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The Boca Raton Resort

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Coordinates: 26°20′29″N 80°04′39″W / 26.341403°N 80.077562°W / 26.341403; -80.077562
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Boca Raton Resort main entrance
Boca Raton Resort & Club
Boca Raton Resort March 2014
Map
General information
LocationBoca Raton, Florida
USA
Coordinates26°20′29″N 80°04′39″W / 26.341403°N 80.077562°W / 26.341403; -80.077562
OpeningFebruary 6, 1926
OwnerThe Blackstone Group
ManagementWaldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts
Design and construction
Architect(s)Addison Mizner (original)
Schultze and Weaver (1930s expansion)
Donaldson Group Architects (1969 tower)
DeveloperMizner Development Corp. and Ritz-Carlton
Other information
Number of rooms1,038
Number of restaurants13
ParkingValet parking only
Website
Official website
Boca Raton Resort porte-cochere

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 intended to have been the second of two hotels, with the other 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 then smaller 100 room inn on the west side of Lake Boca Raton.[1][2] Throughout the Florida land boom of the 1920s, Mizner visioned and began to plan Boca Raton as a major resort destination.[3] 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 Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts by the Hilton Hotels Corporation, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group. Before the Spring of 2009, LXR Luxury Resorts operated the resort.[4]

Ownership changes

Boca Bay as seen from the Yacht Club building at the Boca Resort

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.[5] 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.

Boca resort interiors

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. While it was affectionately known on brochures as The Boca Raton, the resort was part of the identical Schine portfolio which included the Biltmore and McAllister 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".[6]

Boca Raton resort interior

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 $150 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 the current Boca Raton Resort & Club in 1988. Today, it is referred to as the Boca Raton Resort & Club a Waldorf Astoria Resort. [7]

References

  1. ^ Curl, Donald (2008). The Boca Raton Resort & Club: Mizner's Inn. Charleston, SC: History Press.
  2. ^ Ling, Sally J. (2007). A brief history of Boca Raton, Florida. Charleston, SC: History Press.
  3. ^ Minzer Development Map
  4. ^ "LXR is new umbrella for some South Florida resorts", South Florida Business Journal, 2005-08-18. Retrieved on 2009-05-16.
  5. ^ The Spanish River Papers, May 1974, Vol II No. 2
  6. ^ Boca Raton Club Tower|Buildings|Emporis
  7. ^ http://www.bocaresort.com/
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