BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — Boca Raton’s push to remake its downtown City Hall campus stayed in the spotlight this week as the City Council spent two days digging through new design drawings and a fresh financial analysis of the proposed 99-year ground lease with Terra & Frisbie Group, advised by real-estate firm CBRE.
As reported first by Boca Post, the proposal faced a lot of pushback from residents at the council meeting on Tuesday evening.
At workshops held Nov. 17 and 18, staff and consultants outlined how the latest concept would split the 20-plus acre site along NW 2nd Avenue. Everything to the west would stay in public hands and be reserved for civic and recreational uses. The 7.72 acres to the east, near the Brightline station, would be leased to the private team for a mix of residential, retail, office and hotel space.
On the west side, the plan calls for a new 10,000-square-foot police and fire rescue substation with public-facing services and room for response vehicles downtown. A 35,000-square-foot community center would add flexible meeting rooms, community rooms, athletic space, and an indoor basketball and multi-purpose court, with ground-floor food and beverage planned along the park edge.
City Hall itself would shrink slightly to 30,000 square feet but be rebuilt with modern, community-facing customer service areas and multi-purpose council chambers and meeting rooms. Around those buildings, a rebuilt Memorial Park would feature a children’s playground, large civic green, Banyan Village and a Garden Walk, along with two outdoor basketball courts and a larger tennis center with 10 clay courts and a new facility.
The private development zone east of NW 2nd Avenue is now modeled at 85,098 square feet of retail, 947 residential units, 120,000 square feet of office space and a 63,000-square-foot, 180-room hotel. Those totals reflect multiple rounds of downsizing from the original submission as the city and developer adjusted massing and uses.
CBRE’s revenue model assumes the city will lease those 7.72 acres to Terra & Frisbie Group for 99 years. In return, Boca Raton would receive annual ground rent tied to the project’s rental income, new ad valorem taxes on the private improvements, and a package of new public facilities on the west side. Over the full lease term, total proceeds to the city are projected at roughly $4.14 billion in non-discounted dollars. When future payments are brought back to today’s value using a 4.5% discount rate, the net present value is estimated at about $353.8 million.
Projected ground rent alone accounts for about $1.95 billion over 99 years, or $158.4 million in today’s dollars. New city property tax revenue from the private development is modeled at $83.5 million in net present value, with another $52.6 million going to the Community Redevelopment Agency. A separate line item for “profit / upside revenue participation” adds roughly $575.7 million in gross dollars and $25.1 million in net present value, while future transfer fees on any sale of the project are estimated at $219 million over the term, or $27.8 million in today’s dollars.
That upside participation depends on how the project performs. A “Ground Rent – Upside Revenue Share” schedule presented to the council shows the city receiving 10% of project profits once the developer reaches an agreed-upon “return on cost” for each use. The hurdle rates are 8.25% for residential, 8% for retail, 10% for hotel and 9.5% for office, with the model assuming 3% annual revenue growth across all categories. Once those thresholds are hit on a stabilized basis, the city’s 10% share would apply to profits above the hurdle.
In addition, if Terra & Frisbie sell the project or portions of it after stabilization, the city would collect a 1% fee on the gross sale price. The team has also committed a one-time contribution of about $7.8 million for offsite mobility work, trimmed from a prior $10 million pledge in line with the reduced building program.
On the spending side, the updated public-facilities budget for the west campus now totals $198.99 million. That includes roughly $96.4 million for the new City Hall, community center and police/fire substation; $51.7 million for new parks, open space and site work; $39 million for west-side development site work; $18.2 million for utilities and roadways; and $38.6 million for transportation and mobility upgrades such as roundabouts, drainage, bike lanes, shared-use paths, smart streetlights and other “smart city” technology.
Key dates are already lined up. On Dec. 2, the council is scheduled to review proposed ballot language for the March 10, 2026 referendum, along with draft versions of the Master Partnership Agreement, ground lease, construction management agreement and refined cost estimates. A state-required public-private partnership analysis and independent appraisals are also due at that meeting. Follow-up sessions on Dec. 16 and Dec. 18 will cover regulatory issues and Planning and Zoning Board review of the ground lease. First reading of the ordinance to approve the Master Plan and agreements is set for Jan. 6, with a final council vote targeted for Jan. 20. If approved, the package would then go to voters on March 10.
City staff continue to describe the project as a long-term effort to replace aging government buildings, shift some recreational uses, and create a “live, work, play” civic hub that links government services with new housing, shops and parks around the downtown Brightline stop. Whether that vision moves forward will ultimately be decided at the ballot box.
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