Comcast bringing service offices, vehicles to Boca Raton

Published June 30th, 2008

By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

Comcast Cable Television will soon be setting up shop in Boca Raton.

The cable provider that replaced bankrupt Adelphia Cable got the Planning & Zoning Board’s approval recently to create a business center at 7201 North Federal Highway in Boca’s north end.

Paul Slattery of Slattery & Associates, designer of the facility, said work on the 6-acre parcel, will be conducted in two phases.  As part of Phase I, he said, the existing one-story building will be renovated.  Inside will be created offices and a customer service
area.

He said the building was built around 1990 as a Sears Home Life store. It later became a Modernage Furniture Store, which just went out of business.

As part of the overall site development, said Slattery, Comcast is acquiring the site of the former Tom’s Restaurant.  The building on the land will be torn down.  But no development is planned on the 1.34-acre site at this time, said Slattery.

“It will be developed in the future, and a separate site plan will be filed,” Slattery said.

The 4.6-acres that will be developed, he said, will contain a large parking area for Comcast trucks.  Plans say a six-foot-tall chain link fence will surround it.

The city requires the firm to provide 140 parking spaces.  Slattery said it will have 242.

That raised some concerns among Planning & Zoning members who said they felt chain link – even black vinyl, as suggested in the plans – was not appropriate.  They said they doubted if the Community Appearance Board would approve it.

Board Chairman William Fairman suggested the firm put landscaping around the fence.

Jim Knight, a member of the North Federal Highway Steering Committee, spoke at the public hearing and said Comcast was a welcome addition to that area.  “We like this; we are excited about it,” said Knight.

As to the chain link fence, he suggested, “screening it a little.”

From what Slattery said, Comcast is making a hefty investment in the Boca facility.  He anticipates expansion and “a lot of new jobs.”

He emphasized that no TV transmission dishes will be near the building.  “It will only be for administration and paying bills.”