Boca Raton Florida Property Appraisals and Home Appraisers
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Are you interested in a real estate appraiser that specializes in the Boca Raton, Florida area? Our
appraisers have extensive knowledge as commercial property appraisers, residential home
appraisers and overall property appraisals. If you need an appraiser in Boca Raton one of our
Certified Appraisers will gladly help with all of your commercial and residential home appraisal
services.
Listed on early maps as "Boca Ratones," many people wrongly assume the name is simply translated
to "Rat's Mouth." The Spanish word boca (or mouth) was often used to describe an inlet, while ratón
(literally mouse) was used by Spanish sailors to describe rocks that gnawed at a ship's cable, or as a
term for a cowardly thief. The name Boca Ratones originally appeared on eighteenth century maps
associated with an inlet in the Biscayne Bay area of Miami. By the beginning of the nineteenth century,
the term was mistakenly moved north on most maps and applied to Lake Boca Raton, whose inlet
was closed at the time. Although the local pronunciation for "Raton" resembles the Spanish
pronunciation ("Boca Raton" rhymes with "tone," not with "baton") the name is actually of an
indigenous derivation.
The city's early history was as the site of Addison Mizner's Boca Raton Hotel. The "pink hotel" today is
visible from miles away as a towering building on the Intracoastal Waterway. The Pearl City
neighborhood of Boca Raton was originally established to house the service personnel for the hotel.
Japanese farmers of the Yamato Colony converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations
beginning in 1904. During World War II much of their land was confiscated and used as the site of the
Boca Raton Army Air Force Base, a major training facility for B-29 bomber crews. There was also a
radar school and research facility there. Much of the airbase was later donated to become the grounds
of Florida Atlantic University, many of whose parking lots are former runways of the airbase, while part
of the airbase is now used as Boca Raton Airport. The Japanese heritage of the Yamato Colony
survives in the name of Yamato Road (NW 51st Street) just north of the airport and at the Morikami
Museum and Japanese Gardens northwest of the city.
Boca Raton was the site of two now vanished amusement parks, Africa U.S.A. (1953-1961) and
Ancient America (1953-1959). Africa U.S.A. was a wild animal park in which the tourists rode a "Jeep
Safari Train" through the park. There were no fences separating the animals from the tourists on the
"Jeep Safari Train". It is now the Camino Gardens subdivision one mile (1.6 km) west of the Boca
Raton Hotel. Ancient America was built surrounding a real Indian burial mound. Today, the mound is
still visible within the Boca Marina & Yacht Club neighborhood on U.S. Route 1 near Yamato Road.
In the late 1960s, Boca Raton became the southern home to the International Business Machines
Corporation (IBM). In 1965, well before the extension of I-95 into Southern Florida, IBM purchased
several hundred acres of real estate just west of the CSX rail line, just northwest of Florida Atlantic
University. Construction of IBM's main complex began in earnest in 1967, and the mammoth
manufacturing and office complex was dedicated in March 1970. The campus was designed with
self-sufficiency in mind, and to that end sported its own electrical substation, water pumping station,
and rail-spur. Among other very noteworthy IT accomplishments, such as the mass manufacture of the
System/360 and development of the Series/1 mainframe computers, IBM's main complex was the
birthplace of the IBM PC, which later evolved into the IBM Personal System/2. In 1987, IBM relocated
their manufacturing for what became the IBM PC Company to Research Triangle Park in Raleigh,
North Carolina, and converted the cavernous manufacturing facilities into offices and laboratories, later
producing ground-breaking products such as the OS/2 operating system and VoiceType Dictation,
known today as ViaVoice voice-recognition software.
