Sunday, September 29, 2024

Planned Albertsons #44XX - North Miami Beach, FL (Skylake Mall)


Planned Albertsons #44XX / Publix #669
1700 NE Miami Gardens Drive, North Miami Beach, FL - Skylake Mall

Today's post is a presentation of Miami-Dade County retail

     For the latest installment of AFB, I figured we should do something different, so today we'll be profiling an Albertsons store that never came to be. While there were a number of Albertsons stores planned around Florida that never left paper, today's planned Albertsons store is somewhat interesting as a touch of Albertsons did influence what was eventually built at this site. So let's go back to the late 1990's to get a better understanding of this site and why Albertsons backed out of opening a store here at North Miami Beach's Skylake Mall, starting off with a little background on Skylake Mall itself:


     Skylake Mall was originally constructed in 1969 as one of a number of community-oriented mini-malls around Miami, like the nearby (and still open) Mall at 163rd Street. Upon its opening in 1969, Skylake Mall featured anchor stores Gold Triangle, J. Byron's, Pantry Pride, and SupeRx Drugs. Skylake Mall managed to fare the closure of Gold Triangle in the early 1980's by replacing that store with a mall-based Home Depot in 1983. Only 5 years old at the time but eager to expand, many of Home Depot's earliest stores were conversions of older buildings (such as some famous conversions of buildings vacated by JCPenney's Treasure Island/The Treasury stores). While the concept of a mall-based Home Depot still seems strange to me, that arrangement worked for about a decade here at Skylake Mall. Come the early-mid 1990's though, Home Depot would relocate to a modern store behind the Mall at 163rd Street, and J. Byron's and Rite Aid (the successor to SupeRx Drugs) would close. In addition to all that, Pantry Pride went out of business as a whole in the early 1990's, leaving a number of large voids in the mall.


     By 1997, Skylake Mall had no major anchors and only 25 in-line tenants left (roughly half the spaces available at the property). Many of the remaining in-line tenants were contemplating leaving the mall as well, considering all the anchors were gone and there was nothing to attract people to the site. Seeing opportunity in the dying mall site, Miami Beach-based management firm Equity One made an offer for the property after numerous attempts by other parties wanting to rehab the mall fell through. Equity One's $11.5 million bid for the old mall would later be accepted, with the company crafting a $28 million total rehabilitation plan for the property once ownership was obtained.


     Equity One, owner of a number of grocery-anchored power centers around South Florida, was envisioning the same as the future for the Skylake Mall property. However, in order to pave the way for attracting a new major grocer to the site, Equity One had one final hurdle to clear - buying out the lease of a Jewish grocery store called Lox Haven, which opened at Skylake Mall in 1995. Lox Haven's lease contained a restriction that they could be the only grocer to operate on the property, which put a wrinkle in Equity One's plans for a major chain grocery store to be the primary new anchor for the redeveloped site. Eventually Equity One reached a deal with the owners of Lox Haven (which took a bit of negotiating), and once that issue was settled, began searching for their new grocery tenant. Equity One's first choice for a new grocer was Albertsons, with the original plans for the reconstruction of Skylake Mall including a "brand-new 60,000-square-foot Albertsons [as] the centerpiece of the revitalized mall", with the new Albertsons store (later scaled down to just over 50,000 square feet) opening sometime in late 1998 or early 1999.


      I found within an old legal document this sketch of the proposed Skylake Mall Albertsons. If you look closely at the sketch, we can tell this store was planned to be a mirror image of the first two Miami-area Albertsons stores opened at Tropicaire Shopping Center and in Kendall, as it has the single consolidated entryway toward the right side of the building, and not the two sets of doors like the later Grocery Palace stores. Had this store opened as an Albertsons, it probably would have had a store number in the 4440s or 4450s, where a few missing locations exist, probably due to situations like this where preliminary negotiations failed for one reason or another.


     Equity One and Albertsons negotiated a deal for eight months, by which time it was determined that a deal would not come to pass. I've never found the exact reason why the Albertsons deal never materialized (rent price, who pays for what, demands from certain sides, etc.), but by February 1998, Albertsons was taking Equity One to court over the stalled negotiations (which was roughly a month after Equity One managed to get their second choice of grocery tenant to sign a lease: Publix).


     With the project already a month behind schedule due to the failing negotiations with Albertsons, Equity One managed to get Publix to sign a lease for a store at the Skylake Mall site in January 1998, replacing Albertsons in the plans. With Publix now on board as the new grocery anchor, Equity One's COO Doron Valero had this to say about the change in direction with the anchor grocer: "It would be more beneficial to have Publix as an anchor than anybody else. Publix knows the market much better, and they have greater control of the area." I can't say I disagree with Mr. Valero's statement either. Had Albertsons opened as planned in early 1999, this store would have closed in 2001 when the company pulled out of Miami after their spectacular failure in the area, cited to have stemmed from Albertsons not understanding the needs of the Miami shopper. Following the closure of Albertsons, there's a chance Publix would have taken over this building from Albertsons anyway (like what happened with the Tropicaire store and the under-construction store in Coral Gables), considering Equity One was able to attract Publix here on their own. In the end, it appears all Equity One did was give me one less Publixsons to photograph!


