Company discards plan to build two mixed-use projects in downtown plaza
By Mary Hladky
Investments Limited has withdrawn plans for redeveloping two portions of Royal Palm Place and instead wants to build an extended-stay hotel and restaurant on the middle portion of the 14-acre site.
A proposal submitted to the city in December calls for an eight-story hotel with a maximum of 144 rooms that would sit atop a seven-story parking garage, with three below-ground levels for valet parking.
The 390-space parking garage is intended to address the parking shortage for patrons of the iconic shopping and dining destination.
“Overall, the proposed … development will reduce the current parking deficiencies by providing up to 171 surplus parking spaces,” the proposal states.
Armen Batmasian, Investments Limited’s director of acquisitions and development, declined to elaborate on the project until plans are more advanced.
“Hopefully, [the hotel] will fulfill a need we have for families,” he said.
The hotel would sit on Federal Highway about midway between the 200-room Hyatt Place and the 164-room Mandarin Oriental now rising from the ground.
The hotel, restaurant and garage would be located where the Black Rose Irish Pub and 4th Generation Organic Market & Cafe now sit.
The project would include an expanded “Garden of Humanity” at the center of Royal Palm Place and pedestrian walkways, green spaces and shade trees, along with public space for special events. The Addison Mizner statue would remain.
Those elements were included in plans submitted to the city in 2017, when the largest commercial property owner in the downtown called for two new buildings.
One would have been located on Federal Highway between Southeast Second and Third streets, about where the hotel is now slated to go, and included 69 upscale rental units, just over 11,000 square feet of retail and restaurants and parking for 301 cars.
The second building on the northeast section of the property, at the intersection of Southeast Mizner Boulevard and Southeast First Street, would have included 220 high-end rentals, about 4,500 square feet of retail and restaurants and parking for 500 cars.
While the new proposal does not say why those plans have been withdrawn, it suggests Investments Limited still plans a major redevelopment of the entire site at some point.
“Over time, Royal Palm Place will evolve into a world-class identity, patterned after a European Renaissance village,” the proposal states. “The most important redevelopment goal of Royal Palm Place will be to enhance the globally recognized Boca Raton brand.”
Investments Limited wants to eventually transform Royal Palm Place, built in 1966, from the appearance of a suburban-style shopping center to an urban mixed-use “live, work, play” development.
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