By Mary Hladky
Ever since the Brightline station opened in 2022, Boca Raton’s leaders have eagerly anticipated that developers would want to redevelop the area around it.
For that to happen, the city needed to create land development regulations for the area. But the city was slow to do so, and one developer became tired of waiting and withdrew its plans to build a 13-story luxury apartment project on a city block immediately south of the station.
Now, with word circulating that a developer will soon propose a public-private partnership to redevelop the area, city leaders are scrambling to make up for lost time. Without regulations in place, no project can be built.
Given a shove by anxious City Council members, city officials’ top priority now is to create transit-oriented community regulations for the station area as well as 30 city-owned acres south and west of the station, including land on which the City Hall and Police Department now sit.
The area would be bounded by the station and Downtown Library on the north, West Palmetto Park Road on the south, Dixie Highway on the east and Crawford Boulevard on the west.
City officials also propose creating a master redevelopment plan for the city’s current government campus.
City Manager George Brown termed the overall effort “priority one” in a June 28 memo to the mayor and City Council. “I emphasize this is a significant effort and we must act with urgency.”
City officials are working to select a major consulting firm with planning, engineering and architectural capabilities and expect to have one approved by the council by early October.
If that consultant can’t handle the entire project, the city can hire more that have specific areas of expertise.
The consultant must have significant experience with public-private partnerships, known as P3s. Such partnerships with the private sector are intended to save the city money by sharing redevelopment costs.
The consultant will create a master plan for the government complex and the transit-oriented community, or TOC.
The plan will allow for residential, retail, entertainment, recreation and city functions in the TOC.
The city also is allowing for the possibility that a developer will offer an unsolicited P3 proposal; the consultant would help the city evaluate it.
If the city accepts it, the consultant’s work could be at an end. But the city wants a consultant on board in case no such proposal materializes.
Revamping the government campus is not a new idea. The City Hall and police station are old, crumbling and have needed extensive repairs. The 30 acres also are in need of reimagining.
Consultant Song + Associates submitted two options for a new government hub in 2019. But the projected $200 million price tag stunned council members, who said they wanted to find ways to trim the cost. The start of the pandemic in 2020 brought the project to a halt.
Comments