SuperTarget T-1778 Lauderhill FL

Opened in July 2001 from which relocated  from Tamarac  a older opened in 1989 which was a Richway converted location which then it was Furniture Power then it later became a charter school

Shoppers Target Superstore

July 22, 2001|By Susannah Bryan Staff Writer

LAUDERHILL — People are making a bull's eye for the SuperTarget on the busy corner of University Drive and Commercial Boulevard. There's just one problem: The store isn't open yet.
Fooled by the cars in the parking lot, would-be shoppers walk up only to be turned away by the store's doorkeeper who tells them to come back for the store's grand opening July 29.

 

"People are coming right up to the door," said store manager Joy Manasek, 35, of Coconut Creek. But only vendors and employees are buzzed in.
The store, a huge retail hybrid with space for a full-line grocery store called Archer Farms Market, will anchor the Universal Plaza shopping center on the southwest corner of University Drive and Commercial Boulevard.
The new store is bigger than a regular Target, with wider aisles and 174,000 square feet of shopping space. Shoppers will be able to buy wedding cakes and sushi, starfruit and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The store will also have a Starbucks coffee bar, pharmacy, optical center, one-hour photo shop and portrait studio.
A nearby Target store, at 8399 N. University Drive in Tamarac, will close July 24. That store is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The new SuperTarget will be open two hours later, until midnight.
One recent Friday, two teens stopped by to pick up job applications. Many of the store's 350 workers have been hired, Manasek said.
A map of the store hung on a wall, with sections marked: home, lawn and garden, sporting goods, shoes, hair.
Though the store was still being stocked and is waiting on deliveries, things were shaping up, Manasek said. "We're running ahead [of schedule]," she said.
On grand opening day, gift bags will go to the first 1,000 customers.
How many will come? "We're expecting thousands," Manasek said, smiling.
It is, after all, South Florida's first SuperTarget, one of 39 nationwide. Orlando was the first in the state to get a SuperTarget, in October 1999. A second SuperTarget is set to open in Orlando on July 29 to coincide with the opening of the Lauderhill store, Manasek said.
Shoppers aren't the only ones awaiting SuperTarget's opening.
Jaime Cervera, owner of Moe's Gourmet Bagels, expects a boon in business come July 29. By then, Moe's will have a new look, menu and name, CafM-i Ole, he said. Cervera owns three other Moe's eateries, but is remodeling this location first because of its proximity to SuperTarget, he said.
A new Ruby Tuesday's is also going up, but Cervera isn't worried.
"One day they'll go to Ruby Tuesday's," he said. "One day they'll come here."
Meanwhile, Target officials and city staff have worked with neighbors to resolve complaints about glare from parking lot lights as well as privacy and security concerns.
A canal and 6-foot wall separate the store from nearby homes. The city code requires that an 8-foot wall.
City officials granted a variance in June after being told FPL and fiber optic lines on both sides of the wall precluded it from being raised or moved.

 

Instead, Target agreed to plant a hedge alongside the wall to accommodate neighbors' request for privacy. A security fence will also be built atop the wall to dissuade people from jumping into the back yards, officials said.
Renie and Isis Brown own a four-bedroom home in back of the store. Though some residents complained about dust and noise during construction, they remained tolerant, they said.
Isis Brown, however, was peeved when the blue-gray wall in her back yard was repainted tan to match the store.
"Now look at it," she said. "That's an ugly color."
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2028.