IBM maintained its facilities at Boca Raton until 1996, when the facility was closed and was sold to
Blue Lake Real Estate, who in turn sold it to the T-REX Management Consortium. Today, T-REX has
revitalized the facility and its surrounding real estate into a highly-successful and landscaped
business/research park. What used to be IBM's Building 051, an annex separated from the former
main IBM campus by Spanish River Boulevard was donated to the Palm Beach County School District
and converted into Don Estridge High Tech Middle School. It is named for Don Estridge, whose team
was responsible for developing the IBM PC. IBM later returned in 2001 opening the current software
development laboratory off Congress Avenue in July of that year.
In the 1980s, because of an explosion of development to the west of the historical center of the city,
some eastern areas began to decay, including the downtown area. For instance, the old Boca Raton
Mall, a shopping mall in the downtown area was beginning to experience higher vacancy, and
occupancy by marginal tenants, due to the opening of Town Center at Boca Raton in a western area in
1979
In 1991, the new downtown outdoor shopping center, Mizner Park, was completed over the site of the
older Boca Raton Mall. It has since become a cultural center for the city. Featuring a landscaped
central park between the two main roads (collectively called Plaza Real) with stores only on the outside
of the roads, Mizner Park resembles a Mediterranean suburban "town center" with a more
contemporary look. It features many restaurants and is home to the Boca Raton Museum of Art which
moved to the new facility in 2001.[citation needed] In 2002, a new amphitheater was built replacing a
smaller one, providing a large-capacity outdoor venue.
Mizner Park has significantly aided downtown revitalization. Many new 8-10 story mixed-use buildings
have been constructed, are under construction or are proposed for the downtown area. The
surrounding areas to the downtown have benefited from the downtown redevelopment.
The National Cartoon Museum (formally: the International Museum of Cartoon Art) built a 25,000
square foot facility on the southwest edge of Mizner Park in 1996. Open for 6 years, the museum
closed in 2002 and the space has been empty since. The Museum has since relocated to its original
home in New York City. The builing is currently undergoing renovations for public uses, including the
local public TV station, and private uses, such as locally-owned and operated bookstore.
As development continued to focus to the west of the city in the 1980s and 1990s, the mall area, Town
Center at Boca Raton, became the geographic center of what is referred to as Boca Raton, though this
mall was not actually annexed into the city until 2004. The area referred to as Boca Raton, including
the unincorporated area west of the city (and discussed below), is now almost entirely built out.
In 1999, Simon Property Group bought Town Center at Boca Raton and renovated and expanded it.
Nordstrom is the anchor department store of a new wing. Neiman Marcus is the newest department
store tenant as of 2006. In late 2006, Simon began the construction stage of an outdoor lifestyle center
near the new wing. Town Center Mall has become a tourist attraction and the largest indoor mall in
Palm Beach County.
Boca Raton has a strict development code, including the size and types of commercial buildings,
building signs and advertisements which may be erected within the city limits. No car dealerships are
allowed in the city limits, according to the city zoning code. Additionally, no billboards are permitted in
the city. The only billboard was grandfathered in during recent annexation. Corporations such as
McDonald's have subdued their Golden Arches due to the code. The unincorporated areas still contain
restaurants with the classic arches, but the heights of the signs have been reduced. Many buildings in
the Boca Raton area have Mediterranean and Spanish architectural themes, initially inspired in the
area by Addison Mizner. The strict development code has resulted in several major thoroughfares
without large signs or advertisements in the traveler's view; significant landscaping is in its place.
original story
In 2001, Boca Raton was the site of the first anthrax attack in the United States when two employees
at the American Media building were stricken by the agent. Robert "Bob" Stevens, photo editor of the
Sun, a supermarket tabloid published by American Media, died of inhalation anthrax while Ernesto
Blanco, a 73-year-old mail-room employee, fell ill and later recovered. American Media moved their
headquarters to the nearby T-REX Corporate Center. The American Media building remained sealed
until the summer of 2004, when it became the last of the afflicted buildings to be decontaminated,
through the use of chlorine dioxide gas.
For more information visit www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us
appraisers have extensive knowledge as commercial property appraisers, residential home
appraisers and overall property appraisals. If you need an appraiser in Boca Raton one of our
Certified Appraisers will gladly help with all of your commercial and residential home appraisal
services.
