The Gardens Mall

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The main entrance of The Gardens Mall.

The Gardens Mall is an upscale, two-story, enclosed shopping mall located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a suburb of West Palm Beach. Its anchors are Macy's, Sears, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue, and it features more than 160 specialty shops and restaurants.

[edit] Anchors

Bloomingdale's (230,000 sq. ft.)
Macy's (325,000 sq. ft.)
Nordstrom (144,000 sq. ft.)
Saks Fifth Avenue (75,000 sq. ft.)
Sears (163,000 sq. ft.)

Shopping malls in South Florida/Miami area

Aventura Mall • Bal Harbour Shops • Bayside Marketplace • Boynton Beach Mall • Broward Mall • CityPlace • CocoWalk • Coral Square Mall• Dadeland Mall • Dolphin Mall • Downtown at the Gardens • The Falls • The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale • The Gardens Mall • Las Olas Riverfront • Mall of the Americas • The Mall at 163rd Street • The Mall at Wellington Green • Miami International Mall • Palm Beach Mall • Pembroke Lakes Mall • Southland Mall • Sawgrass Mills • Town Center at Boca Raton • Westland Mall •

[edit] History

The Gardens Mall was originally approved in 1984 as a "Development of Regional Impact" to include an over 1.3 million square foot shopping mall, along with thousands of residential units and more commercial and office surrounding the mall. The mall's developer was The Forbes Company, based in Southfield, MI. In the mid - 1980s the areas surrounding the proposed site, at the intersection of Florida 811 and PGA Boulvard, was sparsely populated and many questioned the need of a mall that size at that location. However, the mall's developers saw a slow but growing trend in upscale housing in northern Palm Beach County, particularly gtaed communities centered around upscale recreation such as boating and golfing.

The mall opened in October 1988 with three initial anchors, Macy's (then the second in Florida after Aventura) Burdines and Sears, which relocated from the much smaller, faded Twin City Mall in nearby Lake Park. Bloomingdales and Sax Fifth Avenue joined as tenants in 1990. Many of the parcels slated for residential, commercial and ancillary office remained undeveloped throughout the 1990s, due to slow population growth. However, the 2000s have seen a population explosion in the area and most of the surrounding parcels have developed rapidly, including Harbor Oaks, Gardens Pointe, the Landmark and La Posada residential developments, along with the "Downtown at the Gardens" lifestyle center, an outdoor shopping center including Cheesecake Factory, Whole Foods Market, Urban Outfitters, and a 24 screen movie theatre. In March 2006 Nordstrom opened on the site of the former Burdines department store.

In 2005, the Florida Department of Transportation completed a new interchange at PGA Boulevard and Florida 811, providing direct access from the mall entrance to I-95.