Sunday, November 21, 2021

Former Albertsons #4316(1) and #4335 - Lauderhill, FL

Recreation of store #4316(1) courtesy of YonWooRetail2

Albertsons #4316(1)*
2999 NW 56th Avenue, Lauderhill, FL

*The (1) after the store number is to differentiate this location from Albertsons #4316(2) in Lake Mary, FL, an unrelated Albertsons store that reused location number 4316 later in Albertsons' Floridian tenure.

     After giving control of the blog to Retail Retell for our last post, AFB himself returns today with a double dose of former Floridian Albertsons stores for everyone! The pair of Albertsons stores we'll be looking at today have quite a few similarities to each other, as we'll see throughout the post, but the most interesting similarity these two stores have in common is that both were early causalities for Albertsons in Florida. Neither of Lauderhill's Albertsons stores lasted beyond the early 1990's, and it was different reasons that contributed to each store's early demise. These early Albertsons closures are quite fascinating to me, as the memories of these buildings as Albertsons have mostly faded into obscurity, a small blip in Albertsons' 40+ year run in Florida. Today we'll take a quick look at each of these stores to pull out those memories of supermarket days gone by, beginning with the older (and still standing) of Lauderhill's pair of former Albertsons stores, that being store #4316(1) at the corner of Oakland Park Boulevard and Inverrary Boulevard/NW 56th Avenue:

Store #4316(1)'s grand opening ad, pulled from newspapers.com thanks to YonWooRetail2

     The City of Lauderhill was still in its infancy when Albertsons opened their first store in town on October 13, 1976. Lauderhill got its start in the mid-1960's as a small community of homes carved out of land in Central Broward County, land purchased by a man from New York named Herbert Sadkin. Sadkin's original Lauderhill development was based off architectural plans he had purchased from Macy's Department Store, Sadkin having already used those plans once before to build a community on Long Island. Lauderhill would rise to success in 1970, when the city was chosen to become home to the new Inverrary Country Club, a sprawling luxury golf course development that would become home to the PGA Tour's Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic. Gleason, the famous actor and comedian of The Honeymooners fame, was one of the early residents of the Inverrary Country Club, and the club's (and city's) most notable resident (who could have shopped at this former Albertsons store, for all we know). 

     Being a growing new city with a new country club to boot, Lauderhill had all the credentials to be the perfect place for Albertsons to put a store. The opening of store #4316(1) was actually a significant occasion for Albertsons, not just due to the attractive demographics surrounding the new location, but the fact that store #4316(1) was actually the first Albertsons to open in all of South Florida, kicking off the company's long-standing tenure in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. For a store that faded off rather fast, #4316(1) had a little notability for itself in relation to Albertsons' time in Florida.


     Unfortunately, going into the late 1980's, Lauderhill began to change. While the Inverrary Country Club, located immediately on the other side of Oakland Park Boulevard from the former Albertsons store, is still a very nice and luxurious community, the neighborhood located on the opposite side of the road (where Albertsons is) began to slide downhill. On December 27, 1991, a pair of armed robbers held up this Albertsons store at gunpoint (per a newspaper article YonWooRetail2 references here). According to the article, those robbers managed to get away with $89,000 worth of cash, checks, and food stamps, a huge blow to this store. That robbery must not have resonated well with Albertsons' corporate office, as only a month later on January 28, 1992, Albertsons #4316(1) closed for good. While I haven't seen anything definitive linking the robbery to the store's closure, the timing of everything is just a bit strange for those to events to be totally coincidental. Regardless though, the changing of the neighborhood wasn't helping Albertsons any, leading to this location's early demise.


