Boca rejects downtown senior living facility

BOCA RATON — Boca Raton officials rebuffed a plan Monday to bring a ritzy $75 million downtown senior living facility with a theater, restaurant and salon to the downtown.

Developer Group P6 and landowner Robert Buehl pitched “The Concierge” as a 129-bed assisted, independent and memory care facility on Southeast Sixth Street between Dixie Highway and Federal Highway. The 130,000-square-foot facility with an underground parking garage would pay $1.4 million in taxes annually without adding children to Boca Raton’s already crowded schools, the developer said.

But the project lacks adequate parking and places a strain on Boca Raton Fire Rescue services, city officials said. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board voted 3-1 to reject The Concierge, with Commissioner Jeremy Rodgers supporting the project.

The proposed assisted living facility, and the 100-plus seniors that would live there, would burden the fire department, which is already seeking more employees, said Chief Thomas Wood.

“We are in desperate need of additional EMS services now,” Wood said.

The developer offered to provide a private ambulance service, but Boca Raton Fire Rescue is the only agency licensed to provide emergency transportation within city limits, Wood said. Private ambulances can provide nonemergency transportation, however.

Still, city officials weren’t convinced.

“It’s already a high-volume area and to add to this could be troubling,” Commissioner Monica Mayotte said.

Chairwoman Andrea O’Rourke said an assisted living facility may not be an appropriate use given the city’s “vision for the downtown.”

The developer described the project as a “high-end, resort-style senior living facility” that would serve people already living in Boca Raton. There are two assisted living facilities in Boca Raton, but no independent living facilities, in which residents have private dwellings but access to common areas.

“It’s a shame that the city of Boca Raton doesn’t recognize the need for such a facility,” said Ignacio Diaz, who heads Group P6. P6 also built 327 Royal Palm, a 25-unit condo just south of Palmetto Park Road in downtown Boca.

“It’s absolutely the best use for the property,” Buehl said of the Southeast Sixth Street land.

Buehl plans to battle the CRA’s rejection of The Concierge, a project he’s been planning for two years.

“They denied this project based on a lack of EMS, which the city is required to provide,” Buehl said. “I think they inserted their foots into their mouths when they said that’s the reason they rejected the project, and I appreciate that they did.”