News

The 350-unit Via Mizner project planned for the corner of Camino Real
and Federal Highway will include a five-level parking garage along with
a pool. Rendering provided

By Angie Francalancia

Apartment developers are going all in on Boca Raton’s long-held dream of creating a pedestrian-friendly downtown. Four complexes — two already approved and two to be considered this month — will bring more than 1,200 new apartments to Boca Raton’s downtown. 

“We’re very pleased to enter 2012 with as many opportunities for pedestrian-friendly development in our downtown,” Mayor Susan Welchel said after the second development, Via Mizner, was approved in January. “We have put millions into making our downtown look inviting, but a pedestrian-friendly downtown does not happen if you do not have pedestrians living down there.”

Boca Raton’s good fortune is a clear sign of where developers and investors believe the housing market is headed and represents necessity as much as desire, says analyst Jack McCabe of Deerfield Beach-based McCabe Research.

“We’re in the midst of a major paradigm shift, both in South Florida and the United States,” McCabe said. “We’re in the process of changing from an ownership society to a rental society.”

Many people have realized owning real estate is risky, and others who have lost their homes have no option other than to rent, McCabe said. 

His company is tracking 40 new apartment complexes with 6,000 units either permitted or announced in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, he said.

And while some market segments, including West Palm Beach and downtown Miami, were flooded with condos that might be available for rent, Boca Raton was not. 

There were several condos proposed but never built downtown, Welchel said.

“Via Mizner was designed for condos originally,” she said. “Had condos been the market-driven style, we would have been equally as pleased. “But the fact that these high-end rental apartments will fill up our downtown and create the pedestrian environment is an exciting opportunity.”

The 350-unit Via Mizner project will be built on the corner of Camino Real and Federal Highway and will include a five-level parking structure, along with a pool.

In December, Boca Raton approved Camden, a 261-unit project to be built on a 2.2-acre vacant lot between Southeast First and Second streets and Dixie and Federal highways. 

This month, Boca Raton’s planning board and its council seated as the Community Redevelopment Agency, will consider two additional developments: Archstone would be the largest of the four projects, bringing 389 units to Palmetto Park Road east of Federal. The apartments would be built in three towers that also would include about 15,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor. Amenities would include a pool, clubroom, fitness room and large landscaped internal courtyard.

The fourth is part of Palmetto Park City Center, a project originally approved two years ago for the corner of Palmetto Park Road and Federal Highway that was to include an office tower and a hotel.

Palm Beach Gardens-based Ram is moving ahead with a 208-unit apartment complex on the 4.5-acre site that includes the Merrill Lynch office building. It’s holding off on future phases, said Hugo Pacanins, vice president of Ram Residential.

“Phase 1 will include a parking garage, the 208 residential units and about 20,000 square feet of retail,” Pacanins said. “We expect to break ground in the third or fourth quarter of the year.”