Boca Raton agrees to $14.5 million plan for Paddle Club on old Ocean Breeze property
BOCA RATON — The first new entity from a wide range of plans for what was previously Ocean Breeze Golf Club in the city’s Boca Teeca community was agreed on earlier this week: A 58,000-square-foot sports facility.
The Boca Raton Beach and Park District Commission voted unanimously Sept. 11 to approve Boca Paddle Club, pitched by the Butters Group, a Coconut Creek-based developer.
“We take play seriously,” Stewart Davis, representing Boca Paddle Club, told commissioners as he began the group’s pitch. “We really believe that our community connects with pickleball. It's a sport that's for everybody.”
The plan is to construct the indoor sports facility with 14 pickleball courts, two courts for padel (another sport similar to pickleball), and a food and beverage establishment. It also will feature eight outdoor pickleball courts, two outdoor padel courts, a two-story viewing area and locker rooms.
“It's easy to start playing and it's impossible to stop,” Davis said of pickleball. “People just get addicted to it.”
Padel, the other sport included in the plan, is similar. Sometimes called padel tennis, it’s a racket sport of Mexican origin usually played in teams of two. The main difference between them is the court layout.
The project will take up approximately seven acres of the 212-acre slot of land, which was renamed North Park after the demise of Ocean Breeze Golf Club. Other ideas in the district’s proposed master plan for the land include a golf course and an Olympics-level aquatic center. But this is the first that commissioners agreed upon.
The golf course, which was located at 5800 NW 2nd Ave., closed from disuse. Public discussions between the City Council and the beach and park district about its future started in 2017.
Other contenders at the Sept. 11 meeting, during which the five requests for proposals were reviewed, included two other pickleball facilities, a Robbie Wagner Tournament Training Center and a YMCA.
“Boca is in dire need of an indoor climate-controlled professional racquet sports facility,” Stewart said. “So people can be able to escape our unpredictable weather that we experience at different times throughout the year. Whether it's raining, or stifling heat, we offer a space to get away from that.”
The space will also be designed to serve as a public shelter area if needed during a hurricane, he said.
The total projected cost of the project is $14.5 million sourced entirely by cash, which Stewart said the Butters Group already had in the bank ready to go for the project. It will require a 49-year concession agreement for the land from the district. The total projected revenue to be paid to the district over the 49-year term is $13.1 million, according to the Butters Group.
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During the next 12 months, development plans for the facility will be completed, with the final site plan approval expected in June 2024. After that, construction is expected to start, with the facility’s opening to the public in September 2025.
Boca Teeca resident Anthony Ciliberti, who's lived in the area for about 10 years, predicts the entire master plan proposed by the district will take at least 10 years to complete. But for now, he's excited about the first step.
"I'm all about pickleball, so I'm really happy that it's going to come in. I know it's going to be first-class," Ciliberti said.
The marketing plan for the facility includes tournaments, charity events, camps for children, clinics for different groups and discounted hourly rental rates for citizens of Boca Raton.
Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com. Help support our work. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca Paddle Club pickleball facility gets OK from city
