Most of the roughly 75 stores inside Boynton Beach Mall have been told to pack up and leave by January 15, 2027, as property owner Washington Prime Group pushes toward a long-promised redevelopment of the aging shopping center. The mall, which opened on October 9, 1985, has watched its anchor stores empty out for years, and now the rest of the tenant roster is getting the same message: find a new home.
A Washington Prime Group spokesperson said the lease termination notices were issued in anticipation of prospective redevelopment of the center, according to CBS12. Not every business is getting the boot on the same timeline, though. JCPenney, Cinemark and Christ Fellowship Church may all continue operating beyond the January 2027 cutoff, the spokesperson said, directing questions about those individual businesses' plans to their respective operators.
That carve-out makes sense given how those three properties came to exist at the mall in the first place. Christ Fellowship Church purchased the vacant, 128,000-square-foot former Dillard's building for $4.6 million back in 2012 and poured money into structural and fire-safety renovations before opening a regional worship campus there in April 2014, according to The Real Deal. Cinemark, meanwhile, inherited a 14-screen theater complex that Muvico Theaters built in May 2007 as part of an outdoor lifestyle-center expansion, acquiring it in March 2009.
A Multi-Year Push to Clear the Land
The eviction notices are really the latest step in a clearing-out process that has been underway for years. Washington Prime Group paid $15 million in September 2024 to acquire the 224,396-square-foot Macy's building on 14 acres, consolidating ownership of the main site, per South Florida Business Journal. The lease-termination notices are part of the mall's ongoing clearing-out process.
Even with most tenants on the way out, the property's ownership picture remains fractured. Christ Fellowship Church and Cinemark hold separate property ownership or long-term commitments that create a multi-owner dynamic any master developer will have to navigate, the Business Journal's reporting indicates. Washington Prime Group has not announced a finalized sale of the mall, and the city of Boynton Beach has likewise not announced a finalized sale or future project details, CBS12 reported.
Rezoning Cleared the Way Years Ago
In February 2019, the commission voted to replace the mall’s DRI designation with “Mixed-Use Low,” subject to state approval and a later formal commission vote. Commissioners had discussed redevelopment plans for the property as far back as 2019, CBS12 noted, though no major redevelopment appears to have materialized in the years since.
The financial case for change has been building for a long time, too. Palm Beach County Property Appraiser data showed the mall's assessed value collapsing by more than 61% in under a decade, falling from $73 million in 2009 to just $28 million in 2018 as anchor vacancies piled up, the same Real Deal report found. JLL has since taken to marketing the 91-acre property under the rebranded name Boynton Beach 91, touting entitlements for a mixed-use project that could include at least 1,700 residential units.
What Could Eventually Replace the Mall
Conceptual plans currently under city review would slash the existing retail footprint by more than half, from about 1 million square feet down to roughly 482,750 square feet, making room for up to 1,420 residential units, a 400-room hotel, office suites and public green space, according to The Boynton Weekly. The proposal would replace some retail space with housing.
Boynton Beach Mall's original impact on the area was significant: developed by the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation, it helped spur growth in western Boynton Beach after opening in 1985, helping attract six planned housing communities totaling more than 5,100 units and seven commercial and office developments totaling about 1.3 million square feet along a three-mile stretch of Congress Avenue, per a 1986 South Florida Sun-Sentinel report cited by CBS12. The mall's arrival also drove road improvements along Congress Avenue and Old Boynton Road and prompted the city to establish a special patrol zone for the mall and nearby businesses that year.
The mall's expected wind-down fits into a broader pattern of residential density arriving across Boynton Beach. Just downtown, developer Time Equities broke ground on Town Square apartments in April 2026 after securing $160 million in construction financing to build 465 apartments and retail on the south parcel. The mall property has separately been rezoned to allow housing.
