Former Albertsons #4375 - Sunrise, FL

Albertsons #4375 / Super Saver #1530

9919 West Oakland Park Boulevard, Sunrise, FL

Today's post is a presentation of Broward County retail

     With the Sing Oil Blogger's guest post last time, my slightly extended "summer break" concludes as I return to kick off August with an AFB and MFR double shot. Here on AFB we'll take a look at what appears to be a seemingly mundane former Albertsons store at first glance, but if you look at it just a bit closer, we'll discover this store is actually a lot more interesting than it appears. However, the fun doesn't end here, as on MFR we'll head across the street from this former Albertsons to check out a funky early 1980's Publix store. That being said, there's a lot to talk about today, so let's jump right in and find out more about former Albertsons #4375 of Sunrise:

     Sunrise is actually a very notable city when it comes to South Florida retail, as the city is home to the famous mall Sawgrass Mills - the country's largest single-story enclosed outlet mall and the second largest mall in Florida overall (behind The Florida Mall in Orlando). While Sawgrass Mills is most people's retail destination when heading toward Sunrise, I opted to visit some of the city's lesser-prioritized stores, patronized mostly by locals and the occasional nutty supermarket blogger from out of town. For that reason, we're on the other side of town from Sawgrass Mills staring at a gym that took up shop in a former grocery store. While the building we're staring at looks like a pretty average late 1980's/early 1990's Albertsons store, things aren't quite what they seem at first glance about this building...

     The story of Albertsons #4375 dates back to the late 1980's, when Albertsons began to develop an interest in this site located at the northeast corner of Oakland Park Boulevard and Nob Hill Road. In the late 1980's development in the western suburbs of Fort Lauderdale was booming, and Albertsons was looking to find sites for new stores to keep up with the increase in population. Albertsons settled on this prominent corner parcel for its Sunrise store, located along a busy east-west thoroughfare but tucked into a more residential neighborhood, a nice spot overall for a grocery store. However, adjacent to the property Albertsons had its eye on was an existing daycare center, and the daycare center wasn't too thrilled about having a 65,000 square foot supermarket and liquor store combo as its new neighbor.

Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 - Today's post is a mix of photos taken by myself and YonWoo, and YonWoo's photos are the ones labeled 'YW' through the rest of the post.

     The daycare center began to put up a fight against the new Albertsons, filing complaints with the city about the new supermarket bringing more traffic and a increase of people around the typically quiet daycare. After a lot of back and forth, the daycare and Albertsons eventually came to an agreement in order to allow development of the supermarket on the adjacent property. Some of the concessions Albertsons agreed to was swapping some land with the daycare center in order to create a large buffer between the two buildings, construction of a new concrete block wall between the supermarket and daycare property to protect the children, installing a new playground for the daycare, a lush landscaping plan to conceal the new store, access improvements to all existing driveways along Oakland Park Boulevard, and constructing the attached liquor store on the north side of the building, the furthest point away from the daycare. All of those items were to come at the expense of Albertsons and the project developers, so Albertsons must have had a lot of hope for this site to concede to all those terms and continue with a store here instead of finding a new site elsewhere in town with less strings attached. 

YW

    With the daycare picking a fight, the construction of this store didn't begin as planned in the original 1988-1989 timeframe. Due to the fight, construction on the new Sunrise Albertsons didn't begin until 1993, with store #4375 holding its grand opening on March 9, 1994. As such the store number was a bit out of sequence, a holdover from the store's original planned opening in the late 1980's. Another holdover from this store's original intended opening date was the design of its facade, which used a typical 1980's Superstore exterior. However, while this store looks like a Superstore Albertsons, and was originally intended to open as one, Albertsons #4375 would end up opening with the mid-1990's floorplan, like this.

Photo courtesy of Bing Maps

     As the above Bird's Eye aerial image demonstrates, this was very much a mid-1990's Albertsons store in disguise as its older Superstore counterpart. If you look at the two arches (where the two sets of entrances would have been in a Superstore building), they don't quite line up evenly, whereas Superstores would have had those entrances evenly spaced. Also, the arch on the left was cleverly redesigned to act as the entrance into the liquor store, with the arch on the right being purely decorative to match the rest of the facade. I never really thought too much about the layout of this store until YonWoo visited #4375 earlier in 2023 (his pictures intertwined throughout this post with mine), and commented that it looked like a mid-1990's store with a 1980's facade. After he said that it clicked in my mind - Albertsons just tweaked the facade from the original plans for this store to conform to the new layout when construction finally began in 1993, creating this unique hybrid store design.

