Boca Resort & Club plans $150M in renovations; donates Boca Country Club to city
By Dale King
Just six years before it celebrates its 100th birthday, the Boca Raton Resort & Club – Addison Mizner’s stunning creation that lured the first tourists to Boca Raton and helped transform the small, agrarian city into a business, education, beachfront and tourist Mecca, has made a couple of major announcements in less than a week.
Officials at MSD Partners and Northview Hotel Group, the firms that purchased the Resort in mid-2019, have made it known that a $150 million renovation and restoration is in the offing at the 350-plus acre property on Camino Real.
They gave Mayor Scott Singer the go-ahead to make the other announcement. The mayor recently emailed Boca citizenry to “share the outstanding news” that the Resort bosses “plan to donate the [167-acre] Boca Country Club to the city of Boca Raton.”
“As a result of this generous donation, the Boca Country Club, which includes an 18-hole championship golf course, a clubhouse, tennis courts and pool facilities, is proposed to become a city-owned and operated facility” on Oct. 1, 2021.
“This incredible opportunity will enhance the city’s world-class recreation, including championship golf on a beautiful course. This donation will allow us to expand our outstanding array of offerings and will improve the future of recreation in Boca Raton.”
An article in Travel + Leisure magazine tells how the Resort’s owners have begun to gather a “dream team” of designers and architects to renovate and transform the waterfront property on Camino Real. The Resort itself lies on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway while the Boca Beach Club is just off State Road A1A across the water. Both are due for an upgrade.
Coburn Packard, a partner and co-head of real estate at MSD Partners, said, “As we approach the most comprehensive transformation in its history with a team of award-winning visionaries, we’re aspiring to redefine luxury hospitality.”
Shawn Sullivan, partner at Rockwell Group, echoed Packard’s sentiments, saying, “It’s thrilling to bring the Boca Raton Resort & Club full circle, almost 100 years after its opening, and with a look and a feel that extends the original core of the Resort outward.”
The article says the project includes a lakefront complex with four pools (including an adults-only option), a lazy river, two slides, a splash park, luxury cabanas and more.
Plans also feature a retail boutique, an event lawn, a kids’ club and a teen’s lounge, two bars, and other dining options, including a lakefront restaurant.
The 27-story pink Tower on the site will be reconfigured and renovated, officials said, with all new guest rooms — 130 suites, 10 executive suites and a presidential suite — and a lounge on the top level with views of the city, ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
The resort’s restaurants, including Morimoto and Palm Court, will also be revamped.
Hotel executives said the Beach Club’s updated lobby and oceanfront restaurant and bar will debut, and the rest of Phase 1 transformations are set to be completed by the 2021-2022 season.
In the meantime, Boca city officials are beginning to prepare a “transition plan” to smooth out the switch of the Boca Country Club from a Resort-owned facility to city property, said Deputy City Manager Mike Woika, who outlined the project at the Oct. 14 council meeting.
During that session, all four sitting council members – Mayor Singer, Deputy Mayor Andrea Levine O’Rourke, Andy Thomson and Monica Mayotte – all voted in favor of accepting the Resort’s donation.
Woika noted that the Boca Country Club property is located some distance from the Resort, and is actually outside the Boca Raton city limits, on Congress Avenue north of Clint Moore Road. The recreational facilities wind around more than 500 homes said to be occupied by more than 2,000 people.
Several residents of the Boca Country Club and nearby Boca Teeca spoke at the Oct. 14 public hearing, both for and against the donation of the recreational land. Opponents expressed concerns about security and traffic, and those from Boca Teeca wondered if the city planned to abandon a golf course proposal being worked on at that development.
During the hearing, at least one Boca Country Club resident urged the council to postpone a vote, claiming the donation was being “pushed” through with insufficient time to plan. Council members did put it to a vote that night.
Woika noted that the city has 11 months to work on a transition plan, during which residents’ concerns can be addressed. “We can look at the neighbors’ concerns, including traffic and security, which seem to be the most prevalent.”
The deputy city manager said the property will be turned over to the city without passing any debt to the new owner. “We intend to operate at the same level and with the same standards used since its inception.”
“We plan to run it as the premier operation it is now, with no debt.
Before calling for a vote, Mayor Singer said: “We have done our due diligence. We know the value of a golf course. We will do our best to work out all the concerns.”
All council members preceded their votes with positive comments about the recreational addition, with Singer adding, “The feedback overall has been overwhelmingly positive.”
MSD Partners was formed in 2009 by MSD Capital, a company created in 1998 to handle investments for the Dell family. The patriarch, Michael S. Dell, founded the Dell computer manufacturing corporation which, according to the internet, is the third largest computer firm in the nation, behind Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard
