James and Marta Batmasian want to build an 11-story hotel on the Mizner Square development site in Boca Raton.
The couple, considered the city’s largest private real estate owners, proposed a 266-room hotel on the 1.7-acre site at 132 and 170 NE Second Street, according to an application filed with the city last month by the Buttermasians. The project will consist of two buildings, one with 153 rooms averaging approximately 445 square feet each and the other with 113 rooms averaging 1,300 square feet each.
The proposal also includes 32,400 square feet of retail and restaurants on the first and second floors, as well as two levels of underground parking.
The Batemas people own the development site. They paid $4.2 million in 2013 for the 170 NE 2nd Street building, which now houses the U.S. Postal Service offices, according to property records. In 1990, they paid $400,000 for the building next door, now the Mizner Square business district.
The Buttermas, whose firm is Boca Raton-based Investments Limited, have painstakingly amassed a Palm Beach County real estate portfolio since moving to South Florida in the early 1980s. Their strategy has largely been to focus on small acquisitions, sometimes acquiring neglected properties and then polishing them up.
“You can grab real estate any way you want,” says James Batmasian. real deal in an interview last year.
While the Buttermasian is considered a major donor in South Florida, having founded and led educational and other charities, James Buttermasian’s record was tarnished by his 2008 guilty plea on tax evasion charges and his subsequent eight-month prison sentence. Former President Donald Trump pardoned Bart Macian in 2020.
In September, the Buttermas paid $15.5 million for three industrial properties at 6758 North Military Trail in Riviera Beach, Hope Center at 1101 S. 53rd Street in Mangonia Park and Water Tower at 801 15th Street in Lake Park, all in Palm Beach County.
In August, they paid $17 million for the Palm Trails Plaza at 1101-1149 South Military Trail in Deerfield Beach, which is located in the Walmart Neighborhood Market.
