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, FHA approved 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.
Are you looking for an FHA approved appraiser in the city of Boca Raton or Palm Beach County? ValuTech Services has an extensive panel of
FHA-approved appraisers with the experience and know-how to satisfactorily deliver FHA-acceptable appraisals in virtually all markets of Palm
Beach County. Do you need more information on FHA protocol and the definition of FHA? Visit our FHA protocol site section here.
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
commercial property appraisers, residential home appraisers, FHA approved 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.
Are you looking for an FHA approved appraiser in the city of Boca Raton or Palm Beach County? ValuTech Services has an extensive panel of
FHA-approved appraisers with the experience and know-how to satisfactorily deliver FHA-acceptable appraisals in virtually all markets of Palm
Beach County. Do you need more information on FHA protocol and the definition of FHA? Visit our FHA protocol site section here.
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
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