     Following Albertsons' closure, the City of Lauderhill wanted to see another supermarket or retailer take over the building, but there weren't any takers. In 1996, a local pastor offered to buy the Albertsons building in order to convert it into a new church. The city resisted the pastor's plan, still holding out hope another retailer would bite at the Albertsons property, citing that the pastor was "trying to put a church in a commercial area". However, in 1998, the city eventually gave in to a non-retail use for the old Albertsons building, and allowed the United States Postal Service to open a sorting facility in half of the space. Realizing retail was never again in this building's future, the city of Lauderhill reached out to Nova Southeastern University to take over the remainder of the building, however, the pastor who wanted to take over the entire building in 1996 was also interested in that remaining half of the building as well. Who would become the new tenant of the empty half of the building became a bit of an issue locally, with the church eventually winning the battle to take over the space. In the years since all that happened, the USPS sorting facility has closed, its space re-tenanted as offices for a private shipping service. The church that took over the other half of the building had a not-so-divine downfall that made a lot of lawyers happy, its space being subdivided for a daycare center, a UFC Training Gym, and a much smaller Hispanic church.


      Even with Albertsons calling it quits here nearly 30 years ago, and all the fuss and subdivision to follow in this building's later years, the place still looks exactly like an old Skaggs model Albertsons store from the outside. It's not the most pristine looking building anymore, but you can certainly drive by this place and say with confidence, "Look Ma, it's an old Albertsons store, just like the ones that crazy guy on the internet writes about!"


     While this building and its mostly empty parking lot aren't the most jumping place in town anymore, all of the tenants in the former Albertsons are open, but they're not really the types of businesses that would attract a crowd. Thankfully for the sake of my picture taking it was quiet when I was here, although I was still a bit on edge taking photos of a building containing a low-profile shipping service, a daycare, and a UFC gym. I don't know to which one of those businesses I'd rather have had to explain my photo taking too had someone caught on to what I was doing!


     Looking toward the left side of the building, we see the space that was formerly home to the USPS sorting facility, now home to the private shipping service. Interestingly, while the right half of the building received a new stucco job in its later years, the left half of the building didn't, so the original river rock exterior walls were preserved on the left side of the building.


     Getting a little closer to the left side of the building, we can see the original river rock walls better in the photo above (you can zoom in on the photo too for a better look at those). I didn't venture too close to this side of the building, as there was a group of people loading mattresses into that box truck you see backed up to the shipping service's front doors.


     Returning our attention to the right side of the building, here's a nice photo showcasing many of the building's original Albertsons design traits. The original entryway was reconfigured and the picture windows covered over, but there's still a lot of 1970's Skaggs-Albertsons vibe going on here.


     With the way the building was subdivided in its later years, the parking lot was oddly reconfigured as well (the reconfiguration is more visible in the historic aerials to follow). USPS reconfigured their side of the lot entirely when the sorting facility moved in, and then the daycare modified the front of the lot for a pick-up/drop-off area, in addition to creating a small greenspace for a playground (which is visible in the above image).


     As I was leaving this former Albertsons store, I decided to venture onto the building's front walkway for close-up photos of this side of the building. Here's a look down the front walkway toward the daycare's entrance. The walkway appears to have been rebuilt in the years after Albertsons left, as Albertsons walkway would have been much wider than this.


     We'll finish out our little tour of former Albertsons #4316(1) by going around the right side of the building, where we'll find the old side entrance and liquor store:


     Looking down the side of the building, the building's facade still bumps out to designate where the side entrance and liquor store used to be. Currently, the small Hispanic church occupies this corner of the building, is entrance located where the side entrance and liquor store used to be. (A bit of a strange sight seeing a church in an old liquor store, though, but there are lots of strange things about this building!).


     The walkway on this side of the building is still original to Albertsons, the slope in the walkway for shopping carts to roll down designating where Albertsons' original doors were located. The church's much plainer doors are in roughly the same spot as Albertsons' were. Interestingly, I found a photo from inside the church, taken just on the other side of the door you see here. Inside, there's actually another preserved river rock panel, just painted black! In that linked photo, the wall on the right side of the image was added after Albertsons left, as the side entrance was originally concave, like this. That's how the panel ended up inside the building, although outside of that, no other Albertsons relics are jumping out at me in that photo.


     Here's one last look toward the former side entrance, as we make our way toward the back of the building.


