Palm Beach's New Season Is Moving Into Its Oldest Addresses

Almost none of the island's arrivals this season come with a new building. White's Apothecary is taking over the counter at Green's. Gab's Organics is planned for the station at South County and Australian. A Stephen Starr restaurant is approved for the second floor of the old Neiman Marcus. Élephante is taking the rooms Almond left behind. On Palm Beach, the new season sits behind familiar facades, and the town's commissions and council set both how much of the old place survives and when the new one opens.

Read that way, the season makes more sense as a calendar of approvals and construction windows than as a list of ribbon cuttings.

The Awnings Stay, the Operator Changes

Green's has been on the island since 1938. According to the Palm Beach Daily News, Hamptons-based White's Apothecary will run the pharmacy and retail side of the business, with the shift planned during this coming season. Representatives said the Green's name stays, the luncheonette stays, and so do the green-and-white awnings outside 151 N. County Road. Anyone walking past will see the same storefront. What changes is who stocks the shelves and fills the prescriptions.

Down South County Road, the island's only gas station is getting the same kind of handling with more construction involved. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a mid-century modern redesign of the station at 340 S. County Road in December 2025, along with a floodplain-elevation variance. In June, the Daily News reported that the station would close for the work and reopen in the fall. Alex Griswold described the project as a way to revitalize, and preserve for future generations, a fixture of town life. Daily News photos showed renovation underway at the former Gray's Sunoco on July 7.

What comes back may be more than a place to fill up. Coverage from late September names Gab's Organics, led by Chef Gabrielle, as the station's new identity. The plan pairs fuel with morning coffee, chef-made grab-and-go meals, sourced snacks and supplies for a beach picnic. Gab's own website still describes a meal-delivery service and gives no opening date for the station, so treat the fall reopening as a target until the pumps are actually running.

The smallest version of the pattern is at The Church Mouse on South County Road. The Town Council approved a special exception for a grab-and-go counter serving locally roasted Pumphouse Coffee, with proceeds supporting the outreach work of Bethesda-by-the-Sea. The shop doesn't change at all. A coffee counter just gets added to it.

Big Rooms Become Several Smaller Ones

When the space being reused is large, the town's approvals tend to break it up.

The old Neiman Marcus at 151 Worth Ave. went up in 1998 as a department store of roughly 49,000 square feet with two underground parking levels. Neiman Marcus was there for about 22 years and closed in September 2020. The renovation divides the former anchor store into smaller shops on the first two levels and puts a restaurant on the second floor. The plan also adds Mediterranean-style details, upgraded storefronts, balconies, landscaping and a refreshed arcade.

Stephen Starr is the restaurant operator, and Palmer has reported the tentative name as Room Service. Town staff described it as a standalone concept, not a chain location. The Town Council approved the restaurant and related zoning relief on Sept. 9 for 165 seats: 126 indoor seats, seven at the bar and 32 on a balcony along Worth Avenue.

The revised plan made the outdoor space larger while cutting the number of outdoor seats. The dining area in the trellised arcade grows from 1,091 to 1,495 square feet, but outdoor seats drop from 48 to 32. A planned first-floor tea and coffee station was taken out. A new 1,350-square-foot third-floor addition holds kitchen, storage and staff space that diners won't see. Back-of-house space now totals 3,425 square feet, up 2,475 from the earlier plan. That growth raised the building's parking requirement even though customer seating went down, so the council approved a variance for three parking spaces. As of CBS12's Sept. 23 report, the Architectural Commission still had to review the third-floor addition and window changes.

Royal Poinciana Way is getting the same treatment on a smaller scale. Almond closed in May 2024. Élephante is planned for 207 Royal Poinciana Way, with a market around the corner at 208–210 Sunset Avenue. The restaurant is Nick Mathers' coastal Italian concept from his Wish You Were Here Group. It started on a Santa Monica rooftop and expanded to Scottsdale and Dallas, and a bakery is also part of the plan here. One restaurant space becomes a restaurant, a market and a bakery.

The Approval Calendar Is the Opening Calendar

Élephante shows how the town keeps a hand on a project after it approves it. Minutes from the Feb. 11, 2026 Town Council meeting record 284 grandfathered seats and unanimous approval of the restaurant's Declaration of Use Agreement. The approval carries a condition to review the restaurant six months after it opens. The council-approved valet plan uses street parking plus nearby lots, and the Daily News reported council members' concerns about parking pressure on that stretch. As of Oct. 1, Palmer reported that no exact opening date had been announced.

Worth Avenue has its own clock. The town normally stops construction on Oct. 31. Van Cleef & Arpels' new space at 235 Worth Ave. was still under construction in late September, and the jeweler got permission to keep working into November. The article gave no store-opening date. Vineyard Vines is aiming to finish ahead of the season. It plans to return to Worth Avenue at 330 Worth Ave. in a 2,700-square-foot store, targeting the first week of November, after its earlier Worth Avenue store closed in 2024.

Avenue 31 has the least public detail of the group. The Monte Carlo restaurant, from Avenue Princesse Grace, serves Italian and Mediterranean food and is taking the space Le Bar used to occupy. Its website lists 380 S. County Road and says "Opening 2026," with no month given.

Where things stand on Oct. 4:

• Open now: HOTKOR Reformer on Florida Avenue, which adds Xformer classes to HOTKOR's movement-and-recovery offering
• Targeted for early November: Vineyard Vines at 330 Worth Ave.
• Targeted for fall: the renovated station at 340 S. County Road
• During the season: White's Apothecary at Green's, and the Church Mouse coffee counter, which has its special exception
• Approved, no date: Élephante at 207 Royal Poinciana Way, and Room Service at 151 Worth Ave., which is still in architectural review
• Announced, no date: Avenue 31 at 380 S. County Road, Van Cleef & Arpels at 235 Worth Ave., and a permanent Tracy Anderson Studio, for which no address has been published

Two Landmarks Already Through the Process

Two buildings that went through this cycle earlier in the year have their first full season ahead of them. The Vineta Hotel at 363 Cocoanut Row was scheduled to reopen Feb. 28 after nearly three years of renovation. By May it was open with a new lineup: Coco's, a new bar, poolside dining and a courtyard. The hotel says Coco's Mediterranean menu was developed with Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc Executive Chef Sébastien Broda and Pastry Chef Tarek Ahamada, and that it brings over signature dishes from the sister property, including Steak Diane and Eden Roc Sea Bass.

Glazer Hall, the 400-seat waterfront performing arts venue at 70 Royal Poinciana Way, reopened in February. Its 2026–27 season begins this month, with music, theater, comedy, dance, film, family programs and talks. Both reopenings ran on the same timetable as everything on this fall's list. The renovation was approved, the work went on for a long stretch, and the room opened again under a familiar name.

Several of this season's changes depend on a commission or council vote, so the details matter: what was approved, which conditions apply and what's still pending. If you own property on the island and want to understand how these reviews could shape your own plans, The Costello-Deitz Group is glad to talk it through. Contact us for a private consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.