Happy 95th Birthday Publix!

Publix #70

3400 North Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, FL - Coral Ridge Mall

Today's post is a presentation of Broward County retail

     2025 marks another major milestone year for Publix, as this year is Publix's 95th in operation. While the chain likes to make a big deal of its quinquennial anniversaries, the company's 90th anniversary celebration in 2020 was a bit lackluster, considering the events of that year. To make up for the 90th anniversary's quiet passing, the 95th anniversary celebration has been getting much more press, with numerous references by corporate as well as celebratory shopping bags and even rubber ducks! (And yes, I have both the anniversary bag and rubber duck set in my collection now, although I don't have a Jeep like the person at that link to display my ducks in!) While Publix is celebrating with parties and commemorative bath toys/Jeep decorations, here at AFB we'll be celebrating Publix's 95th birthday (which will officially occur next week on September 6th) in my own fashion. For Publix's 90th anniversary, we toured the chain's current oldest operational store, #50 in West Palm Beach. I figured for the 95th anniversary, why not continue the pattern and celebrate by touring what is currently the second oldest Publix store left in the chain, #70 in Fort Lauderdale? While Publix #50 is famous for being the last store left in the chain that opened in the 1950's, it was a fairly typical Wing Store newbuild when it opened in 1959. Publix #70, on the other hand, was actually a very special store for Publix when it opened in 1961, debuting as the chain's new flagship with a number of special features and amenities, which we'll talk more about as we delve into the history of Publix #70:

     Construction of Publix #70 was announced in early 1961, with the new Publix serving as the grocery anchor for the neighboring Coral Ridge Shopping Plaza. Coral Ridge Shopping Plaza was to be the retail anchor of Fort Lauderdale's Coral Ridge neighborhood, occupying a prime 37-acre parcel at the intersection of US 1 and Oakland Park Boulevard. Upon its completion, Coral Ridge Shopping Plaza (later renamed Coral Ridge Mall) would serve as Broward County's (as well as Florida's) very first indoor shopping mall, serving not only as a destination for those who lived nearby, but for everybody who lived in the county.

     In addition to Publix, Coral Ridge Shopping Plaza would feature fellow anchors JCPenney and Britt's. Britt's was a last-minute addition to the center, as their space was originally intended for a Montgomery Ward until negotiations with that chain ultimately fell through. Upon its opening, the Coral Ridge Britt's store would mark the J.J. Newberry-owned chain's first in Florida. Alongside those two department stores, Coral Ridge Shopping Plaza would feature both G.C. Murphy and S.S. Kresge dime stores, Walgreens Drug, Thom McAn, Lerner New York, and more. To get a feel of the land using that architectural sketch above, the Coral Ridge Publix is the building all the way to the left sticking out from the main mall, with the JCPenney store's corner touching the corner of the Publix. Britt's is the building at the far right with the checkboard pattern wall.

     The construction of the new Publix was the first contract awarded at the Coral Ridge site, with construction beginning in February 1961. Publix would open its new Fort Lauderdale store on August 29, 1961 as Coral Ridge's first tenant, with the remainder of the stores in the mall complex opening in phases between August 1961 and early 1962.

While this post was intended to publish near the date of Publix's 95th birthday, I did not realize until I was writing this post that Publix #70 turned 64-years-old two days before it went live. Talk about good timing!

     Touted as "Fort Lauderdale's Grocery Wonderland", Publix was building up for quite the debut at this store's grand opening! Every day in the eight days before it opened, Publix ran an ad in the local paper going over all the wonderful features this store would have one by one, including a full in-store bakery, fresh deli (or should I say, "delli"), produce, meats and seafood, on top of some special new features such as a foods of the world department, fresh in-store made ice cream, and tile mosaics on the exterior (much, much more on that last item in a little bit too). Publix's spokeswoman of the 1960's, Penny Publix, graciously took us through that preview of the new Coral Ridge Publix, all building up to the grand debut of this deluxe Wing Store:

     And what better way to make a statement than to bring a cannon to your new store's grand opening! Yes, the cutting of the new store's ribbon was celebrated with the firing of an accompanying cannon! In addition to the literal big guns, some of the metaphorical kind were also in attendance too, including Publix's president and founder George Jenkins, as well as esteemed California muralist John Garth and his sister Elizabeth, who posed as a model for the mosaic we'll be discussing shortly... 

