Crocker Partners and other developers plan to build as many as 2,500 condos and rental apartments near the Town Center mall on the west side of Boca Raton.
The residential development would unfold in a 270-acre district the developers call “Midtown Boca,” bordered on the west by Town Center, the north by Glades Road, the south by Verde Trail and the east by Interstate 95.
Boca Raton-based Crocker has purchased about 60 acres in the Midtown area since 2014.
Crocker is one of four developers that want to turn Midtown into a pedestrian zone where residents walk to work and to shop for groceries or boutique-store merchandise.
Crocker created a similar environment in the early 1990s when it built Mizner Park in downtown Boca Raton with a mix of retail stores, restaurants and residences.
Midtown Boca would be designed to reduce reliance on driving. It could have a private shuttle to provide transit service as well as on-demand golf carts and areas designated for such ride-booking services as Lyft and Uber. A new Tri-Rail station also could be part of the transit services available in Midtown.
Crocker and the other developers behind the Midtown Boca plan have proposed building 1,300 to 2,500 condos and rental apartments there.
According to a traffic study produced for Crocker, the Midtown area could have as many as 1,300 new residences without causing traffic congestion and could accommodate as many as 2,500 if the area gets a Tri-Rail station.
Bonnie Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Tri-Rail commuter train service, told the Sun-Sentinel that putting a new Tri-Rail station in the Midtown area is “definitely feasible.”
Boca Raton’s planning and zoning board last month postponed a vote on whether to send the Midtown plan to the city council, pending further review of the plan.
Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie told the Sun-Sentinel that Midtown is a “very exciting” project but the proposed volume of residential development is “a little aggressive.” [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth