BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2026) — The developers proposing an eight-story, members-only private club in downtown Boca Raton have now bought the building where they want to put it, a $10 million transaction that places the project squarely in front of city boards and, eventually, a newly reshaped political landscape at City Hall.
The property, 100 N.E. 1st Avenue, was purchased by The Sanborn RE, LLC from Jennifer M. Shea, trustee of the Jacqueline T. Higgins Revocable Trust. The sale was recorded Monday, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s office.
The site sits in the center of a part of downtown Boca Raton that is already drawing new attention, new proposals, and renewed arguments over growth. Earlier this year, the developers announced plans for what they described as an exclusive, 44,000-square-foot private club that would pay homage to Sanborn Square, the public space directly in front of the building.
The proposal calls for a vertically stacked club with different uses spread across eight stories. Plans include a signature restaurant, a supper club, a rooftop bar and grill, a speakeasy, and a rooftop pool deck. The project would also include a library, private dining rooms, a wellness spa, a third-floor fitness club and card room, and eight hotel-style guest rooms.
One of the central design features is parking below ground. City documents show the developers want an underground, fully automated valet parking structure, a feature that also drives the code relief they are seeking from Boca Raton.
Specifically, the developers are asking the city for an exception to reduce the width of a required driveway and to reduce the minimum distance where vehicles must stop for off-street parking facilities. Those requests are narrower than some recent downtown development deviations, but they still require city review because they depart from existing code standards.
That review has not yet been calendared. A hearing before the city’s Planning and Zoning Board and the Community Redevelopment Agency has not been scheduled, according to city records. Those boards will be responsible for reviewing the deviation requests before the matter moves through the city process.
That timing matters. The project is landing at a moment when downtown development is already under heavier scrutiny in Boca Raton, especially after city leaders approved a planned 12-story hotel roughly a block away earlier this week. That hotel proposal drew strong criticism from residents and other opponents who argued the city is allowing too much growth in the downtown core.
Parking was one of the flashpoints in that debate. Critics of the hotel objected in part to the developer’s request to deviate from standard city parking requirements. The Sanborn proposal involves a much smaller parking-related deviation request, but it still touches the same broader issue: how much flexibility the city should allow developers in a built-out downtown where traffic, access, height, and neighborhood character remain recurring concerns.
That means the private club proposal is likely to get a public hearing beyond its technical planning issues. Even if the requested deviations are limited, the application gives opponents of downtown development another setting to challenge the project and, more broadly, the city’s direction.
It also will be reviewed by a different group of local officials than some recent proposals faced. The requests are expected to come before three new City Council members serving on the redevelopment board, each of whom campaigned against overdevelopment. Their approach to downtown projects, and to code deviation requests in particular, is likely to draw close attention from residents, property owners, and developers alike.
For now, what is clear is that the developers have moved beyond concept and into ownership. By acquiring 100 N.E. 1st Avenue, they now control the site for a project that mixes hospitality, dining, wellness, and private social space in one of the city’s most closely watched redevelopment areas.
What happens next is procedural, but important. The city’s advisory and redevelopment bodies still must review the requested code deviations, and those hearings will likely offer the first public test of whether the proposed club is seen as a modest site-specific request or another example of downtown pressure that residents want city leaders to resist.
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