A growing destination
Boca Raton attracting new residents, businesses as downtown gets a string of new high-rises
Downtown Boca Raton, one of South Florida’s fast-growing destinations, has become an even bigger lure in drawing new residents and economic development during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The influx of newcomers comes as the downtown grows with a string of highrises — some of them newly built, some still under construction — that are boosting the city’s housing supply with more than 2,000 apartments and condos, in addition to the opening of hundreds of new hotel rooms.
It has helped set out the welcome mat for the many northerners who during the pandemic are buying their condos first, then starting their searches for commercial space for their companies. “That’s totally new for us,” said Jessica Del Vecchio, the city’s economic development manager. “People want to be here. They’re buying these as permanent residences.”
Recently, a Midwest executive did exactly that: After visiting family for a short vacation in Boca Raton, he and his wife bought a house and are now making arrangements to bring their company with them.
“The timing of those projects — who knew when they were breaking ground that COVID would be a catalyst for sales?” Del Vecchio said. “That’s certainly given us an edge.”
Seeing growth
The city has long planned to transform the downtown area into a bustling social hub.
The goal has been to attract young, working people and older empty-nesters to the many new developments downtown — all to foster a “live-work-play” atmosphere.
Building toward that vision are the more than 10 apartment complexes that opened or are under construction. For downtowns to thrive, “the element of residential must be there,” said Jorge Garcia, CEO of Garcia Stromberg, a local architectural and development firm, who has served on the city’s planning and zoning board. And with Boca Raton being mindful of the need for apartments, the growth has been just “absolutely nitroglycerin on fire,” Garcia said.
Among the developments:
■ Camino Square, rising eight stories, will have 350 apartments at 171 W. Camino Square.
■ The 11-story Via Mizner, one of the completed highrises, offers 366 apartments at 101 E. Camino Real.
■ The nine-story Alina Residences, at 200 SE Mizner Blvd., is being built in phases. The first phase has 130 residences, and the second phase, expected to start later this year, will offer 244 additional units.
Alina Residences, which just began listing its new luxury condominium units, has drawn significant interest from people moving from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and California, said Marisela Cotilla, the executive director of sales.
“People are accelerating a plan they might have had in the future,” Cotilla said. The pandemic “has people thinking more about their lifestyle, about what they should be doing, about how much space they really need and the comfort of that.”
The swath of development — which has been nonstop through the pandemic — also has lifted Boca Raton’s efforts to recruit companies to the city from out of state.
“Downtown development has certainly helped us now with the executives moving into those higher-end luxury condos,” Del Vecchio said.
The downtown itself has lured 12 new businesses that relocated from the northeast, according to city officials.
“Everyone is back at it,” said Andrea O’Rourke, a City Council member who has lived downtown for over 20 years. “We have lots of new restaurants coming to that area, and I think that the pandemic was what I would really call a hiccup for the economics in downtown Boca.”
Facing change
Through the years, some residents have opposed building up the downtown, complaining it’ll change the character of the community while attracting more traffic.
One clash came in 2015 when the City Council voted to raise the maximum allowed building height in the city if it were on a small enough plot of land and far enough away from roadways.
At the time, some residents worried buildings would be too big.
On a recent day downtown, resident Denise McLaughlin said she has come to accept the number of high-rises, but isn’t a fan of them. She said she loves being able to walk to shops and restaurants, but has become frustrated with the number of people, cars and noise in the area.
“Do I really like it? No, I don’t,” said McLaughlin, a personal trainer. “I would rather the buildings stay the way they were, but what can you do?”
But if you were to walk across the downtown, you’ll likely find residents who can list improvements. Bill Weisman, an attorney who has lived downtown since 1992, especially likes the crosswalks that were added in recent years, which make him feel safer crossing Palmetto Park Road.
Weisman has his office just a few blocks away from home. “I love being able to walk to work,” he said, while doing just that.
One of downtown’s new residents is Eric Geier, who on Thursday was walking his beagle in the shade of one of the newer high-rise condos downtown.
He recently moved from Manhattan and said he knows many of his neighbors made similar moves from the northeast. The 51-yearold insurance salesman said he loves nearly everything about the downtown, except for the loud exhaust of some drivers late at night.
Setting restrictions
Ruby Childers, the city’s downtown manager, said the development has been continual, noting how the current design is based on a city comprehensive plan that was approved in 2009. Back then, the Great Recession put development on hold, but that’s changed ever since.
“When the market came back up, it’s pretty much been continuous development downtown,” Childers said. “It’s valuable property, and we have all of the appropriate elements in downtown to keep moving at this pace.”
Still, the city has remained “protective” of its growth development model and the environment, she said.
The city has imposed requirements with new developments, such as capping building heights and making developers provide certain off-site road improvements, Mayor Scott Singer said. Those requirements figure into the plan to create an “inviting” and “walkable” downtown, he said.
O’Rourke said she likes some of what’s been built in the area, but not everything.
Generally, she’s happy with the recent direction of development. “I think that as long as we are smart looking forward and have an expectation of exceptional development, then that’s what we’ll get.”