Cross County Mall

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The Cross County Mall was a partially enclosed mall located in West Palm Beach, Florida at Military Trail and Okeechobee Road, approximately three-quarters of a mile west of Interstate 95. The site is within 1.5 miles of Florida's Turnpike and Palm Beach County Airport. Purchased in September 1997, phased demolition of the existing center and construction of a 365,000 square foot retail center commenced in the fourth quarter of 1997.

Swerdlow Group identified the opportunity to purchase the Cross County Mall through its long-standing relationship with K-Mart. In addition, relationships with Ross Dress for Less, Just For Feet, Builders Square and AMC were crucial to recapturing space and reconfiguring the center. Cross County Mall was an outdated partially enclosed mall that was largely vacant. It was encumbered by existing below market leases with K-Mart, AMC and Ross Dress for Less that provided those tenants with absolute rights over the site plan and any expansion or demolition of the center. These leases were terminated.

New leases were negotiated with K-Mart and Ross Dress for Less providing for their relocation into new premises at current market rental rates. Previous developers had failed to obtain the cooperation of K-Mart and AMC, which was critical to the reconfiguration of the center. The enclosed mall had to be demolished, preserving the ability for K-Mart and Ross Dress for Less to operate in their existing stores while new premises were constructed.

The site development was coordinated and scheduled so as to provide parking during the construction period and bring the existing lot to an elevation level with the new area (1.5 feet below the existing lot). All the site work had to be phased, including the reconfiguration of the draining and utilities to provide service to the new stores while continuing to provide service to the existing stores.