     Coming in at just over 36,000 square feet when it opened, Publix #70 was one of the largest stores in the chain at the time (as most Wing Stores from the era typically in the 25,000-30,000 square foot range). While this store had a few special departments I mentioned before, the article above goes into much more detail about all of the new store's qualities. I'll type up a quick excerpt from the article here, but in essence, the use of lots of color was a big deal in this store to give off "a pleasing atmosphere":

     Many new and different concepts in store designs and appointments will be offered, Publix officials said, with an attractive feature being the exterior mosaics covering more than 700 square feet of walls.

     George Jenkins, president of Publix Markets, who will preside at the opening ceremonies, said that many innovations in store design and convenience that that have originated with his concern are included in the new store. These include automatic opening doors, extra wide aisles, soft, relaxing music, complete air conditioning and a wide selection of name-brand merchandise.

     Throughout the interior of the store the shopper will be greeted with a wide array of color, in the walls, ceiling, floor, food racks, counters, and check out stands. Brilliant colors, from whites to crimson; subtle colors, from tangerine to buff, all are used to give a pleasing atmosphere.

     One wall is striped in wide panels of green and white, other walls sport rich walnut paneling, the back of the store is lined with purple panels, with white lettering, giving a complete directory of the store. The ceilings have large squares of brilliant colors.

     Shoppers will be offered several unusual departments amounting to almost "stores within a store".

     Ice cream will be made daily within the store, in a variety of flavors by the most modern of equipment, and sold at an old fashioned ice cream parlor with specially designed front. At the Danish Bakery, fresh baked goods will be displayed in a distinctive setting with counters topped by a bright canopy in orange and white with gold accents.

     Fresh produce will be displayed in brightly decorated, canopied carts. The separate seafood department will offer a wide selection of freshly caught seafoods for every taste. A special gourmet department will offer exotic foods, unusual foods for sparking up the menu, gathered from the far corners of the world. In the new delicatessen department a wide selection of meats and other delicacies will be provided.

     Pre-packaged meats and name brand groceries and canned goods are also provided.

     I wasn't intending to retype that much of the article, but it was well said and described the store nicely. If only modern journalism could be so poetically written like that! Anyway, while this store had a number of special features, two in particular were specifically a big deal for Publix. The first of those was the ice cream counter, where ice creams would be made fresh in-store, packaged, and sold in cartons. I don't know if the ice cream counter was ever included in other Publix stores after this one, but that feature most likely discontinued around 1980 or so, as that was the year Publix began mass producing ice cream at their Lakeland dairy plant to distribute to all stores chain-wide, making this feature a bit redundant (but quite interesting, as I don't recall hearing of any other supermarkets that packaged store-made ice cream before). While the ice cream was a fun touch, this store's other special feature was also a first for Publix, and the start of a very famous trend that lasted into the early 1990's: the Publix murals.

Photo courtesy of the Publix Archives

     Situated on the front left corner of the building to face the parking lot and vehicles driving by on US 1, Publix #70 featured two tile mosaics, the most famous of the pair being the one facing the parking lot on the front of the building. That mosaic, a 10 foot by 20 foot panel, depicted a woman (also referred to as "the goddess") looking over Florida's bounty of foods, surrounded by symbols from Florida's past as well as its natural beauty. The larger mural around the corner, a 10 foot by 50 foot piece, depicts the sources of food from around the globe as well as its people. While the smaller of the two works, most people tend to remember "the goddess" mosaic more than the foods of the world one, with the goddess becoming a prominent piece of Publix lore.

     While we've talked quite a bit on the blog about Pati Mills and her famous tile murals, the trend of artwork gracing the exterior walls of a Publix store began with this store's tile mosaics. After taking a trip to California, Publix's founder George Jenkins stumbled upon a Safeway store featuring a tile mosaic. Taken back by this sight, Mr. George knew he had to include a similar mural on a future Publix store, so he tracked down and contacted the Safeway muralist, John Garth. The process of creating, designing, and assembling the mosaics for Publix #70 took roughly a year from start to finish, with Mr. Garth using 165,000 individual pieces of tile shipped from all over the globe to create his Publix work. The two mosaics were completed and assembled at Mr. Garth's San Francisco studio, and weighed 1,500 pounds when completed. The two panels were shipped from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale via truck, where Mr. Garth would transfer each of the pieces to the new store's walls.

Photo courtesy of the Publix Archives

     John Garth can be seen on the right side of this image (the world's oldest selfie?), with some members of his team featured in the background installing one of the murals.

