Developer envisions homes, retail once sale is complete
The entrance sign shows some that remain and others that have left the Boynton Beach Mall. Tenants have been told to vacate by mid-January. Anne Geggis/The Coastal Star
By Anne Geggis
The fading letters on Boynton Beach Mall’s entrance monument faintly show which tenants time has erased from the mall — and now those absences foretell the 41-year-old shopping center’s scheduled disappearance into memory.
Tenants report they have been told they have until mid-January to vacate the 91-acre site on Congress Avenue. And a pre-conceptual plan filed with the city, according to reports, shows Lennar, a national homebuilder, is planning 600 townhomes in place of the mall.
The mall died a slow death until 2020, when COVID-19 accelerated the decline. That’s when representatives of the mall’s Indianapolis-based owner successfully convinced the city to change the zoning from community commercial to suburban mixed to make it more attractive to homebuilders looking for acreage to buy.
There’s only one Christmas shopping season left to go at this enclosed retail space, which measures hundreds of thousands of square feet.
“It’s been a foregone conclusion for quite a while,” said Thomas Christos, co-owner of the mall’s 32-year-old Hallmark store, which at the end of October was decked out in both Halloween and Christmas finery.
Changing face of Congress
In his estimation, the mall’s former owner, Simon Property Group, was not aggressive in its response to big-box stores, such as Super Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Michael’s, rising on the same street, starting a little less than 20 years ago. Simon, which also owns the Town Center in Boca Raton and Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, spun the Boynton Beach Mall and other smaller malls off to another company, Washington Prime Group, in 2014.
Neither the marketing firm shopping the property nor Washington Prime Group could be reached for comment. The purchase is scheduled for completion in early 2027, a Lennar statement reads.
“Lennar expects … to develop a mixed-use community that helps alleviate Palm Beach County’s severe housing shortage,” the statement says. “Although planning is in the early stages and we look forward to stakeholder feedback, our vision is to take advantage of this unique opportunity with a mix of single-family attached housing opportunities, complemented by retail commercial, open space and civic uses that will create a walkable, connected environment.”
Once a happening place
Few national chains still have shops at the Boynton Beach Mall — Spencer Gifts and Victoria’s Secret are among the holdouts in these halls that still have easy listening music piped through the cavernous environs. Things Remembered, a national retailer which specialized in engraving keepsakes, stopped having brick and mortar shops in 2019 and now the engraving is done at a small kiosk in the middle of the mall.
Some of the stores that once served as the mall’s anchors are likely unknown to a generation of people now old enough to vote: Jordan Marsh was there when the mall opened in 1985. Sears replaced that store in 1992. And Mervyns, Burdines and Lord & Taylor also took turns as anchors, designed to draw customers to the mall.
Christ Fellowship Church and Cinemark Boynton Beach own their lots separate from the mall-owned land, so any new development would have to accommodate them — somehow. JCPenney may also be operating past the mall’s closing date, according to reports.
Ginger Pedersen, whose family has been in Palm Beach County since 1950, remembers the eye-catching fountain that graced Boynton Beach Mall’s interior. She also remembers the cow pasture across the street — and how the parcel the mall now occupies was also once a cow pasture.
Pedersen remembers its opening was a big addition to the Palm Beach County landscape.
“It was that middle palace between the Palm Beach Mall and the Town Center,” said Pedersen, who has published numerous local history books. “Obviously, Town Center was more upscale.” Boynton Beach Mall “was more of a middle-class suburbia mall.”
‘It’s kind of sad’
One recent weekday, there was no one to take your money if you wanted to go on the bungee ride or take a spin on the indoor carousel. Storefronts offering services, like Idol Brow Art and JJ Alterations & Cleaning, rival the number of places you can leave with something new in a bag. More than one clothing store announced everything in the store is $10 or less.
Keith Aaron, 24, of Margate, says he’s become a regular here because of the griot — a fried pork dish — made into an eggroll at Val’s Kitchen, which serves Haitian cuisine.
News that the mall’s days were numbered also stirred some foot traffic one recent afternoon. Taina Martin, 26, of Delray Beach, was checking it out with a friend for the first time, despite having lived in the area for a few years.
“I wanted to come and look around,” she said. “It’s kind of sad.”
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