How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: Ousted stores survive as Loehmann's Plaza sits vacant

How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: Ousted stores survive as Loehmann’s Plaza sits vacant

Posted by Admin January 21, 2025 Shopping

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No one knows what will happen to the Loehmann’s Plaza site in Palm Beach Gardens. Its businesses know they’ve prevailed since having to move in May.

PALM BEACH GARDENS — The bliss Joe Mangano has found in a koi pond has softened the blow of the abrupt closure of Loehmann’s Plaza last spring after 41 years.

Mangano and his wife operated their small business, Hair and Nail Gallery, nearly since the shopping center at PGA Boulevard and Interstate 95 in Palm Beach Gardens opened in 1982. They and eight other tenants had to scramble to find spaces their businesses could afford at a time when rents have skyrocketed across northern Palm Beach County.

“It was very hard packing everything up and getting this place spruced up,” said Mangano, 86, who owns the salon with his wife and who left when code violations forced the crumbling Loehmann’s Plaza to close. “But it’s suitable for us.”

Mangano found his spot three miles away along U.S. 1 in North Palm Beach, where another former Loehmann’s business, Tigerlily Arts and Antiques, has joined him. Like them, most of the other shops — a dance studio, a graphics shop and a fitness company among them — have prevailed through the closure, and opened in new locations.

And as Mangano feeds the fish each weekend, Palm Beach Gardens awaits word on what will happen at the 14-acre Loehmann’s site, now the most prominent undeveloped property in the city.

Property owner has talked about shops, restaurants, offices, hotels at site

Work crews started demolishing its building in September and finished three months later, leaving a fenced-off open space at the city’s busiest intersection that drivers can’t miss seeing.

Drury Development of St. Louis, Mo., has not said what it plans to build there and did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

In 2022, when it purchased the land, Drury spoke of building a hotel and apartments on the site, which borders the PGA Station development.

Natalie Crowley, the city’s planning director, said a recent conversation with Drury covered building a hotel, restaurants, retail and office spaces there.

A mixed-use development of that sort would blend in with the area near PGA and RCA boulevards, which already is home to three hotels as well as commercial spaces, offices and apartments.

Loehmann’s Plaza businesses find new storefronts after scrambling

Drury gave lease termination notices to the business owners on May 15. Some were told to clear out in as little as 30 days.

Ben Stark was one of the luckiest ones and the fastest to move. He found a new home along 10th Street in Lake Park for his martial arts studio, American Top Team Palm Beach Gardens, 10 days after he received the notice.

A small business like his couldn’t afford space at Legacy Place or Downtown Palm Beach Gardens, he said. Still, he is paying triple the cost of his previous rent for a smaller space. He kept his customer base, but said his rate of new clients slowed.

Business slowed for Tigerlily, too. The antiques shop landed in a shopping plaza off U.S. 1 in North Palm Beach in October.

Its new storefront comes with a higher rent and is more than 13,000 square feet smaller than its last, which took up six spaces at Loehmann’s Plaza.

The shop’s owner moved 80% of its inventory into storage. The business still makes most of its sales online, a store manager said.

Dance Theater of Florida had to look for new space longer than other businesses. It is scheduled to move into its new location at Promenade Plaza on Alternate A1A this month.

Michele Zehner, its owner, has led classes from a conference room at the Hilton DoubleTree hotel and another dance studio while searching for space since August.

“This is a rough situation with the temporary space. … You’re dancing on carpet, and there are no mirrors on the wall (at the DoubleTree),” Zehner said. “We lost a lot of customers, but we’re really hopeful.”

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.