     Mr. Garth's daughter, Elizabeth, served as the model for "the goddess", and attended the store's grand opening with her father. In the next photo, we can see Elizabeth showing off the mosaic to some children and explaining how she posed for it:

       The Publix mosaics were such a big deal, the local paper's art critic even wrote a piece about them! A bit stunned he was writing an art critique about a piece featured on the front of a grocery store, here's a little bit from critic Maurice LaReau's article:

      One generally thinks of big business as lacking in aesthetic responsibilities and one feels that it devotes all of its capacities to the competitive climate created by the profit and loss philosophy.

     In the case of the new Publix Market, one of Florida's largest food chain stores (this is the 71st Publix in the state), the directors considered not only its prime purpose the merchandising of foods and staples but also gave consideration to bringing beauty and artistic enjoyment to its many customers.

     On opening day - last Tuesday, it was a delight to see thousands of people admiring, commenting, and even criticizing (all art should be subject to criticism - no art is perfect!) the John Garth mosaic murals.

     The reason why this is the subject of an art column is obvious. We are well aware of the many new buildings being constructed in this area - but so few contain any amount of art if at all.

     The directors of the Publix organization are to be complimented. And for the fact that a great American muralist was commissioned to design and build these exquisite murals.

     The news clipping above contains the remainder of the critique of the Garth mosaics, and even though Mr. LaReau said "all art should be subject to criticism - no art is perfect!", he had nothing but praise for the murals and for Publix for beautifying what would otherwise have been another mundane retail building.

Photo courtesy of the Publix Archives

     Thankfully, the Publix archives contains a few color scans of store #70's Garth mosaics, so everyone can get the full effect of the famous goddess mural. The colors subtle yet striking, the warm colors of the main subject popping from the cool palate of the background, the goddess stands out as the centerpiece of the image as the conquistadores and Seminoles look up to her for her bounty.

Photo courtesy of Steve Sticht on Facebook

     The foods of the world mural can be seen in color on this postcard, with the row of farmers and animals positioned to look like they were all in line behind the conquistadores to present their offerings to the goddess around the corner.

Photo courtesy of the Pleasant Family Shopping blog

     Following the opening of store #70, Publix hired John Garth to create two additional murals for the chain - one installed at the new Searstown Publix in Lakeland (store #15), and another for Publix's 100th store, the Southeast Plaza store in Winter Haven (store #100). Those next two mural projects were commissioned by Publix in 1964, and sadly, John Garth passed away shortly after both of those were installed. Following his death, there was a lull in storefront art from Publix for the next decade until Winter Haven-based Pati Mills was hired to carry on the tradition with her tile mural style. Pati Mill's murals were installed from the mid-1970's to the mid-1990's, with a handful of her murals still floating around Florida, even though they are becoming more and more rare.

Photo courtesy of Lakeland Now

     While Pati Mills' murals can still be found here and there on an operational Publix, unfortunately, John Garth's 3 mosaics have been totally eradicated from the chain, and have been gone for quite some time. While the Lakeland mosaic at Searstown Plaza still graces the front of a Save A Lot (having been restored after spending a few years under a coat of paint), the Fort Lauderdale and Winter Haven murals were totally destroyed following Publix's remodels and rebuilds of these stores. #70's murals were lost in 1989 when Publix expanded the store and rebuilt the facade, while #100's mosaics were lost in a total rebuild project of that store in the 1990's. Being ripped out in the 1980's, #70's mosaics/murals were among the first to be lost in the chain, a phenomena that became much more common come the late 1990's and 2000's. However, in an interesting twist, #70's famous "goddess" mural was recreated in 2018 by artist Tim Pitzen at the Polk County Tax Collector's Office in Lakeland. Ironically, the building the Polk County Property Appraiser occupies is a former 1940's Art Deco Publix, and the original location of store #15 too (whose replacement received one of the original Garth mosaics). Due to the size of the building, the recreated goddess picture had to be split in half, with the two panels placed to each side of the building's entrance. Still, it's nice to see the mosaic recreated, and on a former Publix too!

     As I mentioned before, store #70's mosaic succumbed to a major remodel and expansion this store received in the 1980's. The building was expanded out to the left at that time with a new facade and vestibule constructed, giving this store the look and feel of a 1980's-built store. Sadly, the mosaic was not replaced with a Pati Mills equivalent during the 1980's expansion, with this store being art-less for the last 4 decades.

