Boca Raton’s developer-friendly city council has until March 31 to push through agenda items, before a slate of recently elected NIMBY representatives takes the majority.
James and Marta Batmasian’s controversial two-building 12-story hotel project near Mizner Park fit into that narrow window.
Boca Raton officials approved the Batmasians’ 219-key Mizner Plaza Hotel project at 132 and 170 Northeast Second Street by a vote of 4 to 1 during Monday’s Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, despite persistent opposition from residents of the neighboring Tower 155 condominium.
The proposed hotel, designed by Boca Raton-based HdA Architects, is slated for a 1.7-acre site of a post office and retail plaza. The design has fewer keys than an earlier proposal that included 242 hotel rooms.
A parking deviation will allow the Batmasians to build two levels of underground parking with 328 spaces, instead of the 557 required by city code. The Batmasians agreed to provide more parking within 600 feet of the hotel if the city determines there’s a parking shortage.
The approval requires the developer to monitor the 12-story Tower 155’s structural integrity during construction with drones and seismic sensors. The Tower 155 condo association sued developer Compson Associates after cracks were found in the 150-unit building, which was completed about six years ago.
Construction of two more 12-story buildings with underground parking 20 feet away is “a recipe for disaster,” resident Brian Kritchman said.
“My heart breaks for you, it truly does, but it is not our problem,” Marta Batmasian told Tower 155 residents during the meeting.
Neighbors said the Batmasians wouldn’t need to ask for a 41 percent parking reduction if they reduced the size of their project. But Ele Zacharadias, the Batmasians’ attorney, said the site can be redeveloped by right into a massive residential project without view columns.
The political tide has turned in Boca Raton, after voters rejected Terra and Frisbie Group’s proposed One Boca mega project that was slated to be built on city-owned land. Jon Pearlman, the founder of Save Boca, which campaigned against One Boca, unseated incumbent council member Marc Widger. Save Boca-backed candidates Stacy Sipple and Michelle Grau were elected to council seats. Voters also elected council member Andy Thomson, the council’s lone critic of the One Boca project, as mayor.
Widger, a real estate developer and chairman of the CRA, suggested at the start of the meeting that the Mizner Plaza hotel project be deferred until after the new council is sworn in next week. But the rest of the council, including Thomson, felt they should vote.
Thomson voted for the project, arguing that case law favored Batmasians’ property rights.
Ultimately it was Widger who cast the lone dissenting vote because he was against underground parking “for a multitude of reasons” including Florida’s shallow water table and the impact its construction could have on neighboring properties.
“A parking garage within 600 feet is a better idea,” Widger said, adding that such a project would be “tens of millions of dollars cheaper” than building underground parking.
One of the city’s largest property owners, the Batmasians plan to build another 12-story hotel just half a mile away at their 15.4-acre Royal Palm Plaza property.
