Simon Property Group Goes Mixed-Use With Boca Raton Sears

Simon Property Group, one of the largest retail property owners in the country, is joining the wave of mixed-use redevelopments at South Florida malls.

The Indianapolis-based company filed plans at the Town Center at Boca Raton to replace the shuttered Sears site with a hotel, multifamily and retail, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

Simon acquired the 18.6-acre former Sears site at 5900 West Glades Road for $23 million last year and filed the 31.6-acre development proposal, which includes the parking lot, in May. Sears closed in 2018 and will be demolished.

Plans include a 197-room, eight-story hotel with a ground-floor pool and bar, a seven-story apartment building with 374 units, an eight-story garage and eight retail buildings spanning 157,000 square feet. A landscaped “main street” with parallel parking would run through the redevelopment.

Perkins Eastman designed the site plan and retail buildings. DLR Group is the hotel architect, and MSA Architects designed the multifamily component.

The 1.77 million-square-foot mall is primarily owned by Simon, which bought the central portion in 1998. Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s own their stores.

The project adds to a growing pipeline of mixed-use mall redevelopments in South Florida, several of which have faced pushback.

Russell Galbut and partners are investing $100 million to redevelop the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale into a mixed-use district with nine 30-story towers, more than 3,000 apartments, a 170-room hotel, office space and 30 restaurants.

The proposal relies on Florida’s Live Local Act, which allows qualifying workforce housing projects to bypass local zoning restrictions. The project has sparked fierce opposition from residents since plans surfaced.

In Miami-Dade, Bal Harbour Shops owner Whitman Family Developers also proposed a massive redevelopment that taps Live Local and features three 275-foot-tall buildings with 600 residential units and a 70-room hotel. The proposal sparked major uproar in January 2024 and is in pending litigation with the village.

Simon acquired full ownership of the retail portion of Brickell City Centre from Swire in 2025 for over $500 million after previously owning a minority stake.

Simon also owns or has stakes in Aventura Mall, Dadeland Mall, Miami International Mall and Sawgrass Mills. —Eman Elshahawy