     As you can imagine for a 64-year-old Publix, replacement plans for this store are floating around. Released in 2023, those plans include razing the aging Publix building and replacing it with one nearly double in size, configured with an urban design featuring parking underneath the main store. Since those plans were first released in 2023, I've yet to hear any follow-up on a timeline for when the project will come to fruition, but needless to say, store #70's run will be coming to an end sooner rather than later.

     In the present, Publix #70's facade is fairly mundane with beige painted stucco. This store features the split vestibule design common on Publix stores of the late 1980's and early 1990's, which matches the 1989 timeframe of the expansion. While from the exterior this looks like any ordinary older Publix store, once we head inside we'll start to see some of the quirks from the expansion effort and how this old Wing Store was transformed into what we see today.

     Entering the store through the left side vestibule, we're greeted by the famous (infamous?) green bean photo of Classy Market 3.0/Sienna, which actually compliments the rows of green-handled shopping carts rather well. We'll grab one of those carts and head deeper into this store:

     As usual in a split-vestibule Publix, customer service is located between the two sets of doors in front of the check lanes. Being an expansion store, this store lacks the typical mezzanine office level a newbuild of this design would have received. That being the case, the faux skylight over the front end was flat rather than angled upward to accommodate for the higher ceilings a newbuild store would have received.

     Next to the right side vestibule, we find the Floral department in this little nook area. While floral in this part of the store is common for newer Publix builds, it's strange seeing Floral over here in an older store like this, where Floral was typically placed in the back left corner with the produce department (which, per Publix's departmental structuring, floral is considered a part of the produce department and is overseen by the produce manager).

      Leaving floral, the wall dips inward, with displays of promo merchandise leading us into the store's first grocery aisle, aisle 1.

     Like a typical late 1980's Publix would have, dairy is located in aisle 1. Unlike a typical late 1980's Publix, however, we have some 1960's Wing Store striped terrazzo making itself seen here!

     Being the original part of the store, the right side of Publix #70 still has its striped terrazzo exposed. In the few places on this side of the store where the terrazzo was never installed (such as the places where Publix expanded into former stockroom space, like we saw leaving the floral department), the flooring was switched to vinyl tiles, which were also the choice of flooring in the expansion area as well.

     Turning the corner out of dairy, here's a look down the store's back wall. For those of you familiar with 1980's Publix stores, you should notice something a bit unusual here - that being the deli counter is way off in the distance on the other side of the store rather than right in front of us in the back right corner! When the store's addition was built, all the major service departments were moved into the expansion space for a seamless transition, the old locations ripped out and transformed into the current perimeter. With that being the case, this store's back wall is essentially flipped from how we'd expect a normal 1980's Publix to be arranged, with meat coolers on the right side of the store, the seafood service counter in the middle, and the deli on the far left side next to produce.

     You just have to love that old Wing Store terrazzo striping. For being 64 years old, it still looks really good too, and that goes to show just how durable terrazzo really is.

     Back at the front end, here's a look across the store, with the pharmacy and bakery in the front left corner past all the check stands.

     While I can't speak to this store's decor prior to the 1989 remodel, that 1989 remodel would have most likely included this decor with the shiny chrome accents, a very late 1980's touch. That decor was most likely replaced by Wavy Pastel sometime in the mid-late 1990's, followed by a remodel to Classy Market 1.0 in the mid-2000's. The Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodel in the late 2010's would end up being this store's last, as the Evergreen remodel was revealed to involve a bulldozer.

     I feel like I say this about every older Publix store, but especially striking at some of these former Wing Store builds is how well these buildings have held up for over 6 decades. Thankfully Publix has taken the effort to upkeep all of their stores well enough so that while a store may feel "old" due to some dated design traits, it's not falling apart or dingy looking.

     We'll get through this - and I'm sure the product in this aisle helped a lot of people through the slump of 2020 and 2021 that sign is referring to!

     Sadly, this store had a row of shelves covering the center chevron transition in the striping of the terrazzo, so no fun photo like this today. We'll have to settle for this look at the transition from the back wall, with another look at the meat coolers.

