This real-estate feature from the South Florida Sun Sentinel highlights the latest plans for new construction as demand rises for housing, offices and stores across the region. If you’re wondering “what’s being built there?” you can submit questions through this form or by emailing buildings@sunsentinel.com. Here’s one of the latest projects.
Location? The 260-acre parcel is wedged between Lyons Road and State Road 7. Olympic Heights High School sits at the northeast corner of the property. Other neighborhoods, such as West Boca Estates and Boca Fontana, surround the site.
What’s planned? GL Homes’ third Lotus community will feature between 650 to 700 single-family homes, with prices starting at $1.4 million and rising to more than $2.5 million. Like some of GL Homes’ other residential communities, the high-end luxury homes will have a range of amenities as the developer ushers in its third contemporary-style community into West Boca. The official name has yet to be announced.
GL Homes has been trying to bring more modern architecture to the Boca Raton area, said Marcie DePlaza, the chief operating officer for the company.
“The architecture in Boca has historically been very Mediterranean,” she said. “The trend was kind of moving toward the modern and more contemporary.”
Amenities at Lotus Palm, also in West Boca, include a clubhouse, restaurant, pools, a fitness center, play zone for children, arcade, yoga garden and pickleball, so the amenities for the new Lotus community will be similar.
When will the project be completed? Pre-construction for the homes will begin during the first quarter of 2024, and home construction will then begin in late spring of 2024, DePlaza said.
GL Homes began clearing the site over the summer and are now working on the construction of infrastructure, like sewage and water.
“If you go there, it’s just a lot of dump trucks and machinery and not very exciting,” DePlaza said.
What is it replacing? GL Homes closed on the land in December of 2021. DePlaza said the property, which used to be farmland, was used to grow vegetables such as squash, tomatoes and peppers.
Seeing demand: West Boca already has two other Lotus communities, the first of which on Lyons Road and north of Clint Moore Road is sold out, and the second, Lotus Palm, located north of Glades Road at the end of Golf Course Road, is nearly sold out, DePlaza said.
Some of GL Homes’ other projects in Palm Beach County include:
- Apex at Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens
- Arden in Loxahatchee
- Valencia Grand in Boynton Beach
Though GL Homes’ recent land-swap deal involving a huge project on the county’s Agricultural Reserve was rejected, the developer still has many homes in the works.
During a county zoning hearing on Jan. 27, 2022, commissioners approved the new Lotus community with a 5-1 vote. But some Boca Raton residents have reservations about the project, with some airing their frustrations out on social media.
“Traffic is going to be a nightmare, especially for the high school,” one user wrote on a Facebook thread about the project.
Nancy McLoughlin, who commented about how GL Homes is building “more overpriced cookie cutter homes,” said she has lived in Boca Raton for 30 years and understands the need for housing to combat the area’s growth, but she wishes the development was regulated more. She said she’s concerned the growth won’t slow down: “It’s going to turn into a Long Island, New York, if they don’t stop building.”
Some people support the upcoming community. “You see traffic, I see my house value increasing,” another user wrote. “Find the pros, not the cons!”
The community will have entries on Lyons Road and U.S. 441, which will ease traffic, DePlaza said.
GL Homes is responding to the trends of the Boca Raton market, she said.
“Buyers want luxury, and that’s what we are bringing them,” she said. “There’s no doubt that the demand in Boca has been for that type of community.”
