By Mary Hladky
Erik Silver, the Boca Raton Resort and Club’s director of tennis, and a business partner are proposing a 10-acre recreation center on the former Ocean Breeze golf course property.
The privately funded plan calls for 10 indoor clay tennis courts and four pickleball courts. Outdoor facilities would include 20 pickleball and six tennis courts. Other facilities would be two basketball courts, a paddle tennis court and two hitting walls.
Shaded rest areas and a walking path with exercise stations would surround these facilities.
Silver’s partner is Robbie Wagner of Robbie Wagner Tournament Training Inc., which builds and operates indoor tennis facilities in the Northeast.
Silver did not respond to phone messages and an email seeking additional information on the plans.
The proposal is among more than 230 responses the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District received to its call for ideas on what to do with Ocean Breeze now that the 212-acre property is no longer slated to become the Boca National golf course.
Most of the recommend-ations came from residents advocating for a golf course, pickleball courts, disc golf, walking and biking trails and green space, and even a botanical garden.
In addition to the Silver/Wagner plan, three other larger-scale proposals came from Eric Ah-Yuen, president of Elite Sports and Recreational Management and director of the Pickleball Athletics Club; Jiri Jasko, owner of Brno Investment; and Lynn Peterson Glover.
Ah-Yuen suggests a privately funded pickleball complex on 5 to 7 acres with 36 lighted courts, including as many as 24 covered courts, a multipurpose building for activities such as ballroom dancing and yoga, an indoor teaching academy, and a walking and jogging trail around the complex.
Jasko proposes eight tennis padel courts, clubhouse, and outdoor refreshment seating.
Glover calls for a Rhino Golf Center, a golf learning and practice facility with a lighted driving range, 18 putting greens that could also be used for miniature golf, and a two-story clubhouse.
The proposals are bare bones, offering few specifics.
Golf was the top amenity suggested by respondents, followed closely by walking, running and cycling trails. Those were followed by disc golf, pickleball courts and tennis courts.
Of golf options, a 9-hole executive course appeared to be the most popular, with 234 people saying they wanted one with a driving range, 18-hole putting green, golf learning facility and practice area.
A number of residents said a shorter course is needed because the 18-hole course at the Boca Golf and Tennis Country Club, donated to the city last year by the Boca Resort, is too difficult for many golfers.
A sizable number of people insisted the district should resurrect plans for the Boca National course at Ocean Breeze.
District commissioners discussed the responses only briefly at their April 19 meeting.
“I think these are all great ideas,” said Commissioner Steven Engel. “We need to figure out a way to mold them together.”
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