     The last of the current tenants we have yet to see is the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Gym. The UFC Gym's entrance is located on the back right of the building, the gym taking up a good chunk of what would have been Albertsons' backroom space. While it seems like an odd spot to take up shop, the gym actually has good exposure to Oakland Park Boulevard, the busier of the two crossroads at the intersection upon which this store was built. The UFC Gym is actually the building's newest tenant, having opened in late 2020. Inside, the space was heavily renovated, but interestingly, the gym preserved Albertsons' old backroom mezzanine space, which is quite neat.


     From the back corner of the former Albertsons building, here's a quick look across Oakland Park Boulevard toward the local Publix. Publix came about long after Albertsons closed, this particular location not opening until 2005.


     It's not often I get photos of the back of one of the former Albertsons stores, but I happened to here. Nothing too exciting to see, but I do spot a set of stairs leading down from an emergency door on Albertsons' (now the UFC Gym's) mezzanine level.


     So that wraps up our first tour of this two-part post. We'll take a look at our usual satellite images to finish up our coverage of former store #4316(1), before jumping across town to take a look at what I could scrounge up for our look at Lauderhill's other former Albertsons store. Up first, some Bird's Eye aerial images, courtesy of Bing Maps:


Front


Right Side


Back


Left Side

     And now for some historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:


Former Albertsons #4316(1) - 2021 - You can tell how the building is all chopped up these days by the funky parking lot and the patchwork roof visible above. Also note the empty lot right off the corner, in the middle of the parking lot:


     That little empty lot was home to something many years ago - possibly a gas station from the older aerial images we'll see below. Whatever used to be here was gone by the early 2000's though. All that was left to see here were some random patches of concrete, and a lot a trash from where some homeless people had set up camp in the surrounding brushline.

     Anyway, that little diversion aside, back to the aerial images:


Former Albertsons #4316(1) - 2010


Former Albertsons #4316(1) - 2004


Former Albertsons #4316(1) - 1999 - Only the postal facility was operational in the building at this time.


Former Albertsons #4316(1) - 1995 - Totally abandoned building.


Albertsons #4316(1) - 1980


Future Albertsons #4316(1) - 1969 - Nothing here at this point, and even Oakland Park Boulevard was still a dirt road.


     From former Albertsons #4316(1) (bottom right of the map), we'll cut through the Inverrary Country Club and head three miles northwest to our next destination, Lauderhill's second Albertsons store, former location #4335:


Albertsons #4335
5545 N. University Drive, Lauderhill, FL - Universal Plaza

     Three years after the first Albertsons opened its doors in town, a second Albertsons store popped in in Lauderhill in 1979. That second location, Albertsons #4335, was one of four anchors for the new Universal Plaza Shopping Center, a new development at the busy intersection of Commercial Boulevard and University Drive. In addition to Albertsons, the other anchors of the shopping center included a large Modernage Furniture showroom (the other large building in the plaza), a Standard Brands electronics store, and Eckerd Drugs. 


     The Albertsons store in this plaza was quite successful, however, it was Albertsons themselves that brought on this store's demise. Following A&P's decision to close all their Floridian Family Mart stores in 1988, Albertsons agreed to purchase the former Family Mart building at the intersection of University Drive and McNab Road in Tamarac, located only a mile north of store #4335. That former Family Mart would become home to Albertsons #4381, which opened in 1989. The new Albertsons store up the road essentially stole all the business from the existing #4335, leading Albertsons to close the older store in favor of the new one only a year later in 1990. Following Albertsons closure in Universal Plaza, the building sat empty until 1994, when a new upstart chain called KidSource (a children's clothing and toy superstore concept) moved in. KidSource was a bit of a bust, with the entire chain going out of business in 1996, leaving the Albertsons building empty once again. The late 90's were a rough time for this shopping center, with KidSource and Standard Electronics closing, and many of the smaller tenants jumping ship. In order to turn the shopping center around, the landlord managed to attract Target to build a store at the property, the new Target at the Universal Plaza site being South Florida's first Super Target store. To build the new Super Target, the entire shopping center, including the old Albertsons store, was demolished, with all the remaining tenants in the plaza forced to relocate to accommodate Target's arrival.


