Customers haven’t filtered in and out of Doc’s All American in Delray Beach for burgers for more than three years. The burger-and-fry joint’s neon sign still shimmers at night, illuminating Atlantic Avenue, teeming with pedestrians, sports cars and golf carts. Now, construction to bring back not only Doc’s but a new mixed-use building right next to it is expected to begin in the next few months.
On any given evening, weekend or not, the city’s main corridor is crammed with crowds — bachelorette parties waiting in line for nightclubs, older couples sitting down for upscale meals and children gobbling candy or ice cream from one of the many spots designated for sweet treats.
As Delray Beach evolves and only grows in popularity, different ideas for the downtown vision are often at odds, and the history and future of Doc’s serves as a perfect example of this conflict. The restaurant, situated at the intersection of North Swinton Avenue and West Atlantic Avenue, is poised to return to the city it served from 1951 to 2021, but not alone — it will be joined by a neighboring three-story mixed-use building, which is expected to be completed likely within a year and a half.
This timeline for the project, which is named City Center Delray, was provided by Steven Michael, who is part of the Banyan Group, which owns the site and is responsible for the project. Michael said the group is working on a construction loan and leasing retail and office space to fill the building.
Groundbreaking on the site, which, beyond Doc’s, currently holds two parking lots and a former Dunkin’ — now stripped of all signage — could begin within the next three to five months, Michael said. After construction begins, the project will need about 14 months until an official opening.
The Delray Beach City Commission initially approved City Center Delray in 2022 after some back and forth about the proposed three-story, multi-use building being too big. When the developers agreed to scale back and not only revitalize Doc’s but ensure it received a historic designation, the plan pulled through.
Doc’s was added to the Local Register of Historic Places on Dec. 6, 2022, according to city spokesperson Gina Carter. So why does the site look practically the same it did almost two years ago?
Michael blamed many of the same issues other developers have since the COVID-19 pandemic: high costs for construction, insurance and financing.
“It got very tricky to find competitive financing,” he said, adding: “We just took the position, let’s wait until, you know, the construction market levels off and wait until financing gets a little more attractive.”
In South Florida, Michael said holding off on certain retail and office projects has been a normal practice given the market conditions.
According to a website dedicated to City Center Delray, the project’s developers “made the decision at the very beginning that Doc’s would remain an integral part of anything we build on this site.”
“We wanted to breathe life back into the Doc’s restaurant, and we wanted to create an adjacent building that felt like the wonderful and whimsical past. That is why we chose an art-deco style for the new main building. It elicits the feeling of a simpler and less complicated time.”
But some people, such as John Miller, Delray Beach’s historic preservation board vice chair, believe refurbishing Doc’s, the city’s “cultural touchstone,” while a good action, does not make up for the modern building that will join it.
Miller said the retail and office building dwarfs Doc’s, making it “inappropriate” to exist within the city’s Old School Square Historic District, which is where it will rise.
“It almost looks like a big cruise ship,” Miller said.
The Historic Preservation Board members also believed approval of City Center Delray might set a precedent wherein other developers decide to use a pre-existing building as “leverage” to get other elements of a project approved.
Michael views the project differently.
City Center Delray is “another step in getting that West Atlantic Corridor reactivated,” he said.
Less than a decade ago, developing retail spots or restaurants west of Swinton was not even deemed a possibility, Michael said; rather, that intersection was seen as the end of Delray Beach’s downtown. But now, other projects such as Sundy Village, which is a mixed-use development directly across the street from City Center Delray, prove otherwise.
Proposing future developments west of Swinton, which is dotted with vacant land and unkempt buildings, could now be seen as a less dicey business venture, Michael said, because projects such as Sundy Village and City Center Delray will have already taken the leap.
“It’s always a little less risky when you’re not the first,” he said. “In that respect, I think it will help the movement of retail and pedestrian traffic west of Swinton.”
Michael believes over the next five to 10 years, Delray Beach will experience a “renaissance” of development west of Swinton, making that thoroughfare the heart of the downtown district.
One more project may add to this. Less than 10 blocks away from City Center Delray, a shipping container plaza is expected to rise in the next few years at 800 W. Atlantic Ave., west of Swinton and just east of Interstate 95.
The outdoor venue could feature restaurants, shops, a park, children’s play area and stage for musical events, all made up of colorful shipping container boxes. Other cities have already adopted this concept — the Tampa Bay area boasts a 94-shipping container plaza called Krate.
Renée Jadusingh, the executive director for Delray Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency, said the city is in the process of seeking a developer to build the plaza, and groundbreaking is not likely to start until early next year.
“We have the funds for it, we just have to go through the process,” she said.
Ben Jacobson, a partner with Forman Capital, a Palm Beach County-based real estate lender, said Delray Beach’s core must continue to mature to then adequately support the city’s “outskirts.”
“When a market’s turning, like for a particular area, and then someone wants to do something on the fringe, and it doesn’t work, the deal on the fringe at that time because the core, the downtown, isn’t as mature as it needs to be. So that’s the concern for Delray,” he said.
Ultimately, Jacobson said it’s too early to tell whether downtown Delray can handle westward development. But he contended his reservations were him “being a pessimist.”
“It does look like everything is moving in the right direction,” he said.