Boca Raton/Fort Lauderdale

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Edric Floyd
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Post by Edric Floyd »

The Boca Raton Mall in Boca Raton Florida opened in 1974 with Britts and Jeffersons as the anchors.

The Boca Raton Mall also included a Walgreens with the Walgreens "Grill" restaurant and a 6 screen movie theatre. This was the very theatre where I saw "Jaws " and later "Star Wars" and I remember the admission was $1.35 for children under 12. (I spent a lot of my paper route money in this mall!)

The mall also had rooftop parking. And a glass elevator access to the single story mall. The mall was one story but the two anchor stores each had two floors and you could access the roof parking via the second floor.

The Jeffersons (pre-JeffersonWARD) did not have an auto center.

By the 1980's, the Boca Raton Town Centre had opened and was more appropiate for this upscale community. The Boca Raton Mall died a long and painful death. Britts went out of business, Jefferson's had become JeffersonWard and later a Montgomery Ward outlet center with the second floor now closed off as was the roof top parking. The Walgreens has closed its restaurant and the movie theatre had declined into a sad 99CENT theatre showing movies that were easily rented on home video.

In its final days, the Boca Raton mall was also the local Greyhound Bus station. The Boca Raton Mall closed in the late 1980's and was demolished.

In its place is MIZNER PARK,http://www.miznerpark.com/html/ which was built in 1992 to include luxury apartments mixed with retail and entertainment. It has a very Boca Raton feel to it.
Edric Floyd
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Lakes Mall, Ft. Lauderdale Florida

Post by Edric Floyd »

Simular to the Boca Raton Mall is LAKES MALL in Lauderdale Lakes (Ft. Lauderdale) Florida. I don't know the history enough to confirm this but one look at the two back then and you assumed they were built and managed by the same people/company.

This mall opened around the same time as the Boca Raton Mall and had the same anchors, Jeffersons and Britts. However the Lakes Mall did also have a PANTRY PRIDE supermarket with direct access to the Mall close to Jeffersons.

The outparcel of this property included a Burger King. I do not remember Lakes Mall having rooftop parking like its Boca Raton counterpart nor do I remember how many movie screens (if any) that the Lakes Mall had.

By the mid 1980's, the Jeffersons space had been divided to become THE SPORTS AUTHORITY and a Builders Square. It was a very small Builders Square that competed with a Home depot nearby.

The Pantry Pride store became (and still is either the first or second OFFICE DEPOT store) and the rest of the mall was vacant for years.

Last time I drove by the old Lakes Mall, the building bore NO resemblence to the old Mall (due to renovations) but the Sports Authority and Office Depot stores were in their ORIGINAL location and the Burger King that closed in 1989 and remained vacant for 15 years was now a Starbucks.

There was another simular mall in the West Palm Beach area just west of I-95 and Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. I believe it was on the corner of Military Trail and Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. I don't remember this mall's name but it too had Jefferson's and Britts as its anchors. This mall was smaller than the Boca Raton and Lakes Mall's but had an identical architecture.

The W.P.B. facility didn't last long as it competed with nearby Palm Beach Mall a mile away at I-95 that had Burdines, Jordan Marsh and Sears in the 1970's and has expanded to include Lord & Taylor in the 80's and Dillard's/Macy's TODAY. Also there was a Richway (Current TARGET) across from the larger mall.

Does anyone remember the name of the smaller mall on the WEST side of the I-95 and Palm Beach Lakes Blvd interchange?
DanG
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Post by DanG »

I think that the mall you are thinking of is the old Cross County Mall on the corner of Military Trail and Okeechobee Rd. (Palm Beach Lakes T's into Okeechobee just east of the mall). It is now a strip mall. The Winn Dixie that was in a small outparcel moved into the former Kmart space and Office Depot took the old WD space. I dont know if the WD is still open or not , I haven't been by the area in a few years myself.
TenPoundHammer
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Post by TenPoundHammer »

DanG wrote:I think that the mall you are thinking of is the old Cross County Mall on the corner of Military Trail and Okeechobee Rd. (Palm Beach Lakes T's into Okeechobee just east of the mall). It is now a strip mall. The Winn Dixie that was in a small outparcel moved into the former Kmart space and Office Depot took the old WD space. I dont know if the WD is still open or not , I haven't been by the area in a few years myself.
Yep, that's the one. http://www.swerdlow.com/retprojects2.html says that it also had Builders Square and Publix after demalling in 1997, but that could be wrong.
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