Election day has arrived for Terra and the Frisbie Group’s controversial One Boca project.
Boca Raton voters are casting their ballots to decide the fate of a massive redevelopment of the city’s government campus that has inspired a passionate grassroots NIMBY movement in opposition since the development was first proposed a year ago.
Proponents for One Boca, which would be developed by David Martin’s Terra and the Frisbie family’s Frisbie Group, say it could bring in $4 billion in revenue for the city and provide much-needed updates to city facilities.
Opponents, organized under the banner of Save Boca and led by local resident Jon Pearlman, take issue with the use of city land for private development, equating the proposed 99-year lease between Boca Raton and Terra and Frisbie to a giveaway. Also at issue is the redevelopment of the city’s Memorial Park. Pearlman has equated the park’s redevelopment to “bulldozing Central Park.”
Proponents of the project, like Jason Haber, call the comparison absurd. Memorial Park spans 17 acres; Central Park covers 843 acres and sees 42 million visitors annually.
Haber, the co-founder of the American Real Estate Association and a Boca Raton homeowner, calls Pearlman and Save Boca’s efforts “classic NIMBYism.”
“This issue, like so many other development issues, is not Republican versus Democrat. It’s geography,” Haber said. “Those who are in proximity to the development site are most likely to vote no.”
The city initially awarded Terra and Frisbie the bid to build a 2.5 million-square-foot project on 30 acres of public land in February of last year. After a groundswell of public opposition, the developers whittled the project down and agreed to send it to a referendum.
The One Boca proposal voters face today still includes a 99-year lease. It spans 7.8 acres of city-owned land, rather than 30, and includes 120,000 square feet of office, a 30,000-square-foot grocery store, a 180-key hotel, 765 apartments and 2,100 parking spaces.
The developers are in contract to buy the adjacent site at 140 Northwest 4th Street for a 182-unit condo project. In the current proposal, One Boca will redevelop Memorial Park with a new city hall, community center, police substation, playgrounds, tennis courts and other recreation facilities. The plan calls for the relocation of baseball fields and the police department’s headquarters to other city-owned sites.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, advocates on both sides have ramped up campaigning efforts. A series of op-eds in local outlets laid out arguments in extensive detail. Martin made a rare media appearance on the South Florida Business Journal’s Business Breakdown podcast to champion the project.
“This is a whole different level of street fighting than we’re used to,” Haber said.
Also on the ballot are a slate of candidates for city positions with the potential to swing Boca’s entire city council NIMBY. Pearlman is running against incumbent city councilman and real estate attorney Marc Widger, and Save Boca endorsed candidates Michelle Grau and Stacy Sipple.
“We need to carefully plan the future of Boca Raton,” Widger said.
“What you have with Mr. Pearlman is a one-issue opponent who is focusing strictly on downtown,” he said. “There’s so much going on in this city beyond this 7-acre project.”
Last month, Pearlman was the only candidate to decline an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board ahead of its endorsements. In a January interview with The Real Deal he emphasized the gravity of this One Boca vote, saying, “The fate of this project could very well shape the entire future of this city.”