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