Shopping center seen as blessing
Residents put hopes for neighborhood growth on 731 Shoppes
The streets around Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Pompano Beach are mostly empty.
This once-proud and vibrant neighborhood, like other urban cores, has fallen on hard times — drug dealing, violent crime, vacant storefronts and weedchoked lots.
But longtime residents hope a new shopping center, on the smallish side, will breathe new life into the neighborhood. It’s the first new development in this neighborhood in a halfcentury.
Known as the 731 Shoppes, the center will give residents a one-stop place to eat, file taxes, get their hair styled or even pose for a portrait. Among the five businesses occupying the center are such Broward icons as the newest outpost of Betty’s Soul Food, a Sistrunk Boulevard staple in Fort Lauderdale for more than 30 years.
Neighboring businesses hope 731 Shoppes will make others feel comfortable about spending their time and money on MLK Boulevard, also known as Hammondville Road, an area east of Interstate 95 and west of Dixie Highway.
“It will help build a new image,” said Richard Macon, 85, who for 50 years has run Freeman Macon Funeral Home, across the street from the new property. “This improvement
will no doubt save many people’s lives.”
Nguyen Tran, director of the Northwest Community Redevelopment agency, which built 731 Shoppes, recalls how MLK Boulevard used to be. Businesses lined the corridor and the streets teemed with people, none of them worried about safety.
“It’s pretty much a landmark,” Tran said of the district. “MLK used to have a lot of commercial activity, and then it died off.”
Shan Murray, 22, is happy to see the new shopping center rise within a sevenminute walk of her home.
“I think it’s nice,” she said Thursday as she left beauty salon Mane Face, one of the new businesses at 731 Shoppes. “There aren’t too many salons nearby.”
Mane Face is one of three businesses that already have opened at 731 Shoppes, which is named after its address, 731 Hammondville Road. It joins Norman’s Photoland, a photo studio, and Your Financial Solutions, a tax preparation office. Restaurants Bojo’s Seafood and Betty’s Soul Food are expected to open by May 21.
731 Shoppes is among several upgrades the city has planned for the neighborhood, Tran said. Construction is underway about four blocks east of 731 Shoppes for a cultural center with an outdoor courtyard and a band shell for live performances.
Past Community Redevelopment Agency administrations bought a lot of property along the MLK district, Tran said, so several parcels are available for construction. Buildings with retail and restaurant space on the bottom floors and residential space on top would be a good fit, he said.
The redevelopment agency has addressed many of the problems that have hindered development, he said — improving infrastructure, updating building codes and hiring security patrols to report crime to police.
“I think a certain amount of public funding has to happen before private funding comes in,” Tran said.
Commissioner Ed Phil- lips, who represents the MLK Boulevard community, said positive change is on the horizon because there’s more interest from the city to invest in the district.
“The will of the city has now strengthened and is resolved to ensure there’s equity as it pertains to moving the city forward,” he said. Phillips served as a commissioner from 2001 to 2003 and was elected again in November.
Rachel Lucas, born and raised in Pompano Beach and owner of Your Financial Solutions, says she’s noticed morale rising in the community as residents have something new to call their own.
The 35-year-old entrepreneur said MLK Boulevard “is not a popular street,” but she was encouraged to open her business at 731Shoppes because she believes it has potential to succeed.
Lucas says she feels proud to be part of the boulevard’s resurgence.
“I get to be part of history,” she said.