     Unfortunately, sales at store #4375 began to taper as the 2000's wore on, with this store chosen as one of the 11 underperforming Albertsons stores in Florida to be converted to the new Super Saver discount banner. Sadly, Super Saver was mostly killed off in 2006 in the breakup of Albertsons, with the company's new owners not wanting to bother with the new brand that had not proven itself yet. All of the Floridian Super Saver stores closed in late 2006, only a year after the initial conversions, leaving 11 more empty supermarket buildings to fill. #4375 sat vacant until 2008, when 24 Hour Fitness converted the building into a gym. 24 Hour Fitness operated out of this building until mid-2022, when that company declared bankruptcy and announced the closure of 100 gyms nationwide. With the way gyms are sprouting up like weeds around here, this building didn't sit empty for long, as Crunch Fitness has announced they will be opening a new gym in this building in late 2023 or early 2024. As we'll see throughout this post, my photos were taken while 24 Hour Fitness was still open, while YonWoo's photos were taken following the closure of 24 Hour Fitness.

     While I talked over it, the last few photos showcased the right side of this former Albertsons building, along with its faux Superstore arch. Especially with this building being extensively remodeled into a gym, it's pretty easy to think from a passing glance this place was built as a Superstore with the modifications made post-Albertsons. However, the exterior of this building is totally original, and we have only Albertsons to thank for the confusion this store has caused me!

YW

     Once you get closer to the building it becomes a little more apparent we're looking at a mid-1990's Albertsons and not a Superstore, as the front walkway would have been much wider than this if the old Superstore vestibules were carved out for a long open-air walkway.

YW

     Another obvious clue this was a mid-1990's store are the can lights used along the walkway and up in the arches, a classic Albertsons design tactic that I doubt another tenant would try to replicate. It was actually these can lights that led YonWoo to realize this was a mid-1990's store, leading to his comment that made everything click in my mind and make a little more sense out of this weird store!

YW

     One thing I can't figure out though are these windows. These windows look exactly like the ones that a Superstore Albertsons would have used in the vestibule, however mid-1990's stores wouldn't have had so many windows across the front. Besides some windows right around the doors, the mid-1990's stores didn't have a lot of natural light coming in. I've seen gyms add lots of windows to old supermarkets they've converted, which makes me think the windows were added by 24 Hour Fitness, but I guess there's chance they were installed by Albertsons too - this was an unusual store, so who knows.

YW

     From the front walkway, here's a look toward the front doors in the distance, beyond that bicycle rack.

     While the gym itself had a decent crowd while I was here, the walkway along the front of the building was very quiet. When Albertsons was here I'm sure there would have been a steadier stream of people going up and down this walkway with shopping carts to their cars.

     Nearing the left side of the building, the entrance comes into view.

     The daycare center certainly got their way with the landscaping of this building, as all the trees planted in front of the building do a great job of blocking it from view. Due to all the trees, I couldn't get one good, clear shot of the entryway from the parking lot, with all the trees blocking the sign on the front of the building too. I can't help but wonder if all the trees back here actually hindered this store, as people had no idea it was back here because it was so well hidden.

     Somewhere in that jungle is an old Albertsons building!

YW

     Near the front doors, we can get a better feel of the mid-1990's Albertsons styling, with the arched can lights and the typical entryway design, just with the old automatic swinging doors replaced with manual ones for the gym.

YW

     From the exterior, this building very much looks like someone carved an entryway into the middle of a Superstore Albertsons building, much like what Winn-Dixie actually did to this one they took over in the late 1990's. From the perspective of where we're standing on the walkway though, that's where this store's true design begins to become more apparent.

YW

     Since YonWoo visited this store after 24 Hour Fitness had closed, he took a few photos through the front doors to give us a quick glimpse of the interior. As you'd expect from a supermarket to gym conversion, the interior of the building was completely gutted and rebuilt, leaving no traces of Albertsons behind inside.

YW

     This store would have been an exact copy of this store when it was open, to give you an idea of what the interior layout would have been like here from 1994-2006.

YW

     While there's nothing left from Albertsons to see in here, this did look like a nice spacious gym though.

YW

     Returning our attention to the exterior, here's one last look toward the entryway before we continue our journey closer to the left side of the building and the liquor store.

YW

     The entrance to the liquor store can be seen in the distance, just beyond the next bank of windows and that bicycle rack.