     Target's new superstore was built at the back side of the property, right over the spot where the Albertsons' building once stood. In addition to the new Super Target, a small strip of stores was built onto the building's side to accommodate any of the remaining tenants in the original Universal Plaza that wanted to stay, and a new freestanding Eckerd store was built in Target's parking lot to accommodate Eckerd's relocation.

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

     The Lauderhill Super Target, store #1778, opened on July 25, 2001, and served as a replacement for an older Target store located further north on University Drive in Tamarac (the old location being an ex-Gold Circle that Target had purchased upon the chain's entrance into Florida in 1988). Being South Florida's first Super Target, and Florida's second Super Target overall, this place was quite the showstopper upon its opening. However, as the demographics of Lauderhill continued to change going into the 2010's, even the Super Target began to struggle. Sadly, Target announced in late 2017 that their Lauderhill superstore would close in February 2018, bringing abandonment back to the Universal Plaza site once again. Since this store wasn't doing so well in its final years, Target stopped putting money into it, so the store retained its original neon decor all the way to the end, a decor package that was mostly eliminated from Florida by the late 2010's due to various remodel campaigns.


     A year after Target's closure, plans were announced to demolish the old Super Target building and replace it with a complex containing 501 new apartment units. Come mid-2021, the plans for the redevelopment began to gain more traction, with demolition of the old Target building and construction of the new apartments planned for sometime in early 2022. Even though the Albertsons building has been gone for 20 years now, I wanted to get over here for a few photos of the old Super Target before that was demolished as well, as I feel an abandoned Super Target is a better substitute for the old Albertsons than photos of one of those new apartment developments that seem to be popping up everywhere right now - especially at the site of abandoned retail buildings.


     The old Albertsons building would have stood somewhere within Target's massive sales floor, the old Super Target containing about as much square footage as the entirety of the original Universal Plaza that once stood here.


     Target's grocery entrance is the one seen above, located on the right side of the building.


     The building was sealed up tight with all the hurricane shutters pulled down, so there weren't any opportunities to peek inside and see of any of the old neon decor remained on the walls following the store's closure.


     I've been inside Super Targets of this same building design before, and while these are very big stores, these buildings just appear so much bigger when they're abandoned and no one is around.


     Here's one last look at the facade as we begin to leave the property...


      The old Target garden center separates the Super Target building from the small strip of stores that run down the property's side. The small strip of stores along the side of the property will remain as part of the redevelopment, but the Super Target building and its parking lot will all be removed to make way for the new apartments.


     A super-sized blank square marks where Super Target's logo was once located on this sign. So from an Albertsons-anchored shopping center to a Super Target to apartments, this property has seen quite a bit of change through the years. Really, both of Lauderhill's former Albertsons stores have been through a lot as times have changed - #4335 going through massive site redevelopments and the funky subdivisions we saw over at #4316(1). It's just another day in the life of an online retail blogger to document all these things, and who knows what kind of craziness we'll uncover next.

     So that's all I have to share for now. AFB returns two weeks and one day from now, on Monday, December 6, 2021. As you probably know, December 6th is the blog's birthday, so I try to save something really interesting to mark that occasion, and I think I have something good to share with everyone this year. I'll leave everyone with that, so be sure to come back on the 6th for our next installment into the saga of Florida's former Albertsons stores!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

21 comments:

  1. This is a cool post, I'm surprised that Super Target closed, why even wasn't it doing so well besides the demographic changes. Also side note, the Publix that opened in 2005 (Inverrry Falls) was actually a replacement store for a store down the road which got demolished in the mid-2000's.

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    1. Thanks! I figured Inverrary Falls was a replacement store, but I couldn't find the original. That would explain it that the original was torn down!

