The Boca Raton is a luxury resort and club in
Boca Raton, Florida, founded in 1926, today comprising 1,047 hotel rooms across 337 acres. Its facilities include two 18-hole golf courses, a 50,000 sq. ft. spa, seven swimming pools, 30 tennis courts, a full-service 32-slip marina, 13 restaurants and bars, and 200,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. The property fronts both Lake Boca (part of the
Intracoastal Waterway
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following t ...
) and the Atlantic Ocean. The resort was operated as part of Hilton's
Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts, and it is owned by an affiliate of
MSD Partners.
History
The resort first opened on February 6, 1926, as the 100-room Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn. Originally designed and built by Boca Raton's city planner, architect
Addison Mizner
Addison Cairns Mizner (December 12, 1872 – February 5, 1933) was an American architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire archi ...
, who intended Camino Real to be the main street of his new city, it was to have been one of two hotels, with 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 and financially more viable 100-room inn on the west side of Lake Boca Raton.
Mizner's development company, hurt by the end of the
Florida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble. This pioneering era of Florida land speculation lasted from 1924 to 1926 and attracted investors from all over the nation. The land boom left behind entirely new, planned ...
and the
1926 Miami hurricane
The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 was a large and intense tropical cyclone that devastated the Greater Miami area and caused catastrophic damage in the Bahamas and the U.S. Gulf Coast in September of the year 1926, accruing a US$100 mi ...
, declared bankruptcy in 1926. Philadelphia utility millionaire
Clarence H. Geist bought its assets in 1927, and he expanded the Cloister Inn into the Boca Raton Club. The architectural firm
Schultze and Weaver Schultze & Weaver was an architecture firm established in New York City in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver.
History
Leonard B. Schultze was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1877. He was educated at the Cit ...
doubled the inn's size, and a cabana club was constructed where the "Addison on the Ocean" condominium building now stands.
Subsequently, the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
used the club as
barracks during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Touted by officials as "the most elegant barracks in history," it housed soldiers during the
Boca Raton Army Air Field
Boca Raton Army Air Field was a World War II United States Army Air Forces airfield, located northwest of the 1940s borders of Boca Raton, Florida. During World War II, it operated the only training for the then new and secret technology of ra ...
's operation.
After the war, 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 Hotel in
Coral Gables and the
McAllister Hotel
The McAllister Hotel was a ten-story high-rise hotel in Downtown Miami, Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alab ...
in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
.
Arthur Vining Davis
Arthur Vining Davis (May 30, 1867 – November 17, 1962) was an American industrialist and philanthropist, for many years president, chairman and largest stockholder of the aluminum producer Alcoa.
Early history
Arthur Vining Davis was born in ...
, whose brainchild was the
Arvida Corporation
The St. Joe Company is a land development company headquartered in Panama City Beach, Florida. Founded in 1936 and until 1966 known as St. Joe Paper Company, the company still operates a forestry division but is primarily engaged in real estate ...
, was 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
Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous 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 it is commonly referred to as the "pink hotel". Arvida also constructed the resort's beach club in 1980, on the site that Mizner had intended the main hotel to stand on.
VMS Realty, Incorporated (Van Kampen, Morris, Stone), the successors to Arvida regarding ownership, purchased the property in 1983 and renamed it in 1988 as the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
In 2004,
The Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...
, a private investment firm, acquired the resort as part of its $1.25-billion acquisition of Boca Resorts, Inc., the publicly-traded owner and operator of five Florida resorts. In February 2009, the Beach Club finished a $150 million renovation, while the cloister and tower rooms were redesigned in 2006.
MSD Partners L.P., led by
Michael Dell
Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. He is ranked the ...
, purchased the Boca Raton Resort & Club on June 4, 2019. The new owners, as of 2020, have made a proposal to invest $75 million for renovations to the hotel, restaurants, and amenities. As of July 12, 2021, the resort was renamed as The Boca Raton Cloister.
Gallery
File:Boca Rotan Resort Photo D Ramey Logan.jpg, View of the resort from the water
File:Boca Raton Resort main entrance photo D Ramey Logan.jpg, Overview of the main entrance area
File:Boca Raton Resort porte-cochere perspective photo D Ramey Logan.JPG, Entrance courtyard
File:Boca resort interior photo D Ramey Logan.jpg, Lobby area
File:Boca resort interiors photo D Ramey Logan.jpg, Resort interior
File:Boca bay from the Yacht club building at the Boca Resort photo D Ramey Logan.JPG, Lake Boca Raton as seen from the Yacht Club building
References
External links
*
History regarding the clubReal estate at the Boca Resort
{{Boca Raton, Florida
Hotels in Florida
Resorts in Florida
Golf clubs and courses in Florida
Buildings and structures in Boca Raton, Florida
Hotels in Palm Beach County, Florida
Mediterranean Revival architecture in Florida
Hotel buildings completed in 1926
Hotels established in 1926
Addison Mizner buildings
Tourist attractions in Palm Beach County, Florida
1926 establishments in Florida
Hotels in Boca Raton, Florida