Photo courtesy of the Pleasant Family Shopping blog

     Even though the terrazzo is the only carryover between the two photos, this part of the store has always been home to the meat coolers. As seen the the photo above (courtesy of Publix's 1962 annual report via the Pleasant Family Shopping blog), the service counter space was much larger back in the 1960's, and the decor much more vibrant compared to the brown back wall courtesy of CM 3.0/Sienna. Above the meat counter we see Publix's famous wall-mounted aisle directory, a big bragging point of the chain back in the day, something replaced these days by the Publix app.

     In aisle 9, a little bit of scarring is present in the terrazzo, but the scars were patched so nicely you can only see the faint lines from where the cuts in the floor were made. Only Publix could patch a floor with so much care - Kroger could learn a thing or two from Publix about flooring repairs!

     A poster of pastries hangs above the pet food aisle, and interesting juxtaposition for sure!

      Entering the most famous of grocery aisles, aisle 12, the striped terrazzo switches over to plain white vinyl tiles. The official transition between the original wing store building and the addition is nearing, with the columns in the next aisle over marking the transition from the original store's salesfloor into its former stockroom space. 

     The seafood service counter is the last service counter in the original portion of the building, with the deli we see next door in the addition.

     Other than its strange placement on the back left side of the building between seafood and produce, the deli itself is pretty spec 1980's Publix design, just with some modernized decor and lighting touches.

Photo courtesy of the Pleasant Family Shopping blog

     Going back to those annual report photos from the 1960's, here's a look at what this store's original deli counter looked like. It was much smaller, that's for sure! No Pub Subs to be found here either, as those didn't make their debut until the 1990's. Back in the 1960's, the deli was home to mostly meats and cheeses, with that machine in between the two meat cases looking like a rotisserie for chickens. I'm not entirely sure where the deli was originally located in this store prior to the addition, but the direction of the terrazzo striping suggests it was on one of the side walls.

     Entering the addition in aisle 13, I began to have a sinking suspicion that someone was watching me...

    …and I was right! Turns out this little guy was hitchhiking a ride on my shopping cart the whole time, finally climbing up into the basket about three-quarters of the way through my tour. Instead of complaining about me taking photos of the store, thankfully my little friend only wanted to nag me about how I could save 15% or more on car insurance. At this point I took a brief pause to return the gecko to a nice bush outside where he'd be much happier, and could bother some other people with his car insurance pitch!

     Back inside after that little diversion, the large columns to my right mark the location of the original left side exterior wall. Due to the columns, aisle 15 ended up being a little bit wider than the others, although the columns were still pretty close to the shelves on that side. Thankfully though, spreading out the aisle a little bit allowed for two carts to pass by comfortably in this aisle, even with the columns in the way. In addition to the columns, we find the pharmacy counter straight ahead, located in between the front end and bakery. The pharmacy at this store is actually pretty old, added in 1989 when the store was expanded. Publix only introduced pharmacies in 1988, so this was part of the original batch of pharmacies introduced throughout the chain. The location of the pharmacy is original to 1989 as well, as newbuild Publix stores from that era would have had the pharmacies in this same location.

     The last two grocery aisles in this store, numbers 16 and 17, were home to frozen foods. The picture above shows aisle 16, and it's certainly strange to see the deli counter at the end of frozen foods like this!

     Other than the strange placement of the deli next to produce (and floral in the front right), this store could otherwise come across as a typical late 1980's Publix. Here's one final look across the store's back wall from produce, with the deli front and center from this angle.

     The back left corner of the store is home to produce, tucked into a small alcove like most other stores from the late 1980's.

     The produce prep counter was located under the department sign, with the produce displays extending up the left wall.

     Aisle 17 is home to the remainder of frozen foods, with the bakery visible in the background.

     The bakery counter was located just out of frame to my right, and even though I ended up cutting that off, I did get a nice overview of the ice cream coolers that wrap around the perimeter of the bakery alcove.

Photo courtesy of the Pleasant Family Shopping blog

     As we can see, the Publix #70 bakery of today is certainly much different than the Publix #70 bakery of 1962! Back in the 1960's, Publix referred to their bakery counters as the "Danish Bakery", and a portion of that name can be seen on the wall to each side of the red awning. The bakery selection back in 1962 actually looks more elaborate than the current Publix bakery offering today - just look at all those displays full of pastries!

Photo courtesy of the Pleasant Family Shopping blog

     Piecing parts of the old layout together, the bakery appears to have been located along the left wall, located closer to the front of the building. Adjacent to the bakery we find this store's special new department following its opening: the Publix Ice Cream Shoppe. At this counter Publix made fresh in-store a number of ice cream flavors, packaged up and sold from those coolers in front of the counter decorated like a countryside stand. Certainly a "cool" addition to this store back in the day! Also, I love that style of aisle marker too!

