Costco plans to level the former Sports Authority to expand; while home décor superstore At Home wants the Gander Mountain site.
PALM BEACH GARDENS – Two hugeretail properties on the city’s south end may become an expanded Costco and a home décor store, respectively.
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Costco plans to level the former Sports Authority for a 10,000-square-foot expansion with additional parking and an 18-pump gas station, Planning & Zoning Director Natalie Crowley said Wednesday. The city is reviewing the plans, which require approval from city council.
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At Home, a home décor superstore, wants to open in the former Gander Mountain outdoor store, Crowley told a crowd of hundreds of business leaders at a PGA Corridor Association event Wednesday morning. The home store plans to use the entire site, which is visible from Interstate 95 and includes 125,641 square feet of space on 13.2 acres.
Gander Mountain had a store, restaurant and warehouse on the sitebefore it closed. The company filed for bankruptcy in March 2017 and was bought by Camping World and a group of liquidators at a bankruptcy auction. Gander Outdoors CEO Marcus Lemonis hinted that he wanted to keep the store open, then targeted the city on Twitter for not allowing the outdoor sale of RVs and campers. The city said it never received any request from Gander.
Pebb Enterprises of Boca Raton bought the site in August this summer by acquiring the property’s defaulted debt and foreclosing on the collateral. The title showed a sale price of $2.6 million; Pebb did not disclose the full sale price.
The property’s taxable value is $11.6 million, according to county records.
To the east, the Sports Authority next to Costco closed in 2016, when the company closed all ofits locations. A Rooms To Go outlet moved into the roughly 43,000-square-foot commercialspace.
Crowley, Avenir principal Rosa Schechter and Kim DeLaney, director of strategic development and policy for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, spoke about ongoing and upcoming development.
Schechter said theAvenir developers are under contract with home builders for most of the parcels in the 4,763-acre, residential and commercial development, but they are going to build the retail component partof Avenirthemselves. They need the retail center to be special, something that draws people from the core of the Gardens out to Avenir, she said. The development is on the western edge of the city.
People should be moving into the first neighborhoods of Avenir in 2020, she said.
In the Alton Town Center on Donald Ross Road, a Publix and PetSmart are expected to open for the around Thanksgivingseason.
Palm Beach Gardens is studying how a future Tri-Rail station on PGA Boulevard should inform retail, office, hotel and residential development in the vicinity. Economists will give an update to business owners and residents next week.
The session for business owners is 9 a.m. Oct. 25 at the Palm Beach Gardens City Council chambers, 10500 N. Military Trail. The session for residents is 6 to 8 p.m. the same day.
Staff writer Jeff Ostrowski contributed to this story.
