Hometown Hero

Each [charity] started with a passion and a belief that it would make a difference in the community, and thank God our passion and vision was realized.”

—Marta Batmasian

This page is a tribute to community citizens who have demonstrated exemplary service and leadership to the city of Boca Raton and is in memory of John E. Shuff.

Leaving Legacies

James and Marta Batmasian have been pivotal to the Boca Raton community

Written by MARIE SPEED

James and Marta Batmasian, owners of Investments Limited, have been community leaders in Boca Raton since their arrival in 1983. Over the years they have been major landowners and developers in Boca, buying the “pink plaza,” Royal Palm Place, in the mid-1980s and buying and building scores of other buildings over the years, from apartments to offices and shops and more. That growing expansion has been mirrored by a spreading community engagement and investment; the list of community organizations in which Marta alone has been involved numbers 46—and counting. Married for 47 years and sharing a commitment to giving back, the Batmasians have started nonprofits from scratch, like Propel (People Reaching Out To Provide Education and Leadership) and the Children’s Science Explorium, have created the Walk of Recognition and the Garden of Humanity and have donated time and money to countless others.

How Boca has changed since 1983: It’s

been amazing. In-migration and the 1980s economy brought a lot of affluence to Boca. It wasn’t us. We really had wealthy new developments, and those people stared donating as well as demanding better culture, better restaurants, better everything. They created it. We simply tagged along and became part of it, contributors and partial beneficiaries of their largesse. It became what Boca is today: a giving and caring community.

Charities that are especially dear to her

heart: Propel, Changing Lives and the Children’s Science Explorium are organizations that we created from nothing, named, made sure they were perpetuated. With each, it started with a passion and a belief that it would make a difference in the community, and thank God our passion and vision was realized.

Why giving back matters: We completed our

education through some medium and large scholarships, without which we would not have been able to realize what we’ve realized in our lives. Someone believed in us, and that gave us the idea that we can and should do the same thing for others. That’s how

James and Marta Batmasian

it started. [The young couple starting out then scraped together $1,000 to contribute to a scholarship fund.—Ed.] We said, ‘We should just continue in this arena. What if we had 1 million dollars? We will give it all away! ... We had made a difference.

Proudest moment so far: We did the Garden

of Humanity about five years ago with the help of Yaacov Heller with an “eternal flame” and different messages—education, peace, children holding hands in unity, deportations and genocide. There are quotes on benches around the park from the Dalai Lama to Martin Luther King. I see school groups coming, I see children reading those, and sometimes I get teary and I go and join them without telling them who I am, and I get feedback. They are inspired, which is what we wanted this park to do. So that people love each other, people will accept each other, people will believe in harmony. That’s all we can leave behind…