Downtown Palm Beach Gardens reinvents itself with latest makeover
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Downtown Palm Beach Gardens, the outdoor shopping mall known for its spinning carousel and weekend entertainment, expects to complete its latest renovation this summer.
“As we navigate through this pandemic, we continue to look for ways to make the property more inviting, relaxing and safe for our shoppers,” Nina Rogers, vice president of leasing and specialty centers for ShopCore Properties, its parent company.
Improvements include:
- New stores.
- Updates to its signature carousel.
- A new four-story parking garage.
- New tropical landscaping and botanical structures.
- New storefronts, awnings, doors, lighting, lakeside swings and seating.
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With the economy rebounding and northern Palm Beach County growing, Downtown is a valuable asset to continued expansion, said Noel Martinez, president and chief executive of the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce.
“We need more dining options. We need more jobs. Downtown will be a partner is all this,” Martinez said.
Downtown opened in 2006
But challenges remain for the mall, which was built in 2006 with about 50 stores on 49 acres off Kyoto Gardens Drive.
Shopping malls, with the pandemic and customers opting out of in-person shopping, have seen their sales consistently drop since t
heir heyday in the 1980s. Back then, more than half of retail sales took place in shopping malls.
Retail experts figure about one-fourth of shopping malls open today will close in the next five years. To survive, today’s malls must reinvent themselves.
Downtown also faces competition.
The Gardens Mall, Legacy Place, PGA Commons and the Outlet Mall in West Palm Beach are just a short ride away.
The renovations should help Downtown survive the completion, said Erin Devlin, regional marketing manager for ShopCore Properties. The Chicago-based company leases and manages more than 50 shopping centers with a total of more than 21 million square feet in 15 states.
“Now more than ever, customers are preferring to shop, dine and socialize in outdoor shopping centers and tenants are prioritizing open-air locations when looking to expand or launch a brand,” he said via email.
For the 450,000-square-foot Downtown, this is the second major renovation. By comparison, The Gardens Mall is 1.4 million square feet.
When Berman Enterprises bought Downtown through foreclosure in 2009, company leaders told The Palm Beach Post their mission was to turn the slumbering shopper into a “lifestyle center.” About a third of the stores were vacant.
The new owners spent about $1.8 million in improvements.
Outdoor teak tables with red and yellow umbrellas, twin outdoor escalators, lush landscaping, bubbling fountains and music lilting from outdoor speakers were installed.
The exclamation point for the new mall was a $600,000 carousel featuring 27 handmade wooden animals such as horses, manatees, seahorses, panthers and flamingos that visitors could ride on the 32-foot-wide attraction.
The carousel is considered the public art that the city requires for all major commercial projects.
The carousel was taken apart in August for refurbishing. The animal menagerie is scheduled to return this summer at a new location on the lake on the east side of property.
Downtown’s CMX movie theater, restaurants such as Yardhouse and stores such as West Elm Furniture remain open during the construction. This year’s summer Friday night concert series is planned to start June 4 and run through August.
Visitors to Downtown complex miss activities but look forward to changes
Several visitors to Downtown on a recent rainy afternoon said they missed the outdoor weekend activities on the site’s outdoor plaza.
Others want changes.
“We used to come all the time for the concerts. If you got here early enough, you could snag a table and enjoy the show. We made lots of new friends,” said Jupiter resident Karen Morrison, 27, seated with a dish of coconut storm in one of the green plastic chairs at Sloan’s Ice Cream.
The new parking garage is a smart idea, said Royal Palm Beach resident Jack Lombardi.
“We had to park far away. That was no fun in this rain,” said Lombardi, 56, as he stood in line at CMX with his two young sons to see “Godzilla vs. King Kong.”
Others want more signs to tell them where and what stores are open.
Those concerns are being addressed, said Devlin.
“Our tenant visibility is a primary focus to ensure the community can easily navigate the center,” he said.
New Tenants
- Subculture Coffee is planned to open late this summer.
- Marcello Sport, a men’s clothing store, is planned to open in October.
- Life Time, a healthy lifestyle company, is scheduled to open a store with a rooftop beach club in the spring of 2022.
- REI, a clothing, camping and hiking store, plans to open in the spring of 2022.