Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
SO LONG TO A STARBUCKS
The Starbucks at the corner of Broward Boulevard and Federal Highway in downtown Fort Lauderdale is permanently closed.
It isn’t often that you see a Starbucks closed, but perhaps more incongruous is the sight of the coffee shop stripped of its iconic name at the one of the busiest corners in South Florida.
Yes, the Starbucks at the corner of Broward Boulevard and Federal Highway in downtown Fort Lauderdale, is closed permanently.
A Starbucks corporate representative declined to go into detail, beyond saying the closing was a business decision. She made no mention of the new coronavirus.
“We continually evaluate our business to ensure a healthy store portfolio. After careful consideration, we determined it was best to close the store,” she said. “As difficult as this is, we must make the right business decisions for the sake of Starbucks’ long-term growth.”
All employees at the store were offered jobs at nearby locations and Starbucks has no plans to close any other store in the area, she said.
Starbucks has 20 stores in and around Fort Lauderdale, including a nearby shop on Las Olas Boulevard and a popular drivethrough location on Federal Highway, south of the New River. But the Broward Boulevard location was different.
With windows and doors on two-and-a-half sides, the boxy shop glowed with a particular kind of warmth and community. When it opened 20 years ago, it felt like a statement from a brand associated with sophisticated urban living on a signature downtown corner in the city.
A darkened Starbucks at the center of an area bustling with new residential construction and millennial energy defies logic.
“It’s one of the best corners in Broward County. You can’t get corners like this,” says Charlie Ladd, president of Barron Real Estate, owners of the property.
But it was the popularity of its location that, ironically, made it difficult for Starbucks to do business.
For more than two years, the streets and alley on all sides of the shop have been covered in dust, rerouted or closed altogether as construction took place on the 327-unit Laureate Las Olas tower, the 100-room Fairfield Inn & Suites next door and a 475-unit residential project still going in south of the Fairfield.
Parking was an issue, says Ladd, who secured space for employees in a lot on the north side of Broward Boulevard to augment the 22 spaces that Starbucks shared with a now-empty building Ladd owned next door, formerly home to Scotty’s Dry Cleaning.
Ladd acknowledges that the area was “a nightmare,” but believes it was a mistake for Starbucks to walk away just as these new units are being filled. Construction also recently began on the Related Group’s RD Las Olas residential tower just across Federal Highway.
Starbucks first closed the shop as the coronavirus hit in March and made the move permanent when the exterior signs were removed about two weeks ago. The company had a lease running until September, as well as an option to extend the deal another five years, Ladd says.
He is unsure what he’ll do with the corner — there is a “For lease” sign in front of the old Scotty’s building
— but he is happy to get the property back.
“When we did the deal originally, Starbucks brought in somebody who was close to [then Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz. We were showing them the site and they were saying the rent’s high,” Ladd says.
“The guy told them, ‘If you never sell a cup of coffee, you’re making money, just from the branding to be on this corner.’”