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  2. Another great post! It's pretty cool to look at two stores in one post like this, and despite the lack of much Albertsons-related stuff to see at the second site, I think you tied everything together really well. That's too bad the Super Target closed also, as it would've been neat to see the original neon décor inside, but even just seeing the abandoned building was pretty cool, too. And ha -- "Look Ma, it's an old Albertsons store, just like the ones that crazy guy on the internet writes about!" is my new favorite line of all time XD

    Thanks for the link and shoutout, and looking forward to the blog's anniversary post! Happy early Thanksgiving!

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    1. Lol, I got a kick out of that "Look Ma" line too!

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    2. I figured it would be tough to make a decent sized post on #4335 with how little documentation there is of it, so I figured I'd lump coverage of that store into the post about #4316(1) or #4381, since I could make that location tie into either one of those two stores. Since both Lauderhill Albertsons stores are rather obscure, I figured that pairing would be the best of my options. I'd have liked to see the Super Target while it was still open too, as it certainly looked like a throwback in there! It's sure a waste to see that big building come down just like the shopping center it replaced.

      You're welcome, and Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

      And I'm glad you guys liked that "Look Ma" line - be sure to use it next time you drive by an old Albertsons store! :)

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  3. I totally forgot about #4335! No wonder though. Having closed so long ago and being completely demolished really wipes away any history of Albertsons. Honestly, I hadn't realized that #4381 was located so close to an existing Albertsons. 1 mile away is way too close for another Albertsons or a Winn Dixie, but not a Publix!

    Maybe Albertsons already was getting a feel that Universal Plaza was going into decline, and why they sort of figured/half expected the opening of 4381 would be a quasi-replacement of #4335. #4381 lasted quite a while too, until about 2009 if I recall.

    Great post!

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    1. And sad that the Super Target didn't make it. I went to the Sanford Super Target 4 years ago, and while it was a very nice store, it was eerily quiet for a Saturday.

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    2. Yeah, #4335 is easy to forget about, since it's been demolished for so long, and the site is about to be redeveloped yet again. I had begun to suspect that #4381 was #4335's direct replacement, until I realized the two stores actually overlapped for a year (as #4335's pharmacy license would have transferred to #4381 had it been a direct replacement, but the license was issued new when #4381 opened). I'm surprised Albertsons put two stores so close together like that, unless they were planning to get rid of #4335 anyway. #4381 actually closed in 2006, but that store still had a decent run.

      Thanks!

      My local Super Target in Viera is actually a pretty busy place on the weekends, but certainly not as much of a madhouse as the Walmart Supercenter across the street (which I avoid, as it's much more pleasant to shop at the Super Target!)

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  4. I like that statement in the ad about "Come Shop the Widest Aisles in Town!" I don't know about this town specifically, but it seems that usually the widest aisles at Florida supermarkets are at Publixsons! In that regard, I suppose Albertsons is still providing for the widest aisles in Florida even after all these years!

    A church in an old liquor store is certainly an odd one. I wouldn't be surprised if such a thing exists here in Houston given all the oddities we have down here, but I can't think of a specific example off the top of my head!

    The topic of closed Super Targets in Florida came up in a recent discussion between retail enthusiasts about a month ago. I can't remember if it was this specific location that was discussed, but anyway, it's an interesting subject. I figure that if Super Target's model would have worked anywhere (in the south at least), it would have been Florida. After all, Target's usual sky-high prices for groceries would be less of a problem in the land of Publix than it would be in, say, Texas. Even with Super Target perhaps not being at quite at a price disadvantage in Florida, it seems the Super Target model has not exactly been a hit in Florida either. It certainly hasn't been a hit here in Houston. Target rather wisely never even opened a Super Target in NW Houston and the grocery departments of Super Targets I went to elsewhere in town were ghost towns. I think even Kmart had a better grip on how to run a supermarket department. Well, actually, I really liked Super Kmart's grocery sections, but I certainly wouldn't say the same for Super Targets.

