Boynton Beach’s downtown is about to become more lively, with apartments, shops and eateries coming soon in a massive building boom.
The growth is expected to galvanize the economy of this central Palm Beach County city, and especially boost business in the downtown, between Seacrest Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway.
But just west of Interstate 95 in the busy Congress Avenue corridor, a longtime center of commerce has seen better days: The Boynton Beach Mall, at 801 N. Congress Ave.
The 41-year-old Boynton Beach Mall opened its doors in 1985 with former retail giants including Burdines, JCPenney, Jordan Marsh and Lord & Taylor. A Macy’s, Mervyns, Sears and then Dillard’s came later.
A center of commerce in this coastal city
When the Boynton Beach Mall first opened, it was one of only a few retail destinations along the fledgling Congress Avenue corridor. The mall’s presence helped pushed residential and commercial developments in the area.
But during the past two decades, the once-bustling mall has been hard hit by competition from other shopping centers, safety concerns of patrons and the rise of online shopping.
For years, business and government leaders wanted the aged Boynton Beach Mall turned into something new. City officials even rezoned the mall site to suburban mixed-use, a move that could eventually allow housing, such as apartments and single-family homes.
At the time the property was rezoned in 2020, the goal was to rid the city of “a wasteland of concrete,” former Vice Mayor Justin Katz said at one meeting.
The Boynton Beach Mall previously was owned by Simon Property Group, which unsuccessfully tried to sell the mall in 2011.
Three years later, Simon unloaded the mall and several others to Washington Prime Group, a spin-off it created and named. Washington Prime Group is based in Ohio and Indianapolis.
In 2023, a real estate brokerage working on behalf of Washington Prime began trying to sell the 91-acre mall property as a teardown. Marketing materials by the JLL brokerage also suggested construction of offices, a medical campus or even a sports arena.
But the Boynton Beach Mall remains as is, and no buyer yet has been found, according to Amanda Radigan, development director for the city of Boynton Beach.
Today, the only department store still open is JC Penney.
A Macy’s store closed in 2025, a year after the department store sold the site to Washington Prime. The Sears store closed in 2019.
The mall’s interior also contains a mix of both national and local stores.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Is the Boynton Beach Mall still open? Future unclear for aged site
Reporting by Alexandra Clough, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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