In 2022, a buyer paid $173 million for 22 acres of Manalapan oceanfront, the most expensive home sale in Florida history, with tunnels running under A1A to connect the property to its own private beach. Sean Hannity closed on two acres here in 2024 for $23.5 million. This is a town where the real estate speaks for itself.
What Manalapan does not have, and never really has, is a downtown. No Main Street, no civic square, no strip of restaurants you'd walk between on a Friday night. For most of the town's history, that absence has been part of life in Manalapan. It runs 2.4 square miles end to end, and only 0.4 of those square miles are land. The rest, according to the U.S. Census figures compiled on the town's Wikipedia page, is water: the Lake Worth Lagoon on one side, the Atlantic on the other. With so little land, space for a downtown is limited.
So it's worth paying attention when the new owner of the town's only shopping center stands up at a Town Commission meeting and calls it exactly that.
"This Is Essentially Your Downtown"
In December 2024, an affiliate of New Jersey-based Garden Commercial closed on Plaza del Mar, the grocery-anchored center at the corner of A1A and East Ocean Avenue, across from the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. Three months later, the company's managing member, Scott Loventhal, introduced himself to the Town Commission and made the case plainly. As The Coastal Star reported from that March 11, 2025 meeting, Loventhal told commissioners, "This is essentially your downtown."
That's not a marketing line dropped in a press release. It's a pitch made directly to elected officials in a town of roughly 450 residents, about a strip center that predates most of the tenants inside it. Loventhal framed his company's plans around leasing up empty storefronts, bringing the property closer to full accessibility compliance, and eventually hosting community events on-site, the kind of programming you'd expect from an actual town square rather than a 1980s retail plaza.
Whether Plaza del Mar can carry that weight is a fair question. But the fact that it's the only candidate in town tells you something about how commercial space works here that a listing sheet never will.
Plaza del Mar's Place in Town
Manalapan's own municipal page describes Plaza del Mar plainly, as the town's official Plaza Del Mar page puts it, an upscale, grocery-anchored shopping center offering eclectic eateries, high-end apparel, and personal care services, set across from the oceanfront resort. That description isn't inflated. It's also, functionally, a complete inventory. There is no second retail node to compare it against, no competing corner where a rival center could siphon off tenants or foot traffic. The land simply doesn't exist for one.
That scarcity matters more here than in most towns because it means Plaza del Mar absorbs a civic role its footprint was never built to hold. When a new owner takes over the only grocery store, the only pharmacy pickup, the only place to grab lunch without getting in the car and crossing a bridge, decisions made in a leasing office ripple through daily life for everyone in town, not just the plaza's regular shoppers.
What $37 Million Actually Bought
The numbers behind the sale are worth sitting with for a second, because they clarify what "the only shopping center in town" is actually worth to an outside buyer. According to Shopping Center Business, citing the Palm Beach Daily News, Garden Commercial paid $37 million for the 83,841-square-foot center, built in 1983 on roughly 10.3 acres. (This is a modest, single-story neighborhood center, not a regional mall.) The seller was a joint venture between Evergreen Investment Advisors and Kitson & Partners, represented by CBRE's Casey Rosen and Dennis Carson. Loventhal put the appeal simply in the acquisition announcement: with the only grocery store in the vicinity and a well-curated mix of restaurants and boutique retail, the plaza was, in his words, a "trophy Palm Beach County property."
For a resident, the practical translation is this: a plaza that has operated quietly under one ownership structure for years now answers to a company with a specific, stated intention to reposition it. Residents can watch how those plans take shape.
The Storefront That Finally Filled
One visible development since the sale was that a long-vacant storefront finally opened. New Jersey-based women's clothing boutique Addicted Chic had been signed by the previous owners but hadn't yet opened when Garden Commercial took over. Per the Coastal Star's reporting from that spring, the new ownership was targeting a June 2025 opening, and the boutique now appears in the plaza's tenant lineup as an operating store rather than a pending one, more than a year later.
That's a small detail, but it gives residents a concrete update to note alongside the ownership group's stated plans. The lease came from the previous owners; the opening followed the sale.
Here's what's actually operating at Plaza del Mar today, drawn from the plaza's own tenant directory and the town's business listings:
- Publix, the center's anchor grocery store
- John G's, a longtime breakfast-and-lunch spot
- Thaikyo Asian Cuisine
- Art Basil Restaurant
- The Ice Cream Club
- Addicted Chic (opened June 2025)
- Chico's, Evelyn & Arthur, and J.McLaughlin for apparel
- Truist Bank
- Coastal Specialists, Le Salon, and Tipsy Nail & Lash Bar for personal care
- Chabad of South Palm Beach and Brightside Valley
It's a real cross-section of daily errands, not a curated lifestyle brand. That's exactly what makes the "downtown" framing interesting: it's an attempt to turn a functional errand stop into something with more social gravity, using the tenants that are already there rather than adding new square footage the town doesn't have room for.
Accessibility Plans
One detail from the March 2025 meeting concerned accessibility at the center. Loventhal told commissioners the center is "not fully ADA compliant" and that accessibility improvements were a priority, adding that Southeast Florida in particular has residents who need to take advantage of those upgrades.
For a plaza built in 1983 that functions as the only place in town to buy groceries, that's not a small commitment. Curb cuts, parking layout and entrance thresholds are examples of the retrofit work involved in accessibility improvements. Whether it happens on the timeline Loventhal described is something residents will be able to watch for directly, every time they park.
Signage and Town Approval
The same meeting also addressed the plaza's signage. Loventhal said the current signs don't give tenants enough visibility to help their sales, and said at one point that there were "no restrictions" on what could go up.
Vice Mayor Simone Bonutti clarified that restrictions apply and that signage changes would need commission approval.
The exchange illustrates the Town Commission's role in decisions about Plaza del Mar. Signage updates, like other visible changes, involve the commission. The plaza's evolution will therefore reflect both the owner's plans and the town's review process.
What to Watch For
None of this points to Plaza del Mar becoming Mizner Park or Atlantic Avenue, and Loventhal never claimed it would. What it points to is a plaza quietly filling in the gaps it's had for years: a storefront that's now open, an accessibility gap the new owner has publicly committed to closing, and an ownership group discussing signage rules with the commission. In a town with no room to build a second commercial block, that incremental version of "downtown" may be the only one that was ever realistic.
If you're watching Manalapan for reasons beyond the plaza, whether that's a waterfront property you're considering or questions about how a specific building or block operates, Judith Randon Realty has spent more than two decades working this stretch of coast building by building. Schedule a Free Home Valuation & Consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
