BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2026) — Boca Raton’s Community Redevelopment Agency approved a revised Individual Development Approval for the Royal Palm Place Hotel project in downtown, a quasi-judicial action that amends a prior approval and resets key elements of the hotel site plan, including the public parking concept tied to the redevelopment area.
The vote adopted Resolution No. CRP-00-02R7, which amends IDA No. CRP-00-02R6 for the Royal Palm Place Hotel project on approximately 0.9 acres at 200 S. Federal Highway and 75 SE 3rd Street, and continues to incorporate the hotel into the broader Royal Palm Place development area.
Under the amended approval, the hotel room count is reduced from 144 to 137. The amended plan also removes below-grade parking from the previously approved hotel structure and reduces approved building square footage for the hotel from approximately 167,360 square feet to approximately 80,800 square feet. Retail (High) tied to the site increases by 11 square feet, from 11,284 square feet to 11,295 square feet, described in the resolution as a mix of restaurant, fast food, and retail uses.
The most visible change is to public parking. The amended approval removes a previously approved 24-space public parking plaza and open space area and replaces it with a seven-story parking structure totaling 206,980 square feet, including ground-floor Retail (High) space. The approved height for the structure is capped at 74 feet, 9 inches, with architectural features permitted up to 90 feet, 3 inches. The amended approval also authorizes public parking spaces within an existing parking structure at 101 Plaza Real South.
The CRA’s action also includes technical deviations under the Downtown Development Regulations and Improvements (DDRI) Development Order framework. The deviations reduce the required number of off-street parking spaces from 2,099 to 1,417 and reduce the drive-aisle width for certain surface parking spaces from 26 feet to 24 feet.
During the public hearing, residents used the comment period to press on design, scale, and the direction of downtown redevelopment.
Resident Pam Pashkah said she supported the hotel concept but objected to the parking structure design. “I like the hotel, it looks very nice. It’s obviously going to be a good thing for Boca,” she said, adding, “I don’t like the garage design. I think it should fit in more with Royal Palm Place.” She also said the garage’s “super modern” look was not consistent with what she called the “timeless” architecture in the city.
Resident and city council candidate Jon Pearlman said he frequents the plaza and described it as “very charming,” then criticized what he viewed as a shift in character. “This proposal seems to be flipping that around into something else,” he said. Perlman also framed his comments around broader policy choices, telling the board, “Do we want Boca to become a true urban center? And the answer is no.”
The resolution itself is a redevelopment-area entitlement, not a building permit. The CRA’s approval establishes what is allowed at the development-order level for the hotel site and associated public-parking elements, and it sets the framework the applicant must follow as plans move into permitting, detailed engineering, and construction sequencing.
For residents and downtown stakeholders, the immediate implications are practical and visible: fewer hotel rooms than previously approved, a redesigned parking strategy with a large structured garage replacing a small public parking plaza, and a formal reduction in parking requirements under the DDRI accounting tied to the downtown redevelopment area.
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