The Boca Raton City Council unanimously approved Camino Square’s second phase after the project’s builders agreed to include more retail and less residential.
The Nov. 17 vote of the council, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, came one month after they put the project on ice until landowner Kimco Corp. and FCI Residential Corp. revised plans.
The changes they made were small but enough to secure the council’s blessing on grounds that they would bring more people to the site and enliven it.
The number of residential units dropped from 394 to 374 and the amount of retail increased from 8,632 square feet to 23,368 square feet.
The project also would include a bigger interior courtyard and pocket park fronting Camino Real.
Project attorney Ele Zachariades said she hopes the builders will be able to lease some of the space to a restaurant that would have outdoor dining.
The previous month she told council members that, despite years of trying, the builders were unable to attract retail because a gas station blocks the view of the property from the street so people won’t know retail is there.
The vote came six years after the council approved the first phase of the project at 171 W. Camino Real. It included two eight-story apartment buildings with 350 units that are now almost fully leased.
At the time, the second phase, located on the western side of the 9.1-acre tract, was to focus on retail. Since then, the plan was changed to add two more eight-story apartment buildings and a parking garage.
— Mary Hladky
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