Former Albertsons #4430 - Coral Springs, FL (Turtle Run)

 

Albertsons #4430 / Super Saver #1533

6355 W. Sample Road, Coral Springs, FL - Turtle Run Shoppes

Today's post is a presentation of Broward County Retail

     While today's former Albertsons store isn't very exciting in terms of its new life, there is a small milestone for me that will come from this post - this store is the last of the Super Saver conversions I have to cover out of the 11 of those to have existed throughout Florida. Maybe not the biggest achievement out there (like covering all of the Albertsons to Publix conversions out there - still got a while on that one!), but it's little things like this which let me know I am slowly but surely whittling though my backlog to the eventual goal of getting all these former Floridian Albertsons stores posted in some form. Anyway, we return to South Florida to take a look at another former Broward County Albertsons store, and one of the 3 Albertsons stores to have once called Coral Springs home (today's store being the middle child of those three locations in town):

     Plans for Albertsons #4430 first arose in late 1994, when Albertsons expressed interest in building a new store on an empty anchor pad at the south end of Turtle Run Shoppes, a Walmart-anchored complex located at the northwestern corner of State Route 7/US 441 and Sample Road, a major highway junction that had recently been upgraded to a full interchange. Walmart and its attached shopping center had been at the site since 1990 (although the article says 1988, but everything else I've found said 1990), one of the first major developments which would lead to this intersection becoming a major hub for retail in Northern Broward County. When the plans for Albertsons' new store came to light though, those plans drew the ire of some environmentalists due to part of Albertsons' proposed parking lot taking over a portion of land that was supposed to be preserved due to its environmental significance (per the original site plans filed by Walmart). As part of the conditions for allowing the proposed parking lot to be built, the developer agreed to preserve a larger piece of land elsewhere on the Turtle Run site in exchange for taking the original land, a situation environmentalists felt would set a bad precedent. However, since the original land was preserved by a site plan condition and not a direct act of Coral Springs' city council, the city agreed to the swap, paving the way for the new Albertsons to be built.

     Albertsons #4430 opened on schedule in early 1996, a pretty typical mid-1990's Albertsons store that would have looked just like this (with the exact orientation of that drawing too). Unlike Coral Springs' original Albertsons (#4332), which dated back to 1979 and remained in operation until being sold to Publix in 2008, Albertsons' later to attempts to establish more stores in town turned out to be pretty big flops (especially with the last of those stores - #4449 - which made #4430 look like a success story in comparison). #4430 operated for 9 years as an Albertsons before being chosen as one of the chain's underperforming locations to receive a Super Saver conversion in 2005, with corporate hoping the new discount format would breathe new life into these ailing stores. However, with the breakup of Albertsons in 2006, the answer to that question would remain a mystery as the new owners of the Floridian Albertsons stores (Cerberus Capital Management) immediately closed all 11 Super Savers in the state shortly after acquiring them. While there wasn't much in the newspaper archives about this store in particular, I did manage to find a copy of Super Saver's going out of business ad, which also applied to the only other South Florida Super Saver location, housed in old #4375 in Sunrise.

     Ross appears to have taken over this building sometime between 2008 and 2010, setting up shop in the right half of this former Albertsons store. The left half of the building sat empty until 2017, when that was partially demolished and reconfigured to serve as a strip of smaller storefronts, now housing America's Best Eyeglasses, SuperCuts, and Cycle Gear.

     Turning our attention to the left side of the building, here we see America's Best, which occupies the front left corner of the old Albertsons building. As part of the reconfiguration of this side of the building, Albertsons' old loading docks (which were located on the building's left side due to space constraints behind) were completely removed with the left wall being moved inward a little bit to accommodate a new parking lot for the tenants housed along the side of the building (SuperCuts and Cycle Gear).

     At the time I took these photos, only the America's Best and SuperCuts spaces were occupied, with Cycle Gear still not having made their move into the units at the far back of the old Albertsons space.

     While the left side of the old Albertsons building is practically new construction, Ross preserved Albertsons' original facade during their renovations, giving us a glimpse at what this building would have looked like back in its glory days of the late 1990's.

