Low-Key Developer Has High-Profile Plan for Boynton Beach, Fla.

Byline: Paul Owers

Aug. 17--BOCA RATON, Fla.--In his spare time, Jim Comparato either goes fishing with his father or plays golf with his wife.

"I'm an Army golfer," Comparato quips. "I hit it right, left, right, left."

Fortunately, the president of Compson Associates is a much better real estate developer. His Boca Raton-based company has built $1 billion worth of offices, condominiums and shopping centers along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard during the past 57 years.

Compson Associates is a family-owned, fourth-generation developer, but you don't hear much about it. Comparato, 56, said there's a reason for that.

"I prefer to stay low-profile," he said. "It's a personal choice. It just works better for me."

But Comparato concedes that there was no place to hide after word leaked out last month that his company was making a play for three prime parcels along Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach.

If Compson buys all the land, it will control roughly 200 acres in one of the region's most coveted residential and retail corridors. Comparato envisions a mix of shops, restaurants, offices, townhouses and condominiums in an urban-style project whose value easily could reach $1 billion -- matching all of Compson's …