The Pompano Citi Centre will become even more of a bargain hunter’s paradise when Burlington, TJ Maxx and Five Below move into the empty Sears space this fall.
I’m a frequent shopper at the open-air mall, and when Macy’s announced it would close its long-time department store, I began to wonder what would fill the voids.
I checked in with Robert Vreeland, senior vice president of leasing for the Sterling Organization, which owns the mall. He’s been a busy guy.
Turns out, a $20 million transformation is under way at the sprawling property at 1955 N. Federal Highway in Pompano Beach. Sterling is preparing to bring in a fresh slate of retailers and restaurants along with plans to build rental apartments after Macy’s vacates.
So much for the great retail apocalypse. No grass grows at South Florida malls, which seemingly have no trouble attracting new tenants.
Sterling is currently gutting the cavernous 160,000-square-foot space formerly owned by Sears on the north end of the mall. Sears and Donna’s Garden Gate closed in December 2018. Sterling purchased the store from Sears for about $11 million, Vreeland says.
The south part of the space will house a 25,000-square-foot TJ Maxx. A two-story, 50,000-square foot Burlington department store will be on the north end, with a 9,000-square-foot Five Below sandwiched in between. The stores are set to open sometime in October, Vreeland says.
Adding these big-name discounters will make bargain hunting that much more fun, as they join Ross, Big Lots and Rack Room Shoes. There are 17 buildings spread out over the property, with more than 50 businesses, including JC Penney, PetSmart, GameStop, Bath & Body Works, Chili’s and Panera Bread.
Dangerous Minds Brewing opened in October next to Lowe’s. A Saito’s Japanese Steakhouse will open above Panera in February.
Meanwhile, after demolishing the former Sears Auto Center that faces Copans Road, the company is close to getting a building permit to begin construction on a 18,800-square-foot space that will house five new tenants, including Aspen Dental and a Venetian Nails salon. Others are to be announced. That’s set to begin in 30 to 60 days, he says.
The redo should be completed in 2021. Then, the company will turn its attention to buying and demolishing the 50-year-old Macy’s building to make way for low-rise apartments to open in 2022. No plans or permits have been filed yet.
Tens of thousands of retailers closed in 2019. Already this year Macy’s said it will shutter 30 locations, and Pier 1 Imports plans to close 450 stores. It still seems surprising that South Florida malls thrive.
Vreeland doesn’t see it that way.
“When Sears and Kmart closed their locations, that created opportunities for new relevant retailers to come in. We have to constantly reinvent and reinvest in new retailers in today’s market,” Vreeland says. “There are plenty of new tenants that work in today’s market. They are primarily discount retailers, as well as food and beverage operations. It’s not a retail apocalypse. It’s a retail rebirth.”
But it is an apocalypse. Allow me to digress.
Retail churn at the mall is one thing, but it’s quite another when free-standing retail stores on massive plots of land stand empty or are on life support just waiting to become “mixed use development,” the new buzz words in real estate. As those towers rise, so does our collective blood pressure.
Examples are the vacant Kmart in Oakland Park and Searstown in Fort Lauderdale, just waiting to be bulldozed. And then there is the Whole Foods Market apartment complex going up at Federal Highway and 17th Street Causeway. And the Deerfield Station apartment and retail project at the train tracks in Deerfield Beach. And the forthcoming GreenWise Market with a sprawling residential tower on Las Olas Boulevard. There are more, but I’ll stop now.
Those sites may house exciting and useful retail, but they also will stack tens of thousands more people on top of each other, straining our infrastructure and creating more traffic nightmares. Residents are fed up. It seems this rebirth of retail is wrecking our quality of life.
What are the alternatives? To let the stores decay, creating a blight on the cities they inhabit? Not a sound option. It’s a balancing act and a tough one at that. We must be more creative. Perhaps put in a park, or just a single-story store. Let’s skip the high-rises.
Back to Pompano. Retailer swaps are less troublesome at the 900,000-square-foot mall. The city could use a few shiny new spots to spruce things up. Plus, the city doesn’t suffer from the same traffic and sewer issues as Fort Lauderdale.
So, when JC Penny’s or Pier 1 go bye-bye, Vreeland will be ready put out the welcome mat for both new retailers and bargain hunters.
Connect with me: Facebook.com/DoreensDeals, Twitter.com/PrettyGoodIdeas or email dchristensen@sunsentinel.com.
