Jon Pearlman was elected to the Boca Raton city council on March 17 after leading a grassroots campaign that opposed Terra and Frisbie Group’s proposed redevelopment of the city’s government campus, known as One Boca. Pearlman, 37, is the founder of Save Boca, an organization that spearheaded efforts against the development.
The election followed months of public debate and organizing by Save Boca. On March 10, voters rejected the One Boca proposal in a referendum and also elected Pearlman along with two other Save Boca-backed candidates, Michelle Grau and Stacy Sipple. Their victory shifted the city council toward an anti-development majority.
Pearlman financed much of his campaign himself, spending over $250,000 on his own race and on political committees linked to Save Boca. He had not previously voted in a local election before becoming involved in this campaign. Pearlman said he became active after seeing the city council award the redevelopment bid to Terra and Frisbie last February. “I’m not a career politician, I just love my city,” he said.
Pearlman works in investment management and holds a real estate license with LoKation Real Estate. He grew up in New York City and is the son of Susan Schneider and Mark Pearlman. A former Harvard tennis player, he founded Mission Lean with his wife Lyudmila Bouzinova, who appeared on season nine of “America’s Next Top Model.”
Records show that Pearlman lives in Downtown Boca Raton at a property he assembled for $3 million between 2018 and 2023. He completed construction on his home there in 2023. While building his house, he lived at a Palm Beach property owned by his grandparents. In May last year, through Florida entity 963 Hillsboro LLC, he purchased an oceanfront home at 963 Hillsboro Mile for $8 million.
Pearlman’s activism began last summer when he launched petitions against One Boca that quickly gathered thousands of signatures. This led Terra and Frisbie to agree to put their project up for referendum in September. Soon after launching his campaign for City Council Seat B against incumbent Marc Widger—a real estate developer—Widger described him as “a one-issue opponent” focused only on downtown issues.
Despite setbacks including a court ruling against some proposed Save Boca laws and internal divisions within Save Boca leadership before the election, Pearlman won with 52.9 percent of the vote. The anti-development movement proved even more decisive: out of nearly nineteen thousand votes cast on One Boca itself, about three-quarters were against it.
