NORTH PALM BEACH — A lawsuit that has delayed the largest development project in North Palm Beach's recent history is headed for trial as soon as next month if the village and the developer don't settle their differences.
Court documents show that NP-Devland wants to develop 947 apartments, a 222-bedroom hotel, a 206-unit senior living facility, and 133 condominiums on 13 acres of the old Twin City Mall site, along with 100,000 square feet of retail space. Some of its structures could rise as high as 14 stories, according to plans submitted to the village.
NP-Devland says the village imposed conditions about landscaping and walkways on the project, called Village Place, to which it never agreed. The village declined to comment.
Circuit Judge James
Sherman issued an order in August scheduling a nonjury trial for between Oct. 12 and Nov. 20, Palm Beach County court records show.
Village Place would replace North Palm's long-shuttered Twin City Mall
The Twin City Mall opened as northern Palm Beach County's first mall in 1971, straddling the border between North Palm Beach and Lake Park at Northlake Boulevard and U.S. 1.
For decades, it was the region's premier shopping destination, with more than 50 stores. But the mall became obsolete after The Gardens Mall opened on PGA Boulevard in 1988 and lured Twin City's anchor store, Sears, to move there.
The Twin City mall was torn down in 1997.
The U.S. 1 corridor from West Palm Beach into northern Palm Beach County is seeing interest from developers in building high-rise apartment and condominium buildings. The tallest of them, the 24-story Nautilus 220 towers, stand about a mile south of the Twin City Mall site in Lake Park.
Some residents have opposed placing 14-story buildings on the Twin City mall site, saying they preferred that building heights remain at 50 feet, or four stories. They cited the Nautilus towers as an example of overdevelopment.
The North Palm Beach Village Council voted 5-0 in April 2025 approving the master site plan for Village Place, and in 2023 it voted 4-1 2023 to approve land-use use changes, but the project has remained on hold amid the lawsuit, which was filed in May of 2025.
Court documents show the village set four threshold conditions for the developer to meet, including a public benefit in the form of additional landscaping and walkway areas. The lawsuit alleged that North Palm Beach "acted in bad faith" by inducing NP-Devland to spend time on a planned-unit development application, only to leverage the expense by imposing additional conditions.
Julius Whigham II covers northern Palm Beach County and public safety for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Twin City Mall site's future heads to trial this fall. What's at stake