Listed on early maps as "Boca Ratones," many people wrongly assume the name is simply translated
to "Rat's Mouth." The Spanish word boca (or mouth) was often used to describe an inlet, while ratón
(literally mouse) was used by Spanish sailors to describe rocks that gnawed at a ship's cable, or as a
term for a cowardly thief. The name Boca Ratones originally appeared on eighteenth century maps
associated with an inlet in the Biscayne Bay area of Miami. By the beginning of the nineteenth century,
the term was mistakenly moved north on most maps and applied to Lake Boca Raton, whose inlet
was closed at the time. Although the local pronunciation for "Raton" resembles the Spanish
pronunciation ("Boca Raton" rhymes with "tone," not with "baton") the name is actually of an
indigenous derivation.
The city's early history was as the site of Addison Mizner's Boca Raton Hotel. The "pink hotel" today is
visible from miles away as a towering building on the Intracoastal Waterway. The Pearl City
neighborhood of Boca Raton was originally established to house the service personnel for the hotel.
Japanese farmers of the Yamato Colony converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations
beginning in 1904. During World War II much of their land was confiscated and used as the site of the
Boca Raton Army Air Force Base, a major training facility for B-29 bomber crews. There was also a
radar school and research facility there. Much of the airbase was later donated to become the grounds
of Florida Atlantic University, many of whose parking lots are former runways of the airbase, while part
of the airbase is now used as Boca Raton Airport. The Japanese heritage of the Yamato Colony
survives in the name of Yamato Road (NW 51st Street) just north of the airport and at the Morikami
Museum and Japanese Gardens northwest of the city.
Boca Raton was the site of two now vanished amusement parks, Africa U.S.A. (1953-1961) and
Ancient America (1953-1959). Africa U.S.A. was a wild animal park in which the tourists rode a "Jeep
Safari Train" through the park. There were no fences separating the animals from the tourists on the
"Jeep Safari Train". It is now the Camino Gardens subdivision one mile (1.6 km) west of the Boca
Raton Hotel. Ancient America was built surrounding a real Indian burial mound. Today, the mound is
still visible within the Boca Marina & Yacht Club neighborhood on U.S. Route 1 near Yamato Road.
In the late 1960s, Boca Raton became the southern home to the International Business Machines
Corporation (IBM). In 1965, well before the extension of I-95 into Southern Florida, IBM purchased
several hundred acres of real estate just west of the CSX rail line, just northwest of Florida Atlantic
University. Construction of IBM's main complex began in earnest in 1967, and the mammoth
manufacturing and office complex was dedicated in March 1970. The campus was designed with
self-sufficiency in mind, and to that end sported its own electrical substation, water pumping station,
and rail-spur. Among other very noteworthy IT accomplishments, such as the mass manufacture of the
System/360 and development of the Series/1 mainframe computers, IBM's main complex was the
birthplace of the IBM PC, which later evolved into the IBM Personal System/2. In 1987, IBM relocated
their manufacturing for what became the IBM PC Company to Research Triangle Park in Raleigh,
North Carolina, and converted the cavernous manufacturing facilities into offices and laboratories, later
producing ground-breaking products such as the OS/2 operating system and VoiceType Dictation,
known today as ViaVoice voice-recognition software.
IBM maintained its facilities at Boca Raton until 1996, when the facility was closed and was sold to
Blue Lake Real Estate, who in turn sold it to the T-REX Management Consortium. Today, T-REX has
revitalized the facility and its surrounding real estate into a highly-successful and landscaped
business/research park. What used to be IBM's Building 051, an annex separated from the former
main IBM campus by Spanish River Boulevard was donated to the Palm Beach County School District
and converted into Don Estridge High Tech Middle School. It is named for Don Estridge, whose team
was responsible for developing the IBM PC. IBM later returned in 2001 opening the current software
development laboratory off Congress Avenue in July of that year.