    I'm not sure if you've been following the news out of Texas, but it seems Sears is making a bit of a comeback here via their Sears Hometown format. A few new Sears Hometown locations have opened here in Houston in recent months (a couple were converted Sears Appliance Showrooms) and a dead Sears store at the zombie Macroplaza Mall in the Pasadena area of Houston has reopened as a Sears Hometown. Over in San Antonio, there is a relatively young Target & Best Buy shopping center where the regular Target and Best Buy failed. It's kind of surprising to see a young regular Target like that closed. But, anyway, a Sears Hometown has just opened up in the old Best Buy! From what we've been able to gather, these Sears Hometown stores are not franchised but are corporate owned. It's odd! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/qXRkPDxC3eUEpwBw9

    Speaking of odd, here is a Walmart that is operating out of an old Walmart Discount City location in Fernandina Beach, FL with what appears to be very visible labelscar of older Walmart logos. Very strange! Of course, this is not far from the Florida Harris Teeter/Kroger so that whole area is pretty strange from a retail perspective! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/Bo9QpZcG2FGT5Znp6

    Happy Thanksgiving! You'll be pleased to know that I did the bulk of my Thanksgiving shopping at Randall's. That's become a bit of a Thanksgiving tradition for me over the last few years. It's not Albertsons, but it kind of is, lol. Also, I look forward to the anniversary post, but it'll be strange seeing new content on here on a Monday! I'm sure it'll be interesting though so I'm sure I won't forget to check it out!

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    1. In 1976, these Albertsons stores were the biggest grocery stores in Florida, as the Publix and Winn-Dixie stores at the time were usually not much larger than 30,000 square feet or so. But yes, Publixsons certainly holds the title to that claim now! (You just have to go down the road to Oakland Park to experience that!)

      A handful of Super Targets have closed in Florida for one reason or another, some being due to demographic changes (Lauderhill, Orlando West Colonial), some because area development never panned out (Odessa), and some because of oversaturation of existing Target stores (Orange Park). Even with those closures (those 4 being the only ones I know of), Florida is one of Super Target's strongest markets from what I've been told. I actually do a lot of shopping at Super Target, mostly because of how much I despise shopping at Walmart! Target's pricing on groceries isn't that bad here, and they're actually cheaper than Walmart on many things (for example, milk at Target is $2.79/gallon compared to Walmart's $4.09/gallon, and bananas at Super Target are 45 cents/lb compared to Walmart's 53 cents/lb). My local Super Target is pretty busy too. It's not the madhouse like the Walmart Supercenter across the street I avoid, but it does good business.

      I'm surprised that Sears Hometown stores are opening at the rate they are, considering all the problems of Transformco (which I believe bought the Sears Hometown division back). Even though the stores are independently owned, I don't know how Transformco can supply these stores, considering how poorly the remaining full-line Sears stores are stocked (unless the independent owners can do some purchasing on their own). The Sears Hometown in San Antonio is strange, especially since the Best Buy facade was preserved like that!

      I knew Fernandina Beach had that small Walmart, but I never noticed that labelscar before! Interesting find there! One of these days I'll get up there to Fernandina Beach to photograph that lone Floridian Harris Teeter store, as it is a Floridian supermarket oddity.

      Happy Thanksgiving to you too! That's interesting a Randall's shopping trip has become a Thanksgiving tradition for you! Our Thanksgiving shopping was split between Publix and Aldi, as only it would be in Florida! Yeah, the anniversary post is my only one that doesn't have to fall on a Sunday, as that one will always be on December 6th. It'll be a good one though!

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  5. Interesting story on those two Albertsons stores. I do remember Kid Source, but never went in there.
    I remember when that Super Target was brand new and I remember going to the one in Tamarac that it replaced.

    I always thought it was a really cool looking building with it’s spacey design. I remember that that Richway/ Target had massive diffuser vents on the ceiling and the back area looked kind of dark and creepy and there was only pegboard separating the back stockroom from the sales floor. I was disappointed when it closed.

