On a summer evening, a chef pulls fresh mozzarella inside a building that spent decades as a Methodist sanctuary before anyone drew plans for CityPlace. Ninety feet away, across a paver plaza, a salesperson unlocks the door on an electric pickup truck parked where foot traffic used to be the entire point. Down the block, a consignment shop is unpacking racks of pre-owned handbags next to a bagel counter working through this month's new cream cheese lineup. None of this reads like a shopping center. That is the story.

CityPlace has spent twenty-six years and three different names trying to figure out what it is. This year, for the first time, the answer showed up in the tenant list instead of the marketing plan.

The Building That Keeps Changing Its Purpose

Long before CityPlace existed, the lot at the center of it held the First United Methodist Church, built in 1926 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. When developers cleared the surrounding blocks for what would eventually become CityPlace, the church survived, restored as the Harriet Himmel Theater and handed a job as the district's cultural heart, hosting everything from touring exhibitions to community events.

Late last year, the building changed jobs again. Eataly opened a 23,000-square-foot Italian marketplace inside Harriet Himmel Hall in December 2025, marking the moment with a Notte Bianca celebration on Dec. 5 and a ribbon-cutting the next morning. The build-out kept the century-old architecture intact while installing two full restaurants, La Pizza & La Pasta and Il Pastaio, a cooking school called La Scuola, and what the company describes as its first performance stage in North America. Kenneth A. Himmel, president of Related Ross, called it a reimagining meant to blend culture, cuisine, and community.

What is notable is not that a food hall moved into a historic building. It is that the building has now been a church, a theater, and a marketplace, and in all three lives its job has been the same: give people in downtown West Palm Beach a reason to gather in one room. Eataly did not repurpose that mission. It just changed what is on the table.

The Name That Went in a Circle

CityPlace opened in October 2000 and is widely credited with the district's turnaround from a stretch of vacant storefronts into downtown's commercial center. In 2019, Related Companies announced a five-year, $550 million investment and renamed the property Rosemary Square. Two years later, in 2021, the name got shortened again to simply The Square. Then, on May 1, 2024, Related reversed course entirely and changed it back to CityPlace.

Three names for one address in twenty-six years is not a branding hiccup. It is a company that could not settle on what the place was for. A shopping center gets a name and keeps it. A neighborhood gets renamed by the people who live there, which is presumably why the public never fully let go of "CityPlace" no matter what the developer called it. This year's wave of openings is the first time the tenant mix has actually matched the name residents kept using.

The Lineup That Arrived

Fuku, the sandwich concept that grew out of a secret menu item at David Chang's Momofuku Noodle Bar, opened at 407 S. Rosemary Ave. this summer. Moxies, a Canadian import making its third Florida location, opened in March with a statement bar, a private dining room, and a covered patio that seats 88, a build clearly aimed at drinks-after-work traffic rather than shopping-day lunch. Birkenstock opened its first West Palm Beach storefront at CityPlace earlier this month, carrying the brand's full sandal, clog, and sneaker lineup.

None of these are department-store scale. That is the point. The old anchors are gone. Macy's closed in 2017. The AMC theater, along with Copper Blues and Palm Beach Improv, was demolished in 2023. What replaced them was not a bigger version of the same idea. It was a set of smaller, sharper concepts that assume you already live nearby and are stopping in on a Tuesday, not driving in for a Saturday mall trip.

A Car Brand Inside a Place Built to Make You Forget Your Car

CityPlace already read as a pedestrian district before Rivian showed up. As part of the 2019 Rosemary Square renovation, developers tore out sections of asphalt street and replaced them with pavers, turning stretches of roadway into walking space. So when Rivian held its grand opening at CityPlace on August 1, offering demo drives, a live DJ set, and hospitality tied to its electric truck and SUV lineup, it landed as a genuinely odd fit on paper. A car brand, inside the one commercial district in downtown West Palm Beach that spent millions training people to leave their cars behind.

But it works because Rivian is not selling itself as a car lot. It is selling a showroom experience, the same way Apple sells a store instead of an electronics warehouse. Placing that showroom on a pedestrian promenade next to a sandwich counter and a bagel shop is a bet that the buyer of a six-figure electric truck is walking to dinner afterward, not circling for a parking spot. That is a different customer than the one CityPlace was built for in 2000.

The Resale Rack Next to the New Truck

The RealReal, the online reseller of authenticated designer goods, opens its CityPlace location on August 13, bringing racks of consigned handbags and clothing along with an in-person consignment counter. Paired with Birkenstock's straightforward, comfort-first retail and Rivian's showroom, the current lineup skips the traditional big-box middle entirely. There is no department store here anymore. There is a resale boutique, a sandal brand, a car company, and a sandwich shop, all treating the same plaza as neighborhood retail rather than mall retail.

What a Michelin Nod Next Door Changes

The dining upgrade at CityPlace does not happen in isolation. The Michelin Guide recently recognized Palm Beach County restaurants for the first time, honoring both Stage and Moody Tongue Sushi, the latter tucked inside the neighboring Hilton West Palm Beach, one of CityPlace's own anchor properties, and known for a 13-course omakase dinner paired with beer from what's billed as the world's first Michelin-recognized brewery. A neighborhood does not need Michelin attention to be a good place to eat, but when a national guide starts paying attention to the block, it tends to confirm what the tenant list was already saying: this stopped being a place people pass through and became a place people plan around.

The Free Part of the Calendar

Not everything new at CityPlace costs anything. Every Friday this summer, Neighborhood Nights brings live music, rotating community partners, and pop-up bites from CityPlace chefs to the plaza at no charge. Live music also runs on The Lawn on a set weekly schedule, Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m., Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and again from 6 to 10 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Molly's Trolley circles downtown with pickups every 10 to 15 minutes, and CityPlace's own garages offer free parking for the first hour, which covers most quick dinner or drink stops without a second thought about where to leave the car.

None of that changes because a tenant list did. It is worth remembering while the retail mix gets all the attention: the free Friday night and the trolley schedule are still the easiest reasons to walk over.

What the Tenant List Actually Tells You

A shopping mall wants you to drive in, spend a few hours, and leave. A neighborhood wants you back on Tuesday for a sandwich and again on Friday for the free show on the lawn. This year's arrivals, Eataly's takeover of a hundred-year-old church, a car brand on a car-free promenade, a consignment shop next to a sandal store, a sushi counter with a Michelin nod, read less like a leasing strategy and more like a district that finally stopped guessing what its neighbors wanted and started building for the ones already there.

If you already live in West Palm Beach, that is the actual news buried under all the ribbon-cuttings. CityPlace spent a quarter century and three names figuring out what to call itself. This year, it figured out what to be.

For those who already call West Palm Beach home and are curious how neighborhoods like this one shape the wider market, Kourtney Pulitzer keeps a close eye on how downtown's evolution ripples through Palm Beach County's residential landscape. Let's Connect: Start Your Luxury Palm Beach Search.