How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: Loehmann's Plaza to be demolished, storefronts to close

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Businesses at a crumbling retail plaza in a coveted location in the heart of Palm Beach Gardens have been told to clear out in as little as 30 days.

For years, developers have eyed Loehmann’s Plaza at Interstate 95 and PGA Boulevard. As recently as 2022, plans called for building a hotel and apartments on the 13.7-acre site, but they never moved forward.

Then the city this year issued 12 code violation citations against the property, and its owner, St. Louis-based Drury Development Co., decided to demolish it. Drury intends to tear the plaza down within 60 to 120 days, an attorney for the company said this week.

Drury gave lease termination notices to its tenants on May 15, leaving business owners scrambling to find new space nearby to lease in hopes of keeping their clienteles. Some are negotiating to stay longer.

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It's not yet clear what Drury plans to do with the property, one of the most desirable locations in Palm Beach Gardens.

It is blocks away from The Gardens Mall and the Downtown Palm Beach Gardens retail and restaurant complex. It also neighbors the site of PGA Station, a development featuring apartments and offices near a proposed Tri-Rail station that city planners hope will act as a blueprint for development along the PGA Boulevard corridor.

Mark Kohl, a Drury vice president of development, declined a request for comment from The Palm Beach Post. Speaking at a hearing in Palm Beach Gardens this week, an attorney for Drury said the company plans to redevelop the property.

Church, music school, dance studio, fitness company, hair and nail salon among the tenants

Loehmann's Plaza's semicircular array of buildings once housed its namesake discount-clothing store, along with a movie theater and restaurants such as TooJay's Deli. Today, a church, a music school, a dance studio, a fitness company, an estate sale business, a martial arts studio, a hair and nail salon and a graphics shop are there.

The businesses paid lower rents than they would at other area sites in exchange for covering the costs of maintaining their properties and having short-term exit clauses in their leases, according to four of the owners.

As such, they said they were upset but not shocked when they heard Drury would demolish the plaza.

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“I felt like I was paralyzed,” said 79-year-old Angela Mangano, who has owned the Hair and Nail Gallery at the plaza for 40 years. “I couldn’t believe that they gave me this after being there for the time I had been.”

Mangano, along with other store owners who were given 30-day notices, is trying to negotiate for an extra 60 days to move out. Two tenants were given 90 days, according to some of the business owners.

Mangano said she spent $4,000 on roof repairs about a month ago. She isn’t sure what she is going to do after she leaves the storefront but noted she probably isn't ready to retire.

“I’ll just take whatever comes and fight the battle,” Mangano said.

Loehmann's Plaza code violations include exposed wires, damaged roofs

City staff started issuing citations against the property in November 2023 for code violations ranging from exposed electrical wires to flammable materials stored in an electrical room and damaged roofs and drainage problems.

Each citation carries fines as low as $500 per day and as high as $5,000 per day if the owner does not fix the issues within certain time frames.

The city had a code-enforcement hearing on them on Tuesday, May 21. Speaking for Drury, West Palm Beach-based attorney Brian Seymour asked for extra time to comply with the citations so that Drury can file the demolition permit within the next 60 days without having to follow the city’s requests.

“The track for demolition takes care of dealing with all of this. It all comes out," he said.

Kevin Wagner, a Palm Beach Gardens-based attorney and Florida Atlantic University professor who served as magistrate for the hearing, granted the request for more time on most of the violations, but not all of them.

Four of them were fire and police code-compliance cases listed as “serious threats to public health, safety and welfare.” Among them were exits blocked with debris; exposed electrical wires; combustible materials including 15 mattresses; a couch and roof pieces kept in an empty storefront; and inoperable exit signs. Some of the combustible waste is stored in an electrical room.

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Wagner required Drury Development to fix these safety hazards within three days, by May 24.

“This is serious,” said Wagner about electrical junction boxes left open on the property. “It needs to be done immediately.”

Interim Fire Marshall Michael Carsillo said he was especially concerned about the exposed wires as fire hazards because water is leaking from some of the roofs on the property.

Mangano said she knew about all of the hazards beforehand.

“This is an ongoing thing with the same issues, except these people got the end of it,” said Mangano, who said she has known five of the complex’s property owners over the years.

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Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at [email protected]. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Loehmann's Plaza on PGA Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens to be demolished