The Boynton Beach Mall is being sold and will close its doors in mid-January, marking the end of the 41-year-old shopping center but the start of the property's redevelopment into new homes and commercial space.
On Oct. 19, a spokesperson for mall owner Washington Prime Group confirmed the pending sale and closure.
“Lease termination notices have been issued in anticipation of the prospective redevelopment of the center. Based on the current transition plan, Boynton Beach Mall is expected to operate through January 15, 2027," the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman added that JCPenney, Cinemark and Christ Fellowship Church may continue to operate beyond that date.
Cinemark and the Christ Fellowship Church own their own properties and are not part
of the mall's ownership group, Boynton Beach Mall LLC.
The Washington Prime Group spokesperson did not disclose who is buying the Boynton Beach Mall, when the sale will take place, and what the buyer's exact plans are.
However, the city of Boynton Beach previously had rezoned the property to allow homes, offices and other uses.
This means the 91-acre property could become the site of least 1,700 housing units at a time when real-estate developers are eager to find any bit of dirt in Palm Beach County for new homes. The mall's location, on the west side of North Congress Avenue and just north of Old Boynton Road, is in a prime pocket of central Palm Beach County.
Following years of declining foot traffic and the closure of major retailers, the mall was put up for sale in 2011, then relisted as a teardown in 2023.
In its marketing materials, brokerage JLL didn't even refer to the down-and-out Boynton Beach Mall by its name. Instead, the mall at 801 N. Congress Ave. was dubbed "Boynton Beach 91."
JLL said in its marketing materials that the 801 N. Congress Ave. site "is poised to benefit from the insatiable demand for large-scale residential development," adding that new housing units could exceed 1,700 units because Boynton Beach "is a development-friendly municipality."
Boynton Beach Mall once home to major stores
The Boynton Beach Mall's pending sale marks the end of a once-bustling mall.
The mall opened its doors in 1985 with former retail giants like Burdines, JCPenney, Jordan Marsh and Lord & Taylor.
A Macy's opened in 1989, Mervyns replaced Lord & Taylor in 1991 and a Sears replaced Jordan Marsh in 1992. Dillard's came into the picture in 1997 to replace Mervyns.
When the Boynton Beach mall first opened, it was almost the only retail destination along the fledgling Congress Avenue corridor, and its presence helped pushed residential and commercial developments in the area.
But following a 1996 shooting in the mall that left one man dead, the mall began to decline. Not only did patrons raise concerns about safety but the mall also was hard hit by competition from other shopping centers, as well as the rise of online shopping.
For instance, in 2000, the CityPlace mixed-use center opened in West Palm Beach with a host of retailers that siphoned off some Boynton Beach Mall shoppers.
Meanwhile, beginning in 2003, nearly 200 acres on the east side of Congress across from the Boynton Beach Mall were transformed into residences, strip shopping centers and restaurants. Among the retailers: Super Target and Best Buy.
Big-box retailers and chain restaurants also began crowding Congress Avenue, some of them right in front of the mall itself.
Retail analysts said the big-box stores and strip shopping centers created a new downtown for Boynton Beach along Congress Avenue. Tenants liked being on the avenue because their stores were visible from the street and less expensive to rent than interior mall space. And shoppers liked the ease of parking right in front of a store.
At one time, the Boynton Beach Mall had more than 135 stores. But as stores closed, the mall's owners replaced them with local retailers and mom-and-pop stores.
The mall's website lists more than 80 retailers, but a number of them are for personal-care services, such as nails and salons, as well as jewelry and shoe stores.
A few national retailers, such as Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, remain.
Today, only the JCPenney department store remains open.
Sears closed in 2019, and Macy's closed in 2023. The Dillard's is now Dillard's Clearance.
Boynton Beach leaders seek to revitalize mall site
In 2020, the city of Boynton Beach approved a rezoning of the Boynton Beach Mall to suburban mixed-use, which would allow up to 20 housing units per acre, plus commercial uses.
Other allowed zoning uses for the mall property include office buildings, a medical and university campus and even a sports complex, JLL said in its marketing brochure.
Buildings could rise up to six stories, JLL added.
At the time the property was rezoned in 2020, the goal was to rid the city of"a wasteland of concrete," former Vice Mayor Justin Katz said at one meeting.
In its marketing materials, JLL said this translates into zoning that allows up to 1,700 housing units, including single-family houses and townhouses, as well as rental apartments.
JLL's marketing materials said the 892,000-square-foot enclosed mall's tenants were on short-term leases, or leases that can be terminated. In addition to the indoor mall, the Boynton Beach site features oceans of mostly empty parking lots.
Simon Property Group shed two Palm Beach County malls
The Boynton Beach Mall previously was owned by Simon Property Group, which unsuccessfully tried to sell the mall in 2011.
Three years later, Simon quietly unloaded the mall and several others to Washington Prime Group, a spin-off it created and named. Washington Prime Group is based in Ohio and Indianapolis.
The Boynton Beach Mall is the second Palm Beach County mall that Simon let go.
In 2010, Simon allowed the Palm Beach Mall to go into foreclosure, after it, too, was the scene of a fatal shooting, in 1999. The Palm Beach Mall was acquired by New England Development, then torn down and rebuilt into the Palm Beach Outlets, now Tanger Outlets.
Simon still owns Town Center at Boca Raton.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boynton Beach Mall being sold, closing set for 2027 | Exclusive
