By: Sharon Aron Baron
While we’re on vacation, here is a blast from Coral Springs past back when developers were planning to build the yet unnamed Coral Square Mall. They had lofty ambitions for it as it would be twice as large as Pompano Fashion Square or Hollywood Fashion Center, they said.
September 9, 1973
Coral Springs Plans Largest Store Complex
By: Sharon Peters – Staff Writer
The target date is sometime in 1976.
The aim is to have the largest shopping center in the Southeast located in Coral Springs. The way things are going, both goals will be met according to city Planning Director Bill Whitman.
What the city planning department has in mind is a 130-acre shopping center complete with a canal-fed lake located in the center of the complex at University Drive and W. Atlantic Boulevard.
If all goes according to the drawing board concept, the complex will be twice as large as Pompano Fashion Square or Hollywood Fashion Center and will contain more than a million and a half square feet of floor space.
The complex will be constructed by Coral Ridge Properties, developers of the city. While Whitman was hesitant to name the stores which may ultimately be located in the complex, or even hint at big name companies that are being courted, he did say, “We’re looking at some now and coordination and preliminary work is being done by the leasing director.” Whitman said.
In planning the facility, the planning department “did a lot of traveling and read a lot of books and magazines to find the best ideas that we could expand upon,” Whitman said.
“We don’t like to experiment. If we saw a good idea that worked somewhere else we incorporated it into our plans to come up with a good basic working idea of what we want,” Whitman said.
Author Profile
Related