Nearly six years after developers secured Boca Raton City Council approval for the first phase of the Camino Square project at 171 W. Camino Real, they now want to proceed with the second phase at the site of a former shopping center anchored by a Winn-Dixie that closed in 2010.
The first phase included two eight-story apartment buildings with 350 units, which are now more than 95% occupied, and two parking garages. The second phase, located on the western side of the 9.1-acre tract, was to have nearly 38,000 square feet of retail.
But now, landowner Kimco Corp. and FCI Residential Corp., an arm of sugar producer Florida Crystals, want to replace the retail with two more eight-story apartment buildings that have a total of 394 units and a parking garage. Only 8,600 square feet of retail would be constructed.
City Council members, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, objected to the change when they considered the revamped project on Oct. 14. They gave the developers a month to revise it once again.
Project attorney Ele Zachariades reluctantly agreed, saying she understood the council’s wishes.
Earlier in the meeting, she explained that her clients were unable to secure a retail anchor tenant because an existing gas station blocks view of the property from the street so people driving by won’t know that retail is there.
“There is no marketability for retail at this location,” she said.
But Deputy Mayor Fran Nachlas and Council member Yvette Drucker said that development without retail would not bring people to the area to create a vibrant atmosphere.
Mayor Scott Singer said he shared that concern.
“For me the bottom line is, does this satisfy the vision of the downtown. Does it create vibrancy in the downtown,” Nachlas said, before answering her own question by saying it doesn’t.
— Mary Hladky
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