Coming Soon to West Palm Beach: The Palm Beach Outlets
Posted by Brittany Bosher on Thursday, February 28th, 2013 at 10:05am.
The Palm Beach Mall in West Palm Beach has been a longstanding part of Palm Beach County since the day it was designed. Originally opened in 1967 the Palm Beach Mall had a phenomenal reputation. It was the largest mall on the southeastern seaboard and it was the first ever, fully enclosed, climate controlled shopping complex. For its time and for years to come, the Palm Beach Mall really was an icon for great shopping with flagship stores like Lord & Taylor, Sears and Burdines. Unfortunately, the mall’s reputation had slipped in later years due to tough competition from new and developing shopping centers.
The famous mall was closed in 2010 with only a few of the department stores remaining open including: JC Penny, George’s Music Store and a Firestone outparcel. However, there are big, new plans for the mall to transform once again into an iconic place for shopping.
Say hello to the entirely new development of the Palm Beach Outlets! Total time for the construction of the 84-acre shopping Mecca is expected to take place over the next two years with individual phases opening along the way. Construction started in January and we are anticipating a grand opening of phase 1 in the fall of this year. The Palm Beach Outlet center is going to be an open-air complex featuring over 500,000 square feet of high-end outlet shopping with only the best names in fashion. Mall developers pondering the numbers of individual stores have quoted, “We have a tremendous amount of interest… total number of outlets will be around 80 to 100.”
Not only will the mall bring great shopping at killer prices to the people of the Palm Beaches but also a huge, positive economic impact from the mall’s opening. Some of the numbers the area is supposing to see include:
- $319 million in total economic activity
- $862,000 annual net fiscal benefit to the city of West Palm Beach
- $82 million in wages
- 386 full time construction jobs over the two years of construction
- 1,576 full time equivalent employees on-site
- 2,426 total full time employees (including multiplier effects)
The Palm Beach Outlets are going to be big! Keep up with the construction improvements and opening dates at the Palm Beach Outlets website http://pboutletmall.com/.