     Turning out attention to this side of the main entrance, this is where I began to ponder even more about who was actually responsible for installing all of these windows.

YW

     Is it just me, or does that white emergency exit door look a bit haphazardly carved out of the wall? That door seemed a bit too awkwardly shoved into that bank of windows for it to feel original, as if it were original, it probably would have been more gracefully incorporated into the design of the facade I would think. That being said, I feel like it was Albertsons who installed all of these windows if the gym had to carve out a door like that, as I would also think the gym would have designed a more coherent look if the windows and that door were installed at the same time. Maybe I'm just overthinking this store a bit too much, but these odd Albertsons stores leave us with a lot to ponder!

     At the far left side of the building we find the entrance to the former liquor store, whose space was actually incorporated into that of the main supermarket during the conversion into the gym. At that time the old doors were replaced with these, which are the same style doors used at the main entrance.

YW

     Peeking through the liquor store doors, like the main store, there wasn't much to see in here either. It appears 24 Hour Fitness was using the old liquor store as a classroom or something similar, and rebuilt the space during the conversion.

     The liquor store's entrance used the left side arch of the faux Superstore facade, the word "Liquor" once mounted to the wall inside that brown rectangle.

     As has been the theme, the trees were blocking my view for getting any good shots of the store's entryway, even from this angle.

     While the main entrance was hidden behind the trees, the old liquor store entrance couldn't have been any clearer!

YW

     YonWoo had a little bit of better luck with photos of the facade from this angle, as it seems like that one tree between the liquor store and the main entrance was looking a bit rougher than it did when I visited this store two years prior.

YW

     Even though 24 Hour Fitness had closed a few months prior to YonWoo's visit, someone was still maintaining the landscaping here, as those hedges are too nicely trimmed to have been sitting that way without care for months.

     The only other Floridian Albertsons store I can think of that had a similar amount of lush greenery along the front of the building like this was fancy #4384 in Lantana, although #4384's landscaping didn't block the view of the building as much. Interestingly, #4384 is also now living its second life as a gym.

YW

     A few more photos of #4375's entryway from YonWoo will close out our ground coverage of this store.

YW

     In case you were wondering, the daycare center next door that put up such a fuss about the construction of the new Albertsons store is still there today. I'm sure the daycare is probably much happier having a gym as a neighbor now than a bustling supermarket, as I'm sure there's less people going in and out of the gym than there were when Albertsons was here.

     As I was cutting through the parking lot taking photos, I spotted this little guy having a snack on one of the parking islands. He looked like he was pretty nuts about Albertsons too!

     Before we jump into the satellite imagery, here's a look at Albertsons' old road sign facing Oakland Park Boulevard. Another one of the stipulations the daycare made Albertsons agree to was to install short signs like this at the entrances. From all those stipulations the daycare made Albertsons agree to, it almost seems like the daycare wanted no one to know there was a supermarket back here, and I wouldn't be surprised if poor visibility was a factor in this store's demise.

     Anyway, now that we've finished things up on the ground, let's take a quick look at the historic satellite imagery before we finish up this post:

Former Albertsons #4375 - 2022 - That round building next to the old Albertsons is the daycare I've been mentioning throughout this post. It is pretty close to the Albertsons building, so I can see why they were a bit bothered when Albertsons announced intentions to build a new store behind it.

Former Albertsons #4375 - 2008

Former Albertsons #4375 - 2007 - The building after Super Saver closed and prior to the gym moving in.

Super Saver #1530 - 2006

Albertsons #4375 - 2002

Albertsons #4375 - 1995 - Albertsons was drawing a decent crowd here in its early days!

Future Albertsons #4375 - 1984 - While Albertsons still had a number of years before appearing at this site, Publix was already well-established at this corner, having built their store across the street in 1982. As you'd expect Publix is still there today, and for our enjoyment, in the original building too. We'll be touring that Publix store across the street on MFR, so be sure to check out that post after finishing this one!

YW

     Even though the sun has set on the Sunrise Albertsons, at least the new occupant left enough original elements of this odd store behind to piece together is strange history. And if you didn't have enough of a fill of strange Floridian supermarkets today, then be sure to switch over to MFR for a look at the Publix across the street too - it's a 1980's Publix that was expanded in the early 1990's, so of course it will have some unique traits to it that most other Publix stores don't! Head on over to MFR to check that out, but as for things here on AFB, be sure to come back in two weeks for more of our fantastic adventures through Floridian Albertsons stores!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger