Delray Marketplace spurs dining, shopping on west side
Center includes IMAX theater, bowling alley and amphitheater
Nearly three years after opening along Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road, Delray Marketplace has strengthened the west Delray Beach area with nearly a dozen restaurants and more than 30 retailers, locals say.
People who live in that part of town say there wasn’t anything near their homes before Delray Marketplace came around.
If they wanted to go somewhere special for dinner, they’d drive east on Atlantic Avenue, past Florida’s Turnpike, past Interstate 95 until they reached nightlife about 20 minutes away in downtown Delray Beach near the ocean.
Robert Schulbaum, 88, moved to Delray Beach when he was in his early 60s and said that until the marketplace opened, “the old people had no place to go.”
People strolling up and down the open-air shopping center now can pop into Chico’s, Jos A. Banks, Loft, beauty salons, phone stores, an olive oil shop and restaurants serving burgers, tacos and Mediterranean food.
“We lived in a vacuum here before they built the place. We had nothing. Now all of a sudden we have an active place,” said Schulbaum, president of the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations, which includes about 110,000 people, most of whom live within 15 minutes of the marketplace.
And it isn’t just people in Schulbaum’s age group who go to Delray Marketplace, he said. Younger families moving into new homes in the area also frequent the center when they’re hungry, when they want a new outfit or their nails done or when they crave entertainment. Delray Marketplace has an IMAX theater, bowling alley and amphitheater for live musical performances and other community events.
A charter school for children from kindergarten to 12th grade has been approved by Palm Beach County commissioners about half a mile north from the shopping center. Construction hasn’t started yet, but as young families move in,
there will be a need for it, Schulbaum said.
Pamela Maraziti, who lives so close to the shopping center she could walk there if she wanted to, said the shopping center has made the area more desirable to builders and for those looking for a new home. “It’s been a hit,” said Maraziti, 61.
Howard Molder, owner of The Grind coffee shop, said he’s been in business at the center since its opening in 2013. At first, finding parking used to be such a challenge for people that after looping around looking for an empty spot, many of them drove away discouraged, he said.
Molder hopes the center’s recent addition of a new parking lot west of Frank Theatres IMAX CineBowl & Grille lures shoppers back to Delray Marketplace.
The Lyons Road shopping center now features 1,500 parking spaces, tallied Sarah Davis, Delray Marketplace’ manager. Before the parking lot expansion, spots closed to the shops and restaurants were used for valet parking. The center has moved valet to the west lot and freed up space for those who want to park their own cars near the businesses, Davis said.
At least three more stores are expected to open in the coming weeks: a Sprint phone store, a foot- wear retailer, Shoe Garden, and Color Me Mine, a pottery studio, Davis said.
Traffic at stores is up compared with last year, according to Davis, but she said businesses wouldn’t specify by how much. Davis believes the added lot, weekly scheduled entertainment and new rooftops are driving more visitors to the center.
“I do believe the residential component does play a part in the success of the marketplace, but at the end of the day, people are always looking for ways to connect, and lifestyle centers in general are successful due to that,” Davis said.