The Boca Raton City Council approved plans for a hotel in Royal Palm Place after the plans were revised from underground parking to building a seven-story parking garage, in addition to reducing the number of rooms from 144 to 137. Rendering provided
The Boca Raton City Council on Feb. 23 unanimously approved plans by Investments Limited to build a 12-story hotel in Royal Palm Place.
The revised project marks the third change by Investments Limited, the largest commercial property owner in the downtown, to its plans since it first proposed a hotel in 2019.
The latest version is similar to its 2022 iteration. The main change is that underground parking has been eliminated and a seven-story parking garage added.
Project attorney Ele Zachariades told council members, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, that the parking garage was added due to a sharply increased cost of building underground parking.
The current proposal calls for 137 hotel rooms, a reduction of seven rooms from 2022. As before, retail and restaurant space including outdoor dining will be included in the project.
Some existing Royal Palm Place surface parking that is scattered in several locations, and which no longer complies with current parking regulations, will be eliminated or improved.
The existing Garden of Humanity will remain.
The hotel will be connected to the parking garage with a second-floor pedestrian bridge.
The garage will be built first followed by the hotel, which would be completed in about 18 months.
James and Marta Batmasian, who lead Investments Limited, also have proposed a hotel and retail project on Northeast Second Street immediately north of the Tower 155 condo in the downtown.
That project, unveiled last summer, has drawn heated opposition from Tower 155 owners.
— Mary Hladky
Comments