Boca Raton staff recommend buying 6551 Park of Commerce for city services; residents raise price, museum and park concerns

City staff and the city's real-estate advisor presented a recommendation July 14 to acquire 6551 Park of Commerce as a consolidated site for city services during the long-term redevelopment of the downtown government campus, and to retain some services there after a smaller new city hall is built downtown.

Deputy City Manager Andrew Lukasik told the City Council at a workshop that staff and CBRE had evaluated multiple properties and that acquiring 6551 Park of Commerce, combined with building a roughly 30,000-square-foot city hall downtown, would cost about half as much as moving and rebuilding a full 100,000-plus-square-foot city hall downtown.

Will Portfolio, senior vice president with CBRE, said the city’s search began in January and included 15 initial options, tours of 10 properties and a shortlist of five. He told council the city’s planned purchase of 6551 Park of Commerce equates to about $247 per square foot, which he said falls in the middle of owner-occupier comparables that range from $228 to $288 per square foot. “We had another interested owner user buyer… They were quoting $19,000,000. We got them down to 17.4,” Portfolio said.

Why it matters: the acquisition would create a temporary and long-term hub for many municipal functions while the downtown campus is redeveloped, a step staff…