Written Journalism

Boca Raton’s Downtown Building Boom

This fall, construction began on phase two of Via Mizner, a mixed-use project in downtown Boca Raton consisting of three 12-story towers. Upon completion, Via Mizner will be one of four new high-rises completed in the area since City Council temporarily raised the maximum height for buildings in 2008, and Boca Raton city staff and residents alike have mixed feelings about the downtown building boom.

The city’s amendment to the former 10-story height limit passed in a majority city council vote, allowing for buildings to now reach heights of up to 14 stories. This took place during former Mayor Susan Haynie’s term, now clouded by an impending criminal trial.

The decision made changes to city Ordinance 4035 which is responsible for governing the planning and design of downtown development. Following the change to height regulations under Haynie The Mark at Cityscape opened, a 12-story apartment complex located near Palmetto Park Road and Federal Highway.

Within the next three years, three more 12-story developments broke ground.

A year after the completion of the Mark at Cityscape, the Hyatt Place Hotel opened in 2016. The following year, phase one of Via Mizner was completed in August 2017. Now, Phase of Via Mizner is in Progress along with Tower 155, three high-rise towers set to be complete in summer of 2019.

All of these developments are within Boca Raton’s downtown area, which extends from Camino Real on the south end of Federal Highway to Glades Road on the north. Boca’s downtown area consists of Mizner Park, Royal Palm Place and the surrounding developments.

“It does kind of feel like downtown has been under construction since I moved down here five years ago,” says Katherine Kurbatov, a FAU student and seasonal retail worker, “I hope Boca’s local small businesses see some benefits from these [projects] too.”

According to the Sun Sentinel, the city set a long-term goal in 1980 to redevelop the 8 million square ft that is considered Boca’s downtown space. At the end of 2016, only about 1.4 million square ft remained to be developed.

But this has not come without growing pains. In 2017, city staff projected downtown needing 1200 to 2000 more parking spaces in order to accommodate growth. Other concerns include road congestion and the walkability of Boca’s downtown area.

“My only concern is parking,” says Vaughn Lazar, a co-owner of Mizner Park restaurants Dubliner and Kapow. “The more people that are coming into downtown Boca the better, but parking has already been a problem”.

Many of the recent construction projects in downtown Boca can be attributed to the amendments made to ordinance 4035 during Haynie’s time in office and her pro-development policies. During Haynie’s tenure as mayor, those in opposition of high-rise buildings in downtown Boca were repeatedly outvoted in City Council and within the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Haynie was arrested in April of this year on seven counts of criminal acts including official misconduct, perjury and failure to disclose conflict of interest. The mayor allegedly took money from local developer James Batmasian and withheld more than $350,000 in income from her undisclosed property management company Community Reliance, a business she started with her husband

Following Haynie’s arrest, efforts began to undo the development policies put in place during her time as mayor. With Haynie out, scales could tip in favor of City Council member Andrea O’Rourke who has been vocal about her thoughts on rolling back the rules that allow for taller buildings downtown, and told the Sun Sentinel the rules “haven’t brought much to the beauty of our downtown.”

However land developers along with many business owners and employees feel otherwise. In an October CRA meeting Richard Bassel, director of planning for Via Mizner’s development group Penn-Florida, told City Council members that projects like Via Mizner “continue to elevate Boca Raton on a world stage” and that “Via Mizner will bring luxury assets to downtown upon completion.”

Many restaurant workers in particular eagerly await the arrival of 5-star clientele in Boca. “Restaurants down here are all about the off-season and on-season, so we hope these new [residences] will bring in more money to the city year round,” said Dominique Cole, a young waitress in a Mizner Park restaurant.

Via Mizner, the largest of the recent higher-rise properties emerging across downtown Boca, is a $398 million project expected to be complete in 2020. When complete, the middle tower of the three will be the sixth Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the United States and the only hotel property in Palm Beach County with 5 stars, according to Forbes Magazine. The two outside towers will be luxury residences ranging from $1.9 million to $20 million.

Upon completion of the last two of four projects, the six new buildings will have 1,181 new rentals in total, nearly doubling the number of residencies in downtown Boca since 2013. With all of the new growth Boca Raton is experiencing, residents will likely enjoy the new benefits of these luxury properties while also experiencing the growing pains of the city’s downtown building boom.