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    1. Those old Richway buildings were very unique. The only one of those left in Florida that's still mostly original is the one at Forest Hill and Military Trail in West Palm Beach, which became a flea market after Target moved out (and still retains many vestiges of Target inside and out).

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  6. This was a great post! Thank you! I never knew that Albertsons was located at the Super Target location.

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  7. I was working at the Target in Tamarac (store 396) when the Lauderhill Supertarget was being built to replace it. It was very exciting for all of us as it was highly coveted at the time to be chosen to be a Supertarget relocation. I literally drove by the construction site everyday and watched the store get built brick by brick.

    Some interesting tidbits about the Universal Plaza site. The small strip of in-line stores next to the former Ruby Tuesday’s on the North side of the property are buildings from the original Universal Plaza. Also, the original Eckerd building that was attached to the East side of the old Albertsons building is still there! I’m assuming in an attempt to save on construction costs, the developer kept the shell of the old Eckerd and just reconfigured the building into multiple in-line Shoppes, and then built more Shoppes onto the building’s north side, effectively doubling the size of the old Eckerd structure.

    One more thing, the outparcel where Eckerd/CVS sits today was the former site of a Wags Restaurant, Walgreens short lived foray into the diner business. The restaurant had sat vacant for years before Woolbright development came in to redevelop Universal Plaza in 2001.

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    1. Correct! When the Albertsons opened in Universal plaza, it was a anchored with a Sam Solomons, which would become Modernage furniture a few years later. The attached strip plaza in the front was home to Bigfoot's Arcade before the strip section was redeveloped and expanded into the Ruby Tuesdays. The other unique store in that plaza was Annie's Hallmark, which would later expand into a larger Annie's Costumes (and move to Plantation during the plaza's demise).

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    2. Thanks for all the interesting background information on the plaza, everyone! This site has seen a lot through the years.

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  8. I attended the grand opening of this Target back in July 2001. Even though it was the first SuperTarget I've set foot in, I had already been oriented to their large-format locations as we were regular shoppers at the Greatland over at Sawgrass Mills.

    It was certainly a sight to behold, and even though it was about a half hour away from where we were living at the time, we'd occasionally stop by if we were in the area.

    Fast forward to September 2010. While the store was still in decent shape overall, something about the place felt "dead". I don't know if it had to do with going in after peak hours or the fact that the everything in the vicinity seemed to be in a state of decline.

    Looking at the most recent aerial view on Google Maps, the store already appeared to be in the process of being demolished. It feels weird seeing a much-hyped 175,000+ sq. ft. superstore meet the same fate as many of the ex-Richway locations Target replaced, but here we are.

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    1. That's really neat you were at the grand opening of this store, as being the first Super Target in South Florida, the opening of this store had to have been a big deal. It's sad this much-hyped and anticipated store ended up suffering the fate it did, but I'm sure Target wasn't expecting the area to decline the way it did back when this store was being built. It would have been nice to see the building reused in some manner, as it seems like a waste tearing down a 20 year old building that was still in decent shape.

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  9. I used to work as a bag boy at 4316 on Oakland and 56th when I was in 9th grade. It was my first job. I lived on the wrong side of Oakland Park and used to walk to work from my apartment building down the street. I forged my birth certificate when I was 14 to show I was 15 so I could get the job. After three months they promoted me to dairy clerk. I started at $2.85/hour and received a $.25 raise. There was a Mobil gas station on the southwest corner outparcel and a Denny’s on the Southeast corner on Oakland and 56th. I used to eat there on my lunch break. I was propositioned by a hooker on my way to work one day. I moved to Plantation in 10th grade. The store managers asked me to work at the Albertsons on Peters Rd. and University that is now a Publix. I used to ride my bike to the other Albertsons in Tamarac. There was an arcade called Big Foot’s over there. Not sure anyone would have guessed back then that I would become the CFO for two public companies I helped take public and rang the bell of the NYSE. Great blog! Thanks for the memories.

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    1. Thanks, and it's nice to hear your own memories from 4316 as well! I like to hear that these articles helped bring back some good memories.

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