     Returning to the 2020's, here's a look across the store's front end from the pharmacy counter.

     Thankfully, the pictures I took from the opposite angle came out much clearer, as things were much less busy at this end! (Everyone seemed to want to check out at the express lane right next to the pharmacy, even though a number of other lanes were open with hardly any line).

     In total, this store had 12 staffed check lanes and no self-checkouts, with 12 lanes meaning this is a very busy store. I'm not surprised by that, as the US 1 corridor throughout Fort Lauderdale is a densely populated area and a busy retail corridor.

     Most Publix stores have a bulletin board near the entrance showcasing each store's charitable contributions, typically featuring collages of various employees partaking in service projects. While that was the case here, I also spotted an old photo of this store from its early days pinned to the board next to a modern photo - a neat way of showcasing this store's history!

     Back outside, that's all I have as far as the Publix goes, but while we're here, let's take a moment to talk about the mall next door (since it was the very first mall in Florida, after all):

Photo courtesy of Malls of America

     To this day, Coral Ridge Mall (later renamed from its original Coral Ridge Shopping Plaza) is a thriving shopping center. Being on the small side for a mall, Coral Ridge doesn't have much trouble filling space these days, although over the last six decades, it has seen some change and some ups and downs in traffic flow. The first major shuffle in the Coral Ridge Mall lineup came in 1981, when Britt's Department Store closed - that year marking the end of the chain in Florida and most of the country (although Britt's then-parent company, McCrory Stores, spared a lone Britt's location in Upstate New York at the time). The old Britt's store would later be subdivided between TJMaxx, J. Byron (later Upton's), and a nightclub following Britt's closure and remained that way until the late 1990's. JCPenney remained at Coral Ridge until 1995, when they ultimately closed this location in favor of other stores located in the newer malls around Broward County.

     With Coral Ridge entering a slump in the mid 1990's due to the opening of the newer (and slightly more upscale) Galleria of Fort Lauderdale on Sunrise Boulevard just to the north in 1993, along with the establishment of other major malls in the area like Sawgrass Mills and Broward Mall, Coral Ridge needed to change its focus in order to survive. Instead of focusing on specialty clothing brands and other mall staples, the mall's owners in the 1990's, Gumberg Asset Management, decided to transform Coral Ridge into a "discount" mall come 1998. The centerpiece of the mall's transformation would include the demolition of the former Britt's building for a new Target store, with the TJMaxx in that space at the time moving into a portion of the former JCPenney on the other side of the mall. Other vacant spaces were re-tenanted with additional budget-friendly and off-price names, such as Old Navy, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, the last of those joining its sibling TJMaxx in the renovated JCPenney space.

     In the time since the mall's major transformation at the turn of the millennium, additional tenants like Ross Dress for Less, Famous Footwear and a refreshed AMC Movie theater joined the mix, rounding out the mall's new budget appeal. The transformation really helped save this place, as the mall was busy during my visit with a varied mix of tenants inside the mall filling the remaining smaller spaces.

      Closest to Publix we find the TJMaxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods trio, although the signage itself is a bit deceiving. Located on the first level of the former JCPenney building are TJMaxx and Home Goods, although Marshalls is actually around the corner on the mall's backside, off the main mall corridor. The second level of the former JCPenney building was converted into office space, and referred to as the "The Offices @ Coral Ridge".

     The exterior entrance we see in the above image leads into TJMaxx, which aisle has a mall entrance as well. HomeGoods is next to TJMaxx facing the backside of the mall.

     A mall entrance is located next to the former JCPenney building/modern TJMaxx store, which we'll use to enter the main mall corridor:

      Entering the mall, we find this map, which I've included to give everyone a general layout of the place. Other than the offices above the TJMaxx and HomeGoods store, the entire mall is a single level, and pretty small, with just the row of stores linking together the TJX siblings and Target.

     Entering the mall next to TJMaxx, this is the sight we're greeted with. TJMaxx's mall entrance is ahead on the lift, lined up with the main corridor, with a few small pop-up shop spaces located ahead to my right.

     Walking past TJMaxx's mall entrance, the entrance to HomeGoods could also be found (partially cut off to my left), with a few additional stores back here before you get to the backside entrance near the AMC theater (which is detached in the parking lot behind the mall).

