Boca Raton CRA approves Meissner Plaza Hotel with parking deviation and safety conditions

The Boca Raton Community Redevelopment Agency voted 4-1 to approve an individual development approval for the Meissner Plaza Hotel, a two-tower, 12-story, mixed-use project that would add 219 hotel rooms and about 31,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space to downtown Boca Raton. The board adopted the resolution after negotiating several conditions intended to address neighbors’ safety and traffic concerns.

The approved development order allows the applicant to reduce required off-street parking from 557 to 328 spaces — a 229-space (about 41%) technical deviation the applicant said is justified by modern downtown travel patterns and a transportation demand management plan. Senior planner Susan Lesser told the board the application otherwise complies with ordinance 40-35 and recommended approval, subject to technical conditions and studies.

The project team and staff described streetscape changes and mitigation measures. Applicant representative Ellie Zacharaitis said the hotel design prioritizes pedestrians and connectivity, noting widened sidewalks of 15–19 feet on the north frontage, a 275-foot pedestrian promenade, a 20-foot widened alley for two-way service access, and a TDM program that would include transit-pass subsidies and a coordinator to manage alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle trips. “This project exemplifies putting the pedestrian first,” Zacharaitis said in the presentation, and she stressed that the team would work with…