THE REAL DEAL

Boca Raton board approves Penn-Florida’s plans for assisted living facility downtown

Boca Raton board approves Penn-Florida’s plans for assisted living facility downtownThe two-story, $3.5 million sales center has a model kitchen and bathroom for The Residences at Mandarin Oriental.

Potential owners are served champagne in an atmosphere indicative of the upscale brand. But the future 85 condos starting at $1.5 million at 105 E. Camino Real in Boca Raton will just be part of a three-building complex described as an urban resort.

The Mandarin Oriental hotel will be built between the condos and apartments. The 101 Via Mizner building with 366 rental apartments is already up and leasing on the corner of Federal Highway and Camino Real.

Across town in Boca Del Mar, Via Mizner Golf & Country Club will be reborn with a new course by Nicklaus Design and the clubhouse will be torn down and rebuilt.

“The whole project is a new concept for Boca Raton,” said Harlan Goldberg, director of sales for the residences through Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

The vision came from Goldberg and Al Piazza, senior vice president of development for Penn-Florida Companies. The Boca Raton-based company has kept a low profile on the sites and the country club until the whole project came together. They owned the land for 10 years and have had approvals from the city since 2015, Piazza said.

The hotel and condo building will come out of the ground early next year and finish in 2020, Piazza said. He expects demolition to start in the next month.

“We are ahead of where we thought we would be,” he said at The Residences’ sales center at 10 E. Boca Raton Road.

Retail will inhabit the ground floor of all three buildings, and a SunTrust bank has moved and is operating, he said. The Citibank in the middle of the block on Federal Highway will also relocate to the corner at Camino, he added.

The 12-story condo building will have terraces with gas grills. Parking will be on the second and third floors with the condos starting on the fourth floor.

“They’re really homes in the sky where everything is done for you,” Goldberg said. “People want to downsize, but they don’t want to downscale.”

The luxury hotel brand is worldwide, and “people know when that flag goes up what they’re buying,” he added.

Condo owners will have their own pool and the use of amenities like a rooftop restaurant, fitness center and spa in the hotel.

“The condos will be connected by a two-story bridge. Owners will interact with the hotel as much or as little as they want,” Piazza said. An upscale private city club will open in the hotel by the end of 2019, he said.

“We tried to create some of the same feeling of being in the Mandarin Oriental and the handcrafted mosaics will be on the floor in the hotel,” Piazza said, alluding to Boca’s original architect Addison Mizner’s use of tile. “We keep one foot in the past and keep the modern looks that people expect today.”

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