Every Wednesday morning this season, a group of up to 40 people gathers in Via Amore to hear how Worth Avenue came to be. The Worth Avenue Association's docent tour is back for 2026–27 and runs through early May. This year's tours fall in a season when most of the avenue's 100 block is under construction or before the Town Council, and one of the 300 block's landmark buildings has just sold.
That makes this season a good one to take the tour. Rick Rose's stories cover how Worth Avenue became Worth Avenue. Over the next year or two, a few blocks of that same street will be partly rebuilt. If you take the tour this winter, you'll see the version of the avenue that the next owners are building on.
Booking the Wednesday Tour
The series began November 4, 2026, and runs every Wednesday through May 5, 2027. The next date is November 11. The Worth Avenue Association's event listing gives these details:
- Start: 10:30 a.m. in Via Amore at 256 Worth Avenue, across from Tiffany & Co. and Chanel
- Length: 75 minutes, about three-quarters of a mile, at a brisk pace between stops
- Guide: Rick Rose, the association's historical docent
- Cost: $30 per person, with a portion going to the West Palm Beach Library Foundation
- Tickets: advance purchase on Eventbrite is required, and each tour is capped at 40 people
- Access: no steps anywhere on the route, and wheelchair users get priority positioning at stops. The association does not supply wheelchairs or scooters
- Parking: three-hour metered parking on Worth Avenue, four-hour metered parking on Peruvian through the ParkMobile app, or paid valet at the Apollo lot on Hibiscus
The tour runs rain or shine. Any weather change or cancellation is posted on Eventbrite by 9:30 a.m., an hour before the start, and no post means the tour is going ahead. If a date sells out, you can join a waiting list, but it only opens if tickets free up, so being on the list doesn't mean you have a ticket. Arrive a few minutes early to check in and get your wristband.
Forty seats a week is a small number in season. If you plan to bring guests in December or over the holidays, buy their tickets when you set the dates, not the week of their visit.
Most of the 100 Block Is Changing
The tour starts in the 200 block. A short walk east, three properties take up most of the 100 block. A Palm Beach Daily News report republished by the Miami Herald on October 23 notes that because these buildings cover so much of the block, even proposed changes to them carry extra weight.
| Address | Known today as | What's planned | Status as of late October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 151 Worth Ave. | Former Neiman Marcus building | Retail on the upper two floors, valet-only underground parking, Stephen Starr's Room Service on the second floor | Under construction. Plans approved in February, restaurant conditionally approved September 9 |
| 150 Worth Ave. | The Esplanade | Renaming to Burlington Arcade Palm Beach, with Casa Tua, a private club, a bakery and a day spa | Proposed. Plans submitted in August and awaiting Town review |
| 125 Worth Ave. | Three-story office building | No major redevelopment proposed, though a renovation is planned | No scope or start date announced |
The Worth Avenue Association's president, attorney Daren Rubenfeld, told the Daily News that members have "a lot of curiosity" about what may come. Here's what is known about each one.
151 Worth Ave. Is Already Under Construction
Neiman Marcus closed its Palm Beach store in September 2020, one of four locations the company shut during its Chapter 11 proceedings. The building, close to 50,000 square feet, has been empty ever since. TZ Capital bought it in November 2025 for a recorded $80.5 million. Palm Beach brothers Teddy and Tyler Tananbaum lead the firm with Sam Zuckert of West Palm Beach. The Town Council approved the redevelopment plans in February, and work is now underway.
The first tenant announced is a second-floor restaurant from Stephen Starr called Room Service. Palm Beach Daily News reported that the Town Council conditionally approved it on September 9. The plan calls for 165 seats, with 133 indoors and 32 on a terrace, and approval still depends on a future declaration-of-use agreement. TZ Capital says the restaurant could open as early as December 2027. The Herald's October report adds that the outdoor balcony is planned to have ocean views.