     The original Albertsons can lights still exist under the canopy too, although I'm not sure if the stone around the columns is a more modern addition from when Ross moved in or not, as that stone style seems to be associated with buildings from the 2000's and 2010's compared to a mid-1990's build.

     The original canopy features extend all the way across to the old liquor store, which was located on the right side of the building abutting the main strip of stores. Ross did replace Albertsons' old swinging doors with new sliding doors of their own, looking very much like how Publix would have replaced the doors in a similar conversion of their own.

     Heading inside Ross, well, it's a Ross. You enter the store into the women's shoe department in the front right corner, followed by women's clothes occupying most of the right side and center of the salesfloor. Housewares, toys, and other assorted stuff is located in the back of the store, with men's clothing located along the left side (which is the layout of 99% of the Ross stores out there).

     As you'd imagine, Ross gutted and rebuilt the interior, as we've seen in every other Rossbertsons conversion in existence. When Albertsons was here, the photo above would have been looking down the store's grand aisle from the bakery (in the front right corner) looking through produce toward the deli, located in the back right corner of the store.

     The deli counter would have been to my right when Albertsons was here, this part of the store now home to wall art, gift bags, and whatever other et cetera Ross had for sale this day.

     The part of the building that was converted into the strip of stores would have housed Albertsons' general merchandise aisles and the pharmacy and alcohol departments. All of that would have been located straight ahead of me, behind the partition wall now in the distance.

     For the reputation Ross stores seem to have, this one was kept in particularly tidy shape. I don't see anything thrown on the floor, and the merchandise seemed as neatly stocked or hung as it could be in a store like this.

     Along the partition wall were men's socks and shoes, with Albertsons' frozen food department formerly located in this general area.

     While Ross stores have looked like what we've just seen for years and years now, it appears newer Ross stores have taken on a new look recently (and by new, I mean a cheaper, look). See here for an example of a Ross store opened in 2023, featuring a warehouse ceiling, plainer looking department signage, and all white walls. The floor tile pattern looks the same as what we see here in Coral Springs, but at least the blue accents on the walls, the drop ceiling, and the curved department signs here add a tiny bit more to the ambience!

     For our final photo inside Ross, here's a look through the check lanes toward the front doors, through which we will go to take a quick look at the old liquor store.

     Looking from the liquor store back toward Ross's entrance, here's some more of the original canopy elements for all of us to take in.

     Located to the right of the main store, the old liquor store was sitting empty at the time of my visit. The old liquor store had been left vacant and mostly untouched for many years after Super Saver closed (and I promise you that's not me peeking through the glass in that linked GSV either, but what timing to have captured someone doing just that!). However, in 2019, the old liquor store space was gutted and rebuilt to accommodate a new tenant - Toy Express - a locally owned toy store. Toy Express only seems to have lasted a year or two, with the old liquor store sitting vacant yet again after that closed.

     I visited this store after Toy Express closed, and by this time the original Albertsons liquor store doors had been replaced and the inside rebuilt and made to look quite plain. I tried to take a picture through the glass in the door but the photo turned out all black, however from what I've seen online from Toy Express and its eventual replacement, we didn't miss much.

Photo Courtesy Evan D. on Google Maps

     Unlike the chronic plague of emptiness that seems to haunt these former Albertsons liquor stores, by early 2024, another new tenant decided to give this space a try - that new tenant being a thrift store called The Shed. 

Photo courtesy The Shed Thrift Store on Google Maps

     For a quick glimpse inside the liquor store space, I pulled a few photos from The Shed's Google Maps page showing how new drywall was installed to hide where all of Albertsons' beer coolers used to be and how the old floor tiles were ripped out in favor of the bare concrete beneath. The above photo is looking toward the right side of the old liquor store space, with the old walk in coolers formerly lining the back of the salesfloor.

Photo courtesy The Shed Thrift Store on Google Maps

     The left side of The Shed is more of what I just described, with the most interesting subjects in the photo being some of the merchandise and not the building itself! I actually like those old stained glass lampshades like the one see here, which was for sale and not actually set up as a functioning piece of the store's decor!