     With Publix signed on, demolition of the old mall was able to begin. We can see the demolition of the old mall and construction of the new Publix visible in the 1998 aerial image above, an interesting transitional phase in this property's history captured by the satellite!


     Publix #669 opened on July 1, 1999, replacing Publix #126 across the street from the Mall at 163rd Street in the old Zayre Plaza, which closed the night before. Publix #669 isn't anything super exciting inside - it's a run-of-the-mill 51T Publix, although the facade is quite nice with its tower-like design. While Publix managed to squeeze their 51T design almost perfectly into the hole reserved for Albertsons' 50,000 square foot store, Publix did come into this project late with the developer already having the plans drawn-up and ready to go for an Albertsons building. If we turn to the sky, we'll notice that one small thing was never changed between Albertsons backing out of this project and Publix joining...


     …and that would be Publix still having the Albertsons attached liquor store space on the side (to your left as the image above is presented)! Even with the change of anchors and Publix not running liquor stores in 1999, the proposed Albertsons liquor space was still built out as intended to the side of the supermarket building. Instead of a liquor store, that space just became more generic in-line tenant space, and is currently home to a Leslie's Pool Supply store.


     Like I've said before, while Publix's interiors can be very standardized, the facades aren't, so we get some nice examples like this one that blend into the aesthetic of the rest of the shopping center.


     To the right of the Publix we find the Leslie's store in the intended Albertsons' liquor space. The Leslie's blends right into Publix's facade, so it makes me wonder if the facade would have looked the same had Albertsons built their store here, with Publix just carrying over the developer's original design intended for Albertsons. I could see an Albertsons logo fitting perfectly up on the facade where Publix's logo is, so you never know!


     After Publix opened, it appears the liquor store space was used as a membership pre-sale office for the LA Fitness that would eventually open at the far western end of the new Skylake Mall. After that, Leslie's moved in, and has been here ever since.


     A towering facade always make a supermarket feel more stately, especially with the big columns and clerestory windows. From here we get a side view of Publix's entryway facade, although it looks much more stately when viewed from the front!


     Inside the towering atrium, we find the entryway shifted over to the left from the grand curved facade, not quite lining up perfectly with it (something you can see better from the parking lot). The off-alignment of the facade also makes me wonder if it was supposed to line up with Albertsons' entrance instead of Publix's, as Publix's 51T facades usually line up a bit nicer with the doors than this one.


     Inside, the interior is pretty typical for a Publix of this era - nothing intended for Albertsons in here! The front right corner of the store is home to the deli and a small dining area, with the bakery and produce off to my left in the "grand aisle".


     Moving along from the deli, here's the bakery, located around the corner from that department along the right side wall.


     In front of the bakery is produce, with this view looking toward the back of the store, where we see meats and seafood poking out from the background.


     Beyond meats and seafood, here's a look across the store's back wall, starting with lunch meats in the cooler to my right followed by dairy beyond that.


     In these 51T stores, the pharmacy is located in an island at the front of aisles 1 and 2. While I didn't get a photo of the pharmacy counter itself, I did get this photo of aisle 3, home to health and beauty products.


     Returning to the front of the store, here's a look across the front end. And from the front...


     …it's to the rear of the store we go again, with this look back toward the meat and seafood department.


     Upon its opening in 1999, this store would have opened with the Wavy Pastel decor. I know this store had Classy Market 2.5 prior to its current Sienna/Classy Market 3.0, although I don't know if there was a decor package between Wavy Pastel and CM 2.5.


     Reaching the far left side of the store, we find the frozen foods department in aisles 15 and 16.


     Wine is located in the front left corner of the building, with the front end just out of frame to our left.


     Our final interior photo looks across the front end once again, looking back toward the pharmacy and grand aisle. I know this was a fairly express tour, but since there wasn't anything too out of the ordinary with this Publix, I decided it was best to focus my time on some of the other stops of this day (like Publix #80, and some of the other funky Publix stores I saw after this one). I have a more detailed tour of a 51T in my archives too, but today you saw all the high points of one of these stores at least!


     One of the most obvious features you can use to identify a 51T Publix is the drive-thru lane on the front of the store, pictured here. This lane serves as a covered drop-off and loading area for people when it rains, which is nice (especially on our rainy Floridian summer afternoons), but not used very often (at least from what I've seen) except in those cases of persistent precipitation!