In the 1980s, because of an explosion of development to the west of the historical center of the city,
some eastern areas began to decay, including the downtown area. For instance, the old Boca Raton
Mall, a shopping mall in the downtown area was beginning to experience higher vacancy, and
occupancy by marginal tenants, due to the opening of Town Center at Boca Raton in a western area in
1979
In 1991, the new downtown outdoor shopping center, Mizner Park, was completed over the site of the
older Boca Raton Mall. It has since become a cultural center for the city. Featuring a landscaped
central park between the two main roads (collectively called Plaza Real) with stores only on the outside
of the roads, Mizner Park resembles a Mediterranean suburban "town center" with a more
contemporary look. It features many restaurants and is home to the Boca Raton Museum of Art which
moved to the new facility in 2001.[citation needed] In 2002, a new amphitheater was built replacing a
smaller one, providing a large-capacity outdoor venue.
Mizner Park has significantly aided downtown revitalization. Many new 8-10 story mixed-use buildings
have been constructed, are under construction or are proposed for the downtown area. The
surrounding areas to the downtown have benefited from the downtown redevelopment.
The National Cartoon Museum (formally: the International Museum of Cartoon Art) built a 25,000
square foot facility on the southwest edge of Mizner Park in 1996. Open for 6 years, the museum
closed in 2002 and the space has been empty since. The Museum has since relocated to its original
home in New York City. The builing is currently undergoing renovations for public uses, including the
local public TV station, and private uses, such as locally-owned and operated bookstore.
As development continued to focus to the west of the city in the 1980s and 1990s, the mall area, Town
Center at Boca Raton, became the geographic center of what is referred to as Boca Raton, though this
mall was not actually annexed into the city until 2004. The area referred to as Boca Raton, including
the unincorporated area west of the city (and discussed below), is now almost entirely built out.
In 1999, Simon Property Group bought Town Center at Boca Raton and renovated and expanded it.
Nordstrom is the anchor department store of a new wing. Neiman Marcus is the newest department
store tenant as of 2006. In late 2006, Simon began the construction stage of an outdoor lifestyle center
near the new wing. Town Center Mall has become a tourist attraction and the largest indoor mall in
Palm Beach County.
Boca Raton has a strict development code, including the size and types of commercial buildings,
building signs and advertisements which may be erected within the city limits. No car dealerships are
allowed in the city limits, according to the city zoning code. Additionally, no billboards are permitted in
the city. The only billboard was grandfathered in during recent annexation. Corporations such as
McDonald's have subdued their Golden Arches due to the code. The unincorporated areas still contain
restaurants with the classic arches, but the heights of the signs have been reduced. Many buildings in
the Boca Raton area have Mediterranean and Spanish architectural themes, initially inspired in the
area by Addison Mizner. The strict development code has resulted in several major thoroughfares
without large signs or advertisements in the traveler's view; significant landscaping is in its place.
original story
In 2001, Boca Raton was the site of the first anthrax attack in the United States when two employees
at the American Media building were stricken by the agent. Robert "Bob" Stevens, photo editor of the
Sun, a supermarket tabloid published by American Media, died of inhalation anthrax while Ernesto
Blanco, a 73-year-old mail-room employee, fell ill and later recovered. American Media moved their
headquarters to the nearby T-REX Corporate Center. The American Media building remained sealed
until the summer of 2004, when it became the last of the afflicted buildings to be decontaminated,
through the use of chlorine dioxide gas.
For more information visit www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us
| Toll Free: 866-775-3395 Palm Beach: 561-674-0498 Cell Line: 954-415-1630 Fax Line: 561-892-0913 |
McLean & Associates, Inc
appraisal and real estate consulting
appraisal and real estate consulting
| www.FastFloridaAppraisals.com - Michael W. Bode - McLean & Associates, Inc. - Links |
| www.FastFloridaAppraisals.com - Michael W. Bode - McLean & Associates, Inc. |