plan that could enable Terra and Frisbie Group to build a mega mixed-use project on 30 acres of publicly owned land.
The resolution, which was approved by the city council by a vote of 4-1 on Tuesday evening, sets a framework for Boca Raton’s ongoing negotiations with developer David Martin’s Miami-based Terra and Palm Beach-based Frisbie, led by Rob Frisbie Jr. and Cody Crowell.
Under the preliminary plan, Terra and Frisbie will be able to build 912 residential units; 350,000 square feet of offices; a 94,000-square-foot hotel with 150 rooms; 77,000 square feet of retail; 75,000 square feet of food and beverage establishments; a new city hall of up to 30,000 square feet; a 30,000-square-foot community center; and a 10,000-square-foot police substation at 201 West Palmetto Park Road, less than a half mile away from Brightline’s Boca Raton station.
In February, Terra and Frisbie beat West Palm Beach-based Related Ross and two other development teams for the right to redevelop Boca Raton’s city hall campus. In exchange, Frisbie and Terra have offered an annual rent installment of $5.1 million over the course of a 99-year lease, plus an upfront payment of $10 million. As part of the bid, the developers will build new public facilities on the campus, including the replacement of Boca Raton’s deteriorating city hall.
In its previous bid, Terra-Frisbie proposed a 2.5 million-square-foot development consisting of 1,129 residential units, a 150-key hotel, 250,000 square feet of offices, 156,690 square feet of retail and 3,434 parking spaces. The number of residential units was scaled back after officials requested more room for green space.
The latest plans from Terra and Frisbie are subject to change, as negotiations continue, officials said during the Tuesday meeting.
“This is not really the endpoint. This is a milestone, a checkpoint in the process that will have dozens of checkpoints,” said council member Marc Widger.
However, multiple residents complained that the new project would likely swamp Boca Raton’s streets with additional traffic. One critic, resident Jon Pearlman, objected to the possibility that some of the 900-plus units could be built as condos. “Based on the new term sheet, the sale of public land is a possibility if not a certainty,” Pearlman said.
Council member Alex Thomson, the lone dissenting vote, said that while the proposed Terra-Frisbie project has been scaled down to about 1.5 million square feet, it is still too large. And since Terra and Frisbie intended to charge the city fees for building new public facilities, he said Boca Raton should explore other ways to pay for the construction of a new city hall.
“There are so many questions that it overwhelms my ability to move forward [with this project],” Thomson said.
But Mayor Scott Singer countered that the city will collect hundreds of millions of dollars in rent and property taxes from the project through the 99-year lease. And without a public-private partnership with a developer, the city will have to issue bonds to pay for the $200 million needed to rebuild a new city hall. “And I’m not in favor of [increasing] millage rates [to pay for those bonds],” Singer said.
As for the possibility of condos, Boca Raton City Manager George Brown said the Frisbie Group has a contract to buy property near the government center campus for condos.
An influx of high-income households has triggered a building boom in Boca Raton and the neighboring unincorporated area of West Boca Raton. At 6600 North Military Trail, Related Group, BH Group, and Pebb Enterprises have teamed up to transform the corporate headquarters of Office Depot into a mixed-use community with 500 new apartments and a massive Equinox gym. And 13th Floor Investments is planning to build 340 apartments by the Tri-Rail train station at 680 West Yamato Road.