      What I have noticed still hanging around at most 51T stores (even today) is this Wavy Pastel-era sign advertising the "Drop off and Pick Up" lane. I'm guessing there isn't a modern equivalent to this sign (since Publix hasn't built a store with a drop-off lane since the early 2000's), so these old ones have been left to carry on the message!


     Here's a nice close-up of the facade, showing off the detail of the architecture. Can anyone else picture Albertsons' "Food" and "Pharmacy" signs in the gray areas on each side of the curved wall? It could be my imagination getting in the way, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the facade Albertsons was supposed to use too.


     One thing there wasn't a shortage of at the new Skylake Mall was foliage, including some trees growing right up against the front of the Publix building getting in the way of my pictures!


     To the left of the Publix building are some smaller storefronts, as well as a Goodwill store. The Goodwill store (its sign blocked by the tree to the left of the MD NOW clinic) is an original anchor to this strip, and isn't occupying a space intended for someone else.


     To the right of the Publix is where the original mall building once stood, featuring a two story section of storefronts, as well as additional co-anchors TJMaxx and LA Fitness.


     It's interesting how after backing out of this project entirely, a tiny bit of Albertsons influence still lingers on here at Skylake Mall. We'll finish out this post with a final overview of Publix's (or Albertsons' intended?) facade, and next time, we'll take a look at a building that actually housed an Albertsons for a number of years! More to come in two weeks, so be sure to come back then!

Until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

8 comments:

  1. Hey, a Mallbertsons! Well, a proposed Mallbertsons at least. It is too bad that this Mallbertsons never got built, but I suppose it is hard to disagree with Doron Valero's assertion about Publix and, presumably, about Albertsons as well. I suppose even if it was a Mallbertsons, it would have turned into a Publixsons eventually anyway so this just saved everyone the trouble!

    I actually saw a Mallbertsons this summer. It isn't just a Mallbertsons, but it is a Mallbertsons with an actual mall entrance! This is at the Belknap Marketplace in Belmont, NH where Shaw's co-anchors the mall with Big Lots. I'm not sure if the Big Lots is on the closing list, but at least when I saw it, it was a normal Big Lots. A mall with Albertsons (well, Shaw's at least) and Big Lots as anchors! If that doesn't have AFB written all over it, what does?! There is even a Goodwill across the street and I'm sure Hannaford isn't too far off! Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y8j6dsuiCPcEemwZ8

    I didn't go into the Mallbertsons as I had no reason to buy groceries at that time while visiting Lake Winnipesaukee. I know that's not much of an excuse not to go to a Mallbertsons when the opportunity presents itself, but oh well! At least I saw it from the outside.

    I really can't think of much to say about the Publix itself other than about that drop-off lane! That's certainly interesting. Around here, given how many people shop for groceries by themselves, or with their kids which they can't really drop off and leave unattended, I'm not really sure how useful that would be even with all the Miami-like rain, heat, and humidity here. I could maybe see it being useful if they get a bus-load of seniors visiting the store which, well, we are talking about Florida here!

    You know, I was recently looking at a mall somewhere which had a Home Depot, a more modern one, in a mall! I can't remember where I saw this. I'm almost positive it didn't have a mall entrance. That would be really strange if it did! We don't have many converted Home Depots, or any that I can think of really, in Houston, but I did recently find a video from inside a The Treasury store in the Dallas area on The Portal to Texas History website. You know how many neat finds are on there and this is certainly one of them as I've never actually seen photos, or certainly a video, from inside a The Treasury store before! Link: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1247449/m1/

    Maybe it is just me, but does it seem like this parking lot has an unusually large number of sedans and coupes in it for modern times? Maybe this isn't unusual for Miami since there is no reason for people there to pretend that they are scaling the side of a mountain with an SUV, lol. Most of the sedans are of the boring color variety much like the mall's colors itself, but I see a near clone of my teal-ish colored sedan in one of those photos!

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    1. Eww…Shaw’s could’ve had a better owner had they not been purchased by Albertsons…

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    2. Indeed, the drop-off lanes are useless, because if somebody runs through an afternoon ten-minute downpour to get the car, that rain is still blowing sideways. I don't think they even have enough clearance for senior shuttle buses. Store #653 in West Palm Beach at the border of Royal Palm Beach and Wellington, and #821 to the northeast, are within proximity to a few retirement or assisted living facility mega-developments, and whenever a bus is there, it's usually parked out front. For Store #653, I've seen the mailman make the most use of it, as the mail kiosk for the shopping center is right on the corner.

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    3. Even if it was built, this wouldn't have been much of a Mallbertsons anyway - by the time Albertsons opened, the mall would have been totally gone. If the developers felt that Publix was such a good match for this site, I don't know why they didn't try to attract Publix first instead of Albertsons! I guess the deal with Albertsons turned pretty bad for Mr. Valero to start making comments like that after the deal fell through.

