The 190-acre property just outside the city limits will be sold to GL Homes, which will now start assessing the property and planning future development. The golf course will stay open for up to a year pending the land deal’s closing.
Boca Raton, Fla., will sell its 190-acre Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course to GL Homes for $65 million, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported.
With little discussion on November 14, over a year after the land sale was first discussed, a majority of the city council members approved the sale. Only Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers dissented, the Post reported.
“There’s more flexibility in the land than the money. I’d like to know a compelling reason to act,” Rodgers said. “I’m not seeing one.”
“I think we have been at this for a long time,” Councilman Robert Weinroth said, adding that the city was getting “top dollar” for the golf course, the Post reported.
“We’re very happy that this process has ended,” said Neil Schiller, an attorney for GL Homes.
The developer will now start assessing the property and planning future development. The golf course will stay open for “several months if not a year” pending the land deal’s closing, which must happen by June 2019, said Deputy City Manager George Brown.
City leaders haven’t decided yet how they’ll spend the $65 million. Some ideas were floated Tuesday: A community center, city government complex and added greenspace, the Post reported.
Unsolicited bids for the golf course first rolled in over a year ago. The city narrowed the list down to two potential buyers: GL Homes and Miami-based Lennar Corp. Because the golf course was owned by the city, the bidding war between GL Homes and Lennar was conducted publicly in late October, the Post reported.
GL Homes’ overall bid of $65 million was less than that offered by Lennar, $73 million. But Lennar’s contract included inestimable expenses to the city. The city council eventually agreed to sell to GL Homes, the Post reported.
The golf course is prime real estate for developers, experts said. Building on open greens is relatively easy, and property values in south-central Palm Beach County are climbing, the Post reported.
While the land is owned by Boca Raton, it falls outside the city’s boundaries, meaning any development at the site would require permission from the Palm Beach County Commission, the Post reported.
It isn’t clear yet how many homes GL Homes aims to build. They originally proposed more than 500. Because the land is off a high-traffic thoroughfare, the County Commission will likely charge GL Homes millions to alleviate traffic, Schiller said. Rodgers mentioned traffic woes, but was brushed off by fellow council members, the Post reported.
“That’s not our problem,” Weinroth said. “That’s the problem of the Board of County Commissioners.”
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