Boca Raton Resort & Club
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| Boca Raton Resort & Club | |
 The club's main porte-cochere entrance |
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| Hotel facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Boca Raton, Florida United States |
| Coordinates | 26°20′29″N 80°04′39″W / 26.341403°N 80.077562°WCoordinates: 26°20′29″N 80°04′39″W / 26.341403°N 80.077562°W |
| Opening date | February 6, 1926 |
| Developer | Mizner Development Corporation and Ritz-Carlton |
| Architect | Addison Mizner |
| Management | The Waldorf=Astoria Collection |
| Owner | Hilton Hotels Corporation |
| No. of restaurants | 13 |
| No. of rooms | 1,038 |
| Parking | Valet parking only |
| Website | Official website |
The Boca Raton Resort & Club, which opened February 6, 1926 as the Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn, is a large resort and membership-based club located in Boca Raton, Florida. Originally designed by California-born architect, Addison Mizner, it was supposed to have been the latter of two resorts, the other being an oceanfront hotel; however, the Ritz-Carlton Investment Corporation became involved in the project and wanted the oceanfront hotel redesigned so construction began on the smaller 100 room inn on the west side of lake.[1] Throughout the Florida land boom of the 1920s, Mizner visioned and began to plan Boca Raton as a major resort destination. [1] To that extent a golf course and residential community, the Ritz-Carlton Park, was planned west of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Today this is the site of Sugar Sand Park and Boca Del Mar. Nevertheless the resort didn't gain a full service country club until the acquisition of the Boca Country Club seven miles northwest of the main hotel, immediately outside of the city limits.
Currently, the club is part of The Waldorf=Astoria Collection by the Hilton Hotels Corporation, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group. Before Spring, 2009, LXR Luxury Resorts operated the resort.[2]
[edit] Ownership Changes
When the real estate bubble's following economic depression ended, Philadelphia utility millionaire Clarence H. Geist purchased the inn via an auction in 1927, and expanded it into the Boca Raton Club. Architectural firm, Schultze and Weaver had doubled the inn's size, and a cabana club was constructed where Addison on the Ocean condominiums now stands.
Subsequently, the U.S. Army used the club as barracks during World War II. Touted by officials as "the most elegant barracks in history," it housed soldiers during the Boca Raton Army Air Field's operation.
Within post-war times, the Boca Raton Club's ownership and ultimately name were changed. The Schine family purchased the club in 1944, renaming it the Boca Hotel and Club. Affectionately known as The Boca Raton, it was part of the Schine portfolio that included the McAllister and Biltmore Hotels.
Arthur Vining Davis, whose brainchild was the Arvida Corporation had been responsible for modernizing the hotel. Opening the Boca Raton Club Tower in 1969, the building is still considerably taller than any other building in southern Palm Beach County. In addition, its famous "Boca pink" color has made it more famous than its stature of 300 feet (ninety-one meters) and twenty-seven floors and is commonly referred to as the "pink hotel". [2]
Arvida had also constructed the resort's beach club in 1980 on the site Mizner intended the main hotel to stand on. In February, 2009, the Beach Club finished a $120 million renovation, while the cloister and tower rooms were redesigned in 2006.
VMS Realty, Incorporated (Van Kampen, Morris, Stone), the successors to Arvida regarding ownership, purchased the property in 1983 and renamed the hotel to current-Boca Resort & Club in 1988.
[edit] References
- ^ Ling, Sally. A History of Boca Raton. Illustrated Edition. The History Press, 2007. Print.
- ^ "LXR is new umbrella for some South Florida resorts", South Florida Business Journal, 2005-08-18. Retrieved on 2009-05-16.
[edit] External links
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![[1]](http://www.bocahistory.org/_images/mizner/map.jpg){kind=link}