      That Mallbertsons (well, Shaw's) in Belmont is quite interesting! The design of the entryway reminds me a lot of the mall-based Kmarts, where the mall entrance served as the main entrance. I think a lot of the reason malls these days are having so many problems is from the reliance on department stores (a dying industry) and clothing stores. If more malls had a variety of anchors (including grocers) like the Belmont Mall does, malls would be doing much better. Admittedly, I don't go to any of my local malls often as the variety of stores just doesn't interest me much from a shopping perspective, but Belmont Mall's anchor lineup would certainly get me there more often!

      I'm sure the drop off/pick up lanes was a product of Publix trying to come off as "more premium", but in practicality, didn't pan out. Publix was probably thinking that with their carryout service, if one chose to use it, you could go out to the car and drive it into the pick-up lane, with the bagboy waiting in the pickup area for the person to pull in and load the groceries to the car. It just seems like an extra step in the process for that to happen, with it being easier to just walk to the car in the lot and load everything there. If Publix wanted to got some use out of these lanes, they could convert them into the pickup area for online grocery orders (like how some premium Super Target stores have a lane like this in front of the building).

      Home Depot conversions of existing buildings were a bigger thing back in the company's early days, and not too many of those exist anymore as the company has now had the time and money to upgrade most to the standard large buildings. However, Home Depot did buy some buildings from Kmart back in the 2000's and kept a number of the original buildings, leaving some interesting results like this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/s7k8esove6myRCu87

      That video from inside of The Treasury was a great find - can't say I've ever seen the interior of one of their store's either! The Treasury seemed to have more of a 1980's Target feel to it, probably because both of those discounters were had origins from department store chains.

      The part of Miami this store is in is home to some of the more well-off retiree folks, who tend to prefer sedans and coupes more than younger people. Not that there are an overwhelming number of luxury cars in the photos (I see a fair number of Corollas and similar cars), but if you start going further east from here, things start to get much fancier!

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  2. While we didn't get to see a true Albertsons today, it's funny to hear how the developers changed their tune once Albertsons backed out stating that Publix was more beneficial than anybody else; if that was the case, why didn't they court Publix first!

    Here's a video of #126 before it closed that you may want to embed in the post, as it isn't often we get such a good look at a Wing Store in the 1990's! Also, here's a newspaper clipping depicting the old and new stores as they looked in June 1999. It's amazing what GeorgiaPubDude has found on the internet, so never shy away from looking for any links on the spreadsheet! Anyhow, I'd agree that #669 is a pretty basic 51T store, with the only major change it has seen is the rearrangement of its produce department to mimic a modern 54M (if you come across a 51T that still has the cut produce island, you better make sure to visit that store). I believe this Publix likely had some form of CM 1.0 before it remodeled to Bamboo because it still kept the old style of aisle markers. This store's facade also reminded me of #612 which has a similarly curved configuration.

    Those drop-off lanes are interesting, and I do have to wonder how often they get used. I've seen several of them get converted to Instacart pickup areas which seems to make more sense. I'm glad you got a picture of that WP-era sign because I haven't noticed one of those before!

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    1. I know - the Albertsons deal must turned pretty bad if those were the kinds of statements the landlord was making about Publix! Guess it all worked out in the end, as the landlord probably would have had to go court Publix to fill the Albertsons space a few years later.

      Interesting video of #126 and the old Zayre next door. I really didn't think much of #126 when I wrote this (I didn't know this store replaced #126 until I was writing the post), which is why I didn't bother trying to find any more. I haven't seen that cut produce island in years either. #612's facade is similar to this one, but it lines up much better with the doors than #669's (where the curved part is off to the right).

      Converting these lanes into an Instacart/online pickup area makes much more sense, and Target has been installing similar lanes at some of the more premium Super Target stores for the same purpose. I've seen those WP-era signs at a number of 51Ts around here - they are (or were) much more common in recent times than you'd think!

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  3. Wow, that video really captures the time when Greater Miami, especially North Miami Beach, was in major decline. I think the most unsettling part is around the 5:28 timestamp, when you can see the closed-down Jordan Marsh at the 163rd Street Mall looming in the background. North Miami Beach is an unusual area... originally a failed 1920s land boom suburb called Fulford-by-the-Sea, which later became booming post-war suburbia. Following white flight in the 1980s, the area underwent a significant Jewish population increase from Miami Beach proper, many who later moved to Aventura in the 1990s. Ironically in recent years, Aventura's development centered around the mall and Brightline station is now having a ripple effect on the surrounding areas, including North Miami Beach, the unincorporated pocket of "Ojus" where technically Publix #669 is located, and across the county line into Hallandale Beach.

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    1. Interesting information! It's quite amazing the turnaround this area has had lately. I haven't spent much time in the area, but driving along US 1 toward the Broward County line was bustling with a lot of construction going on.

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