The Boca Raton City Council has decided to hold a voter referendum before moving forward with a proposed 99-year lease that would allow developers Terra and Frisbie Group to build on public land. The decision came after numerous residents requested a special election regarding the development plans for 30 acres at West Palmetto Park Road and Northwest Second Avenue.
City officials instructed the city attorney to include a referendum clause in any future lease agreement. The revised proposal from Terra and Frisbie calls for 580 apartments, 160 condominiums, 80,000 square feet of retail space, and 250,000 square feet of offices. It also includes updates to Memorial Park, construction of a new city hall and community center, and other public improvements.
Rob Frisbie, Jr., managing partner at Frisbie Group, and David Martin, CEO of Terra, said the current plan is less dense than their earlier version. The previous proposal included 912 residential units, 150 hotel rooms, 350,000 square feet of office space, and 152,000 square feet of retail.
Frisbie told council members that changes were made in response to resident concerns voiced at an earlier meeting. He stated he was not opposed to a referendum and agreed to hold public workshops with residents on September 29 at the downtown library and October 6 at Spanish River Library. He also expressed willingness to meet with local homeowners’ associations and indicated there would be no push for an agreement by late October as initially planned.
“We need to get the community behind this project,” Frisbie told council members. “This is a [really] exciting plan and they should get to vote on it.”
The updated plan removes the hotel component and reduces both residential units and retail space. It now features a tennis center with up to ten clay courts, a playground using existing banyan trees on site, a World War II memorial, and a new children’s museum.
However, scaling back the project means lower financial returns for the city over time. Under the original larger plan, developers projected payments totaling about $3 billion during the lease term; under the reduced plan this figure drops to approximately $2.1 billion. Developers would also receive fees for constructing new municipal facilities but remain committed to providing $10 million toward building a pedestrian bridge near Brightline’s Boca Raton station connecting government buildings with Mizner Park.
Despite these changes, opposition remains strong among some residents who have gathered around 7,000 signatures supporting an ordinance or charter amendment requiring public votes before leasing or selling more than half an acre of public land. Jon Pearlman of Save Boca noted that about 1,000 signatures were collected during recent heavy storms.
“Right now, the land is public. They want to get it into their possession. And once they get it, they will have full control over it for the next 99 years,” Pearlman said.
Some residents argued that city hall renovations or replacements should proceed without transferring public land or adding traffic from new development projects that could alter Boca Raton’s character. Current plans still involve relocating some recreational facilities from Memorial Park elsewhere in the city.
Earlier this year Terra and Frisbie were selected over Related Ross of West Palm Beach and two other teams in bidding for redevelopment rights at Boca Raton’s government campus area; their initial proposal covered roughly 2.5 million square feet with more than one thousand residential units.
In addition to this effort in Boca Raton, Terra and Frisbie are working on redeveloping Palm Beach Kennel Club in Palm Beach County into as many as 1,145 apartments.
Development activity continues across Boca Raton: Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC has partnered with Group P6 on a $101 million apartment complex featuring over three hundred units downtown (https://therealdeal.com/miami/2024/05/14/mill-creek-group-p6-to-build-306-apartments-in-downtown-boca-raton/) while James Batmasian received planning board approval for two twelve-story hotel towers near Mizner Park (https://therealdeal.com/miami/2024/06/03/james-batmasian-wins-board-support-for-two-hotels-by-mizner-park-in-boca-raton/).