     Moving into the main mall corridor, here's what it looks like from the TJMaxx side of the building. We see Target in the distance, with a number of other stores on either side (such as Marshalls to my left, and Old Navy in the former Walgreens to my right).

     The mall is lit by a large skylight underneath the mall's wavy ceiling, which is an original feature from 1962. Other than that, the mall has been modernized through the years as stores changed, new flooring was added, and light fixtures were upgraded.

     A small fountain is located about halfway through the mall corridor, making for a nice resting place for a few folks on this afternoon.

     Nearing the end of the mall corridor we find Target, added on in 1999 following the demolition of the former Britt's building. While it doesn't look like it from this angle, Target does have a mall entrance - it's just located a little off center down the corridor to the right, so the mall entrance lines up with the main exterior entrance out front.

     The above article published in the Sun Sentinel in 1998 explains the changes that were coming to Coral Ridge Mall at the time, but also shows us the demolition progress at the former Britt's site, from which the new Target building would rise in a matter of months.

     Entering Target from the mall, you come in from the store's left side before ending up in Bullseye's Playground and the clothing departments.

     We'll take a quick walk around Target, starting with the clothing departments as we begin our loop around the salesfloor.

     This Target was pretty average compared to most, a late 1990's build that received a major remodel in the late 2000's. While this Target would have originally opened with the late 1990's wavy neon decor and the typical exterior facade of that time, the late 2000's remodel completely rebuilt the store's interior and exterior to match that era of Target. As such, we find electronics here along the store's back wall, with toys and sporting goods opposite. Grocery follows along the right side wall, with seasonal in the back right corner.

     I happened to visit this store during its remodel away from the late 2000's red-walled P09 decor into the modern P17 gray-walled variant. It appears this store did receive some of Target's "innovation" remodels of the late 2010's, which was Target's code name for mini remodels of certain departments (typically clothing, electronics, and grocery) to the P17 standards before a full remodel of the entire store occurred.

     This store received the grocery and clothing "innovation" remodels, which is why grocery, as we see here, has all of its updated signage and shelving in place, along with the matching gray paint along the entire right side wall.

     The remodel itself was still in the very early stages during my visit, which is why the typical P09 department signs and red tile striping was still in place, as much of the major reconfiguration and work had yet to happen.

     Here's one final interior photo of Target before we head back outside, looking across the main front actionway where we find health and beauty to my left, with kitchen and office supplies to my right.

     The late 2000's remodel involved the complete reconstruction of the store's facade, including the addition of the 2000's style entryway. To the left of the entrance you can see the banner from this store's most recent remodel in 2021, which was much less intense than the late-2000's one, with the most recent work mostly involving new wall paint, decorative lighting, and some reconfiguration of departments and fixtures. The facade was dressed up to the modern style as well, but was not rebuilt like it was the last time.

     If you didn't want to enter Target through its main entrance, its mall entrance could be accessed via these doors which take you into the mall corridor from the south end of the building.

     While a bit brief, that's my summary of what's going on at Coral Ridge Mall, a mall that managed to reinvent itself for the modern day. I think the mall's compact size helped a lot in its transformation, as there wasn't an excess of space for management to try to fill, with the repositioning helping differentiate the mall from the others in the area. While Coral Ridge Mall will seemingly live on for a while, the Publix next door is living on borrowed time before it gets totally transformed into something new. I guess much like the mall had to reinvent itself to stay up with the times, such a fate would eventually come around to the 64-year-old Publix next door. For now though, we'll appreciate the contributions of what is currently Publix's second oldest store made for the company, pioneering both art and ice cream for the chain. While Publix #70 will most likely not be around to see its parent company's 100th anniversary in 2030, I can only imagine Publix will be doing something big to mark that milestone. However, that anniversary is still a bit away for Publix, although a different Floridian supermarket chain is marking its centennial this year (although to a much smaller fanfare compared to what Publix is doing to celebrate year 95). However, this is Publix's special day, so I'll end this post by saying Happy 95th Birthday Publix, and the way things are going for them, they'll probably be around to celebrate 95 more!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

P.S. - A quick programming note - since I skipped my usual summer break this year, my new plan was to take off September for a "fall break". However, due to some recent news, I've changed things up a bit and will only be skipping what would be the day for my next post, September 14th. That being said, posting will resume on AFB on September 28, 2025, so be sure to come back then for more!