Site cleared in October and November by owner Drury Development, which has not announced its plans.
When PGA Cinema VI opened at Loehmann’s Plaza in 1983, it joined a robust north county movie theater scene that included the Twin City Cinema, Lighthouse Plaza in Tequesta and the Jupiter Three Theaters.
Screenings in March 1983 included “Gandhi,” “48 Hours,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and “The Verdict.”
The theater’s owner, General Cinema, closed the six-screen movie house in 2000 as part of a corporate downsizing. A series of operators took the space over the years until it closed for good in March 2016.
Now the theater building is gone, as well, demolished in October 2024 as part of hotelier Drury Development’s plan to level the 42-year-old Loehmann’s Plaza.
Loehmann’s opened in November 1982, publishing “A note of thanks” in the Nov. 21, 1982, edition of The Palm Beach Post:
“The overwhelming acceptance by the ladies of the Palm Beach Area to our third Florida store located in Palm Beach Gardens has even surpassed our Grand Openings in Pompano Beach and North Miami!” the advertisement said.
Loehmann’s carried with it distinctions of its New York City discount-store origins, as The Palm Beach Post reported in a December 1989 story about “Catering to the New York state of mind.”
The story described the wide open women’s dressing rooms.
“Midwesterners have been known to walk out of Loehmann’s appalled at the locker-room style dressing rooms,” reporter Shari Spires wrote. “But, parading around in front of a strange group of women in their underwear doesn’t seem to bother the New Yorkers who shop there.
“In fact, they know how to take advantage of the situation. If they see another woman trying on a dress they like, they’ll simply approach the half-dressed customer and ask whether they can have it.
“‘Loehmann’s is a sort of boot camp for women,’ said one ex-New Yorker. ‘We all shop there and let on the clothes came from Lord and Taylor’s.’”
The story also recalled the chairs lining the front of the store for husbands: “Some read newspapers, some listen to talk shows on a radio headset and, every once in a while, an enterprising husband brings along a portable television and they all watch the football game.”
Among other 1983 tenants of the plaza southeast of Interstate 95 and PGA Boulevard: Dale Alan’s men’s clothing, S&H Shoe Outlet, Athletic Shoe Factory, TooJay’s, Party Warehouse, Royal Cosmetics and Peter Klein Handbags and Accessories.
The plaza’s name outlasted its namesake.
Loehmann’s moved out of Loehmann’s Plaza in 2005, operating its final years across Alternate A1A at Legacy Place.
TooJay’s left that year as well, moving to Downtown Palm Beach Gardens.
From 1984 to 2011, Cod & Capers Seafood Marketplace served customers at Loehmann’s before moving to Crystal Tree Plaza.
In 1997, original owner USAA Income Property LP sold the 14-acre plaza for $9.1 million to Massachusetts-based PGB Associates, a subsidiary of Kimco Realty.
In 2012, Kimco proposed tearing down the plaza and building a two-story BJ’s Wholesale Club. The city blocked the plan by changing the size limits for stores along the PGA corridor. Kimco sued in 2013.
In a January 2017 legal settlement, Kimco agreed to bring a new plan. It called for a three-story Life Time athletic club with 225 apartments. Life Time built instead at Downtown Palm Beach Gardens.
In 2019, Kimco sold the plaza for $16.5 million to an affiliate of St. Louis-based Drury Hotels.
In 2021, Drury pitched a 292-room Drury Plaza Hotel, restaurants, stores, an office building and a 315-unit apartment building.
But it never advanced to the hearing stage, as Drury withdrew the application.
City staff started issuing citations against the property in November 2023 for code violations ranging from exposed electrical wires to flammable materials stored in an electrical room and damaged roofs and drainage problems, The Palm Beach Post reported in May 2024.
Even without a plan pending, Drury agreed to force out remaining tenants and demolish all the buildings.
Angela Mangano, who ran the Hair and Nail Gallery at the plaza for 40 years, told The Post she had been given 30 days to move out.
“I felt like I was paralyzed,” the 79-year-old told The Post. “I couldn’t believe that they gave me this after being there for the time I had been.”
Demolition began in October 2024 and, while site work continued into November, the buildings were gone.
As of November 2024, Drury had not submitted development plans.
— Joel Engelhardt
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