The Boca Raton City Council has decided to put a proposed 99-year lease for a major development project to a public vote before granting formal approval. The project, planned by Miami-based Terra and Palm Beach-based Frisbie Group, would involve constructing apartments, condominiums, retail spaces, and offices on 30 acres of city-owned land at West Palmetto Park Road and Northwest Second Avenue.
On Tuesday evening, council members directed the city attorney to include a referendum clause in any lease proposal after hearing from residents who called for a special election regarding the development plans. The revised proposal from Terra and Frisbie features 580 apartments, 160 condos, 80,000 square feet of retail space, and 250,000 square feet of office space. It also includes upgrades such as a redesigned Memorial Park, new city hall and community center facilities, a tennis center with up to ten clay courts, a playground with banyan trees, a World War II memorial, and a new children’s museum.
Frisbie managing partner Rob Frisbie Jr. and Terra CEO David Martin explained that the new plan is less dense than their earlier concept. The previous version had 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 the developers reduced the size of their project and added more green space following resident opposition at an earlier meeting. He stated he was open to holding a referendum and announced public workshops scheduled for September 29 at the downtown library and October 6 at Spanish River Library. Both sessions are set for 4 p.m. Frisbie also said his team would meet with local homeowners’ associations and would not press 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 eliminates the hotel component and reduces both residential units and retail space compared to earlier proposals. While these changes lower projected payments to the city—from about $3 billion under the original plan over the lease term to $2.1 billion under the current proposal—Frisbie said his group remains committed to providing $10 million for a pedestrian bridge near Brightline’s Boca Raton station connecting government buildings with Mizner Park.
Despite these adjustments, critics have continued their campaign against leasing public land for private development. Jon Pearlman, founder of Save Boca, reported that opponents have collected about 7,000 signatures supporting an ordinance or charter amendment requiring voter approval before selling or leasing more than half an acre of public land; roughly 1,000 signatures were gathered 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 and other facilities could be renovated or replaced without giving up public land or adding traffic that could change Boca Raton’s character. Concerns remain about moving some recreational facilities—including two softball fields—from Memorial Park elsewhere in the city as part of redevelopment plans.
Earlier this year in February, Terra and Frisbie were selected over other teams in a competitive bidding process for redeveloping Boca Raton’s government campus area; at that time their proposal was larger at approximately 2.5 million square feet with over one thousand residential units.
In addition to this initiative in Boca Raton, Terra and Frisbie are pursuing another large-scale redevelopment at Palm Beach Kennel Club in Palm Beach County which may include as many as 1,145 apartments.
Development interest in Boca Raton continues from other groups as well: Mill Creek and Group P6 are planning a $101 million apartment complex with over three hundred units downtown; meanwhile local developers James and Marta Batmasian received support from Boca Raton’s Planning and Zoning Board for two twelve-story hotel towers near Mizner Park.
