Lennar Named Buyer of Boynton Beach Mall, Deal Closing Early 2027

Lennar has been confirmed as the buyer of Boynton Beach Mall, The Real Deal reported, with the deal on the 91-acre site at 801 North Congress Avenue expected to close in early 2027. The sale follows Washington Prime Group’s announcement two days earlier that it would sell and close the mall, before a buyer had been named, as The American Developer reported.

JCPenney, Cinemark and Christ Fellowship Church own their own buildings on the site and are carved out of the sale, meaning those parcels will stay open regardless of what Lennar does with the rest of the property.

Why it matters

The site already carries a suburban mixed-use entitlement for up to 1,700 housing units, the scarcest ingredient in South Florida’s mall-to-residential pipeline. Lennar’s entry puts a national homebuilder, rather than a retail landlord or a pure multifamily developer, in control of one of Palm Beach County’s largest redevelopment sites. A separate conceptual plan reviewed by the city of Boynton Beach, reported by Hoodline and credited to The Boynton Weekly, describes cutting retail on the site from about 1 million square feet to roughly 482,750 square feet and adding as many as 1,420 residential units and a 400 room hotel. The city has not announced a finalized sale or project, and that conceptual plan is not yet confirmed as Lennar’s own.

The numbers

Palm Beach County property records show the mall’s main parcel, assessed at $25.8 million, is held by an affiliate of Washington Prime Group, Boynton Beach Mall LLC. The existing entitlement allows 1,700 units outright. The conceptual redevelopment under city review would roughly halve the mall’s current retail footprint while adding housing, office suites, a hotel and public green space, though none of those figures are tied to a confirmed buyer or site plan.

What’s next

Washington Prime Group has told tenants their leases will end as the mall closes, with the sale expected to close in early 2027, according to The Real Deal. Whoever finalizes a site plan still needs Boynton Beach’s sign off on anything beyond the existing 1,700-unit entitlement, which is where the conceptual retail and hotel numbers under review would have to be formally proposed. The deal is one more entry in South Florida’s wave of distressed mall conversions, now with a national homebuilder in place of a question mark.