     Back out in the parking lot, that's all there is to see of old #4430 anymore. However, I did mention there was a Walmart in this shopping center at one time. Since we're here and I could use a few more photos to fill this post out, would you care to walk over there and see what has become of that building?

     For context, here's an aerial image showing the entirety of Turtle Run Shoppes. The old Albertsons is the building at the southern end of the strip, with the old Walmart being the large building at the top of the image. Walmart remained at Turtle Run Shoppes until 2002, when the company built a new Supercenter across the street. Not long after Walmart made their move, the former Walmart building became home to a store that would end up complimenting the future Ross at the other end of the strip quite well: Burlington (then Coat Factory).

     Being a Burlington from the early 2000's, the store takes up the entirety of the roughly 80,000 square foot former Walmart building. As of early 2025, Burlington remains in this same location occupying all of that space, but I can't speak for how much of that large salesfloor space is still in use by Burlington today. I'd have to imagine Burlington will either relocate this store to a smaller building or sublet part of the building to another tenant if either of those opportunities arise, considering the company's recent shift to smaller stores.

     From what I can tell, Burlington didn't change much about the store's facade or entryway from the Walmart days. With Coral Springs being a more upscale suburb of Fort Lauderdale with stricter building codes, I'd have to imagine the store's non-standard facade was Walmart's doing to class up this store a bit, with Burlington keeping what they inherited.

     The vestibule is pretty much all original from Walmart, complete with the old pairs of manual and automatic swinging doors for the entrances and exits.

     Getting inside the store, Burlington completely stripped and rebuilt the interior to look like an average Burlington.

     We'll do a quick loop around the store and take in all the sights Burlington has to offer these days.

     I found the coats!

     This little patch of empty shelving in the housewares department was one of the only sparse sections of this 80,000 square foot Burlington I saw when I was here a few years back. Compared to the images I've seen of other massive-size older Burlington stores where a large chunk of the salesfloor was left empty, this wasn't too bad!

     Much like the Ross at the other end of the plaza, this Burlington wasn't too shopworn either, and was surprisingly neat in comparison to how many other Burlington stores are described. Looking at the above image a little closer, it looks like someone ditched that red dress in the pants aisle, but hey, one item out of place like that is a good day at Burlington!

     Here's one last photo inside Burlington, looking toward a display of watches. I guess that means it's about time to wrap up this post, which I will do momentarily after a final few exterior photos:

     Off on the far left side of the old Walmart building is the store's former garden center. Due to space constraints, the garden center was built onto the front of the building and slightly tucked into the corner where the strip of stores branches off to the south. Being that Burlington hasn't ventured into selling plants (which is probably a good thing), the old Walmart garden center has been left to sit empty for the last 20 years.

     A break in the foliage gives us a glimpse at this chained-up gate, which I believe used to be Walmart's main garden center entrance. Through the gate we see some doors and an empty concrete pad, some of the last few relics floating around out here.

     Walking back down the plaza to the old Albertsons, here's a parting shot of it as we transition into some aerial imagery to end this post with, starting off with 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:

Former Albertsons #4430 - 2024

Former Albertsons #4430 - 2017 - The building still in its original form before the left side loading docks were ripped out a few months later.

Former Albertsons #4430 - 2007 - A totally abandoned building here

Super Saver #1533 - 2006

Albertsons #4430 - 2003

Albertsons #4430 - 1999

Future Albertsons #4430 - 1995 - The pad site Albertsons would later build on. The patch of trees on the right side of the image seem to be the ones that caused a bit of a stir when the plans for this store were first released. Even those many of those trees remained after Albertsons was built, they would all eventually be removed in the late 2010's when that old bank at the bottom right was demolished to make way for a large new Cumberland Farms gas station.

     With that, my coverage of Albertsons #4430 is complete. While I dragged everyone to Ross and Burlington today, we'll stay in the area to tour a much more interesting supermarket next time to make up for that. Be sure to come back in two weeks for more!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger