WEST PALM BEACH — The Palm Beach Mall will be redeveloped as the Palm Beach Fashion outlets, bringing construction and ultimately hundreds of jobs to the mostly shuttered retail center.
Once revamped, it will offer an open-air outlet center beside a shopping center, according to a news release from New England Development, Eastern Real Estate and Lubert-Adler, all of which partnered to buy the 80-acre property.
Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th and other luxury retail outlets have shown early interest in the location, New England Development Chairman Stephen Karp told The Post earlier this year. Marketing materials released at a retail conference showed premium outlets, including Nordstrom Rack, Bloomingdale's Outlet Store and Neiman Marcus' Last Call.
That scope of project could become a shopping destination for people from outside the county, said Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.
"If it's anything like what we've seen in other parts of our state, it really is an attraction for people to come and visit," she said. Those shoppers tend to spend an overnight or weekend, and money could trickle into West Palm Beach's CityPlace and Clematis Street corridor, she said.
Mayor Jeri Muoio said the developers have worked with the city as they explored concepts. She was unsure how soon construction would begin. "I think they're trying to decide to rehab it or start from scratch," she said.
The fashion outlet center is expected to open in 2013.
Palm Beach Mall was the first regional mall in Palm Beach County and has some of the best interstate access in South Florida, as it is easily seen off the Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard exit of Interstate 95.
The deal - which includes purchase of the majority of the mall from ORIX Capital Markets and parcels owned separately by Macy's and Dillard's department stores - was initially reported in a news release as worth $40 million. The representative who released the information, however, later backed off of that figure. Neither Karp nor representatives from Eastern Real Estate and ORIX returned messages today to provide more information.
Multiple owners had been considered an obstacle to pulling the main property out of foreclosure, filed in April 2009 on $55 million in loans.
The court-appointed receiver, Madison Marquette's Chuck Taylor, was traveling today and unavailable to comment, but his assistant said the property was still under contract and had not closed. Wells Fargo Bank financed the acquisition, according to the news release.
Dan Lynch, managing partner of Atlantic Retail Properties' Jupiter office who brokered the deal, said J.C. Penney Co. would be "part of the future of the project." The retailer, as well as George's Music, stuck it out at the mall, even posting a sign earlier this year that says: "Here to Stay."
Once construction starts, whether it's demolition of the million square feet of space opened in 1967 or renovation of the existing buildings, Muoio said city leaders and neighbors will be relieved to see the "dead space" revitalized.
Palm Beach Lakes South association President Bernard Macon said a new mall will bring back jobs for young people in his neighborhood, which lies just to the west of I-95. And it will give people, young and old, a place to go again.
He and his wife used to walk at the mall, Macon said.
"There's nothing exciting in there," Macon said of the mall now. "You want to see things to make the walk interesting."
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