FORT LAUDERDALE — Fedele Antonio and her friends at the Commodore condominium have already planned what they will do after the Galt Ocean Marketplace opens next week.
“I have a friend that plans to buy a nice little shopping cart,” said Antonio, a part-time Galt Ocean Mile resident who does not drive. “We’re five blocks away and we plan to make a day of it.”
No longer will she have to take a taxi across the Intracoastal Waterway to buy groceries.
The $12 million center is touted as the first major new shopping area east of the Intracoastal in Broward County since the 1960s, when suburban cities began sprouting in the west.
Yet the center did not start out with a rousing welcome from residents of the Galt, a mile-long stretch of oceanfront condos between Oakland Park and Commercial boulevards.
For three years, a group of Galt residents fought the development of the last major piece of vacant beach-area property in Fort Lauderdale. They picketed, sued and spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to keep the 6.3-acre field free of stores and parking lots.
“Most people on the Mile, they accept the inevitable. We fought it, we lost, and we accept that,” said Barnett Daniels, who led a group that opposed the development. But, he said, “I can tell you there’s still considerable muted opposition.”
Publix dropped out as anchor tenant because of the battle, and the developer countersued the residents. The feud was settled out of court: Southern Centers Associates got to build its shopping center, but without a parking garage, a 36,000-square-foot office building and two signalized pedestrian crosswalks and with a restaurant only half the size first proposed. The cost came down by $8 million.
“To me, the opposition is a non-issue,” said Kevin Buckley, Southern Centers’ marketing director.
The shopping center was designed to attract pedestrians such as Antonio. It has courtyards, 2 acres of brick paver blocks, extensive landscaping, old- fashioned lampposts and multicolored awnings to protect shoppers from the sun and rain.
Even the loading area behind Winn-Dixie is hidden from the condos with planted trellises. The trash bins are inside the building behind a large roll-down door.
Only one entrance was built from Galt Ocean Drive, a concession to opponents who feared traffic would clog their street.
The center, which is 80 percent leased, includes a 1-acre Winn-Dixie Marketplace set to open on Aug. 27. The smaller stores will open gradually over the next three months and include a frozen yogurt shop, cappucino and espresso bar, two art galleries, a surf shop and the usual collection of hair salons, travel agencies, dry cleaners, pizza shops and the like.
“In between the Intracoastal and the ocean, there’s a pretty sizable year- round population and significant seasonal population with limited facilities,” said George Dengler, vice president of Goodkin Research in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
“I think we’ll probably see, as time goes on, a lot of redevelopment that will take place in the east.”
Buckley said his market studies show the center will do fine even if no one comes from west of the Intracoastal to shop there.
“They all buy groceries. They have to buy them somewhere,” he said.
