Boca Raton Planning Board OK’s 8-story Apartment Tower Near Broken Sound

The ‘Park Tower at Broken Sound’ building, as shown in a rendering. (Planning Document)

Boca Raton’s planning and zoning board voted 7-0 last week to approve an eight-story, 97-unit apartment building on Northwest Broken Sound Parkway, which will replace a light industrial building with a “boutique” complex with retail.

The project, called Park Tower at Broken Sound, would rise on the eastern portion of a five acre site at 1075 and 1095 NW Broken Sound Parkway. A one-story light industrial building there would be torn down. The applicants are 1075 NW Broken Sound Parkway LLC and 1095 Broken Sound LP.

The 85-foot building would total about 185,200 square feet and include a two-level, 89,976-square-foot parking structure. Ten of the units, or about 10 percent of the total, would be set aside as affordable housing. Five would have two bedrooms and five would have three bedrooms. Of the 97 units, 52 are two-bedroom and 45 are three-bedroom.

The site of the future ‘Park Tower at Broken Sound’ building. (Google Earth)

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The ‘Park Tower at Broken Sound’ building, as shown in a rendering. (Planning Document)

The plan also calls for a separate 2,100-square-foot retail and restaurant building along the parkway, a new 8-foot-wide shared-use path, and new landscaping and hardscaping.

“There are additional entertainment areas and outdoor terraces located on the seventh and eighth floors,” Jacob German, the city’s senior planner, said at the meeting. Other amenities include a pool, a fitness center and a leasing office.

The western portion of the property was developed in 2006 with a three-story, roughly 50,300-square-foot office building.

“The existing three-story office building will not be modified by the application,” German said.

A traffic study by the applicant’s consultant estimated the project would add 228 daily trips compared with the current development.

The ‘Park Tower at Broken Sound’ building, as shown in a rendering. (Planning Document)

The project would add a fourth leg to the intersection of Northwest Broken Sound Boulevard and Northwest Broken Sound Parkway to serve as the main entrance. City staff raised safety concerns about the added conflict points at the intersection, according to the draft resolution. Staff suggested a traffic circle, but the applicant rejected that and other “more robust” safety improvements. Instead, the project will add stop signs and speed bumps, and some of the stop signs will blink with LED lights.

Staff recommended approval with conditions. Among them, the applicant must submit an arborist report on the Ficus trees along the parkway before getting a building permit. City staff said the applicant had declined repeated requests to provide the report during the review.