Published On: Sat, Jun 30th, 2018

Second Tri-Rail Location in Boca Raton Selected

By: Michael Demyan

Rendering via Acai Associates, Inc.

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority announced the location for Boca Raton’s second Tri-Rail station, which will be on Military Trail and Northwest 19th Street, the previous site of King’s Gourmet Deli.

Boca Raton currently has one Tri-Rail station at Yamato Road, which happens to be the system’s busiest station with well over one thousand riders per day. It is located just north of the proposed new station.

The announcement was made last Wednesday at a public meeting at the Spanish River Library after the location was narrowed down from an initial list of seven sites. Five of them were ruled out rather quickly, until the eventual chosen site and one at the northern Town Center Circle were taken into heavy consideration.

Ultimately, the King’s Gourmet Deli site was chosen due to its access to Military Trail, as well as its ability to maximize bus storage. Other factors included the room for a kiss and ride drop-off and access to a traffic signal. SFRTA unveiled that there will be up to 75 parking spaces at the location, along with a bus pullout on Military Trail.

The announcement of the new station comes shortly after a big month for Tri-Rail. During the month of April, Tri-Rail had their highest monthly on-time performance since 2001, with 96.2% of trains staying on schedule. Boca Raton’s new station could help those statistics even more, giving riders more options for their daily travels.

Site plan via Kimley Horn

“We are delighted to finally provide our passengers with the level of service they desire and deserve,” SFRTA Executive Director Jack Stephens said. “Because of some repairs to the corridor, we were able to relieve some speed restrictions that had impacted [on-time performance].”

Currently, the property for the second Tri-Rail station is owned by Crocker Partners, which means that SFRTA would have to negotiate with them for the 2.12 acre site. The Boca Raton-based developer, which worked on the popular Mizner Park before it was opened in 1991, threatened to sue the City of Boca Raton back in April over issues with the city’s Midtown project. The next month, they moved forward and filed the lawsuit, while also stepping away from being the lead developer.

Even if the acquisition of the property goes smoothly, however, the station will not be ready anytime soon, as it still has to go through multiple stages of planning. Finalization of schematic plans is expected to take place this fall, while design plans will be finalized sometime between 2019 and 2020. The new Boca Raton station could be ready to open for business by 2023 and the estimated total cost would be around $17 million.

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