News

A cement truck travels through the intersection of East Royal Palm Way and Southeast First Avenue

on the east side of a new apartment complex being built by Kast Construction for Ram Residential.

Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star 

By Steve Plunkett

    Construction on downtown rental projects made cranes the high points of Boca Raton’s skyline this tourist season.

    Work continues on the 261-unit Camden Boca Raton complex, at 131 S. Federal Highway, and on The Mark at CityScape, just behind 120 E. Palmetto Park Road, which will have 208 units. Billboards proclaim Camden will be ready to lease this summer, while the 12-story Mark anticipates opening early next year.

    But the construction cranes will remain a part of the downtown scene. The 350-unit Via Mizner, at Federal Highway and Camino Real, should be ready for renters by the end of next year or early 2016, architect Derek Vander Ploeg said.

    And Tower One Fifty Five, a condominium project he designed for young adults, should open at the northwest corner of Mizner Boulevard and Boca Raton Road before the 2015 tourist season begins, he said. The building will have 192 mostly one- and two-bedroom units and be 100 feet high.

    Via Mizner, the first building to be approved under the city’s interim design guidelines, will rise 140 feet. 

    Vander Ploeg said demand for apartments at the Heritage complex across from City Hall is proof that renters want to live in Boca Raton. The complex, which developed from a failed condominium project known as the Eden, now has a waiting list to get in.

    “It’s doing quite well,” Vander Ploeg said.

    Also on the drawing board to punctuate the city’s skyline is a proposed 13-story Hyatt Place Hotel for the southeast corner of Federal and Palmetto Park Road. Planners call the corner the main location in Boca Raton for a landmark building of architectural significance.

    Meanwhile, construction crews at 855 S. Federal Highway are busy building the city’s new Trader Joe’s. The California-based grocery chain has said it hopes to open by May. Its website says only that the Boca Raton store is “coming soon.” 

    All quiet on the construction front is the controversial Archstone site on East Palmetto Park between Third and Fifth avenues, which originally planned to be built and open by now.

    Charles Siemon, an attorney for the developer, Archstone Palmetto Park LLC, said this project was in the midst of being sold with an early April closing anticipated.

    The nine-story, 378-unit structure was also approved under the interim design guidelines at 100 feet high, but with balconies 13½ feet from the right of way instead of 20 feet.

    Archstone Palmetto Park LLC, the developer, got the legal go-ahead to proceed Jan. 29 but has not filed any construction drawings with the city yet, Development Services Director John Hixenbaugh said.

    The project won City Council permission in 2012 but was mired in court when residents upset by the high density and potential traffic petitioned to have a referendum on the approval. The city first said voters have no right to review a development order, a circuit judge ruled the citizens could put the issue on the ballot, the city appealed, and the 4th District Court of Appeal finally overturned the lower court Jan. 29.

    In the meantime, Archstone asked for an extra year to begin construction. The extended approval expires Feb. 27, 2015.

    “I feel they will move quickly to finish the construction plans,” Siemon said of the new owners, estimating the groundbreaking to be six months away.

    Michael Marshall, attorney for the developer, did not return a call by press time.

    As planned, Archstone Palmetto Park will be one building that appears to be three towers, with 13,448 square feet of retail on the ground floor, mostly for restaurants. The site is nearly 5.8 acres. Amenities will include a pool, clubroom, fitness room and landscaped courtyard.