The project's renderings, as described in coverage carried by Yahoo News, show a brighter butter-pecan paint color and a new pergola of cypress beams with copper flashing in place of the current rusted one. As you pass this winter, you'll see the older facade behind construction.
150 Worth Ave. Is Still a Proposal
The Esplanade covers most of the south side of the 100 block. Its new owners bought it for $200 million, with the deed recorded in March. They are two limited-liability companies controlled by London-based Reuben Brothers and Crown Onyx Investments. The plans they submitted to the Town in August would rename the plaza Burlington Arcade Palm Beach, after Reuben Brothers' Burlington Arcade in London.
The Herald's summary of the Town records lists what the plans propose:
- A Palm Beach Casa Tua with a 6,500-square-foot, 270-seat first-floor restaurant and a connected second-floor private club of up to 300 members
- A separate 12,291-square-foot, 300-member social club on the second floor led by London businessman Robin Birley
- A 7,800-square-foot luxury lifestyle store on the west side of the ground floor
- A second-floor wellness center with a 5,325-square-foot day spa and a 2,000-square-foot boutique
- A Birley Bakery of about 520 square feet on the east side of the ground floor
None of this can go ahead without a set of special exceptions from the Town Council. They would cover the restaurant, outdoor cafe seating, on-site shared parking, a retail space over 4,000 square feet, take-away food and beverage, and membership clubs. As of late October, the plans were still waiting for that review. The previous owners had already won approval in December and January for facade improvements to the former Saks Fifth Avenue space on the plaza's west side. For this season, the Esplanade you walk past is the Esplanade. Any name change would come through Town Council hearings.
The Same Family Now Owns a Building in the 300 Block
The changes aren't limited to the 100 block. Walk west toward Hibiscus Avenue and you reach 312 Worth Ave., a landmarked Mediterranean Revival building from 1931 known locally as the Maus & Hoffman Building. The Miami Herald reported on October 26 that it sold for a recorded $14.9 million, with the deed recorded October 23. The buyer is an entity led by the Tananbaum family, the same family behind TZ Capital's work at 151 Worth.
The building is 9,509 square feet, so the price works out to about $1,567 per square foot. Maus & Hoffman opened at 309 Worth Ave. in 1961 and has been in this building since the mid-1960s. Michael Maus told the paper the business has an agreement to stay for at least another decade. "We're going to continue doing what we do," he said. "We know they're making tremendous investments on Worth Avenue, and that means something to the street." In the earlier report, he called the work at 151 Worth "top-notch."
So one family now owns two buildings on the avenue, at different ends, and the landmark retailer in the second one plans to stay put. The 300 block is also adding galleries. Cavalier Galleries has moved to 313½ Worth Ave. at Via Bice, where it opened sharing space with C+C Photography Gallery.
A Wednesday Morning Built Around the Tour
The official listing doesn't publish a stop-by-stop route, so the tour itself is Rick Rose's to reveal. The streets around it are easy to plan:
- Park by 10:15 a.m. If you plan to stay into the afternoon, use the four-hour meters on Peruvian or the valet at the Apollo lot on Hibiscus, which is close to the 300 block.
- Check in at Via Amore, 256 Worth Ave., before 10:30 for your wristband.
- After noon, walk east to the 100 block to see 151 Worth under construction and the Esplanade still under its current name.
- Then head west to 312 Worth and Via Bice to see the Maus & Hoffman Building and Cavalier's new space.
If you'd rather go without a guide, Rose's book, Palm Beach: The Essential Guide to America's Legendary Resort Town, is sold online and at local bookstores and covers a self-guided route along the avenue. The avenue's next big date is the Worth Avenue Holiday Tree Lighting on Tuesday, December 1. The Santa parade starts at 6:10 p.m., and the tree is lit at 6:25 p.m.
If you'd like to talk through what this season's activity on Worth Avenue means for a property you own or are considering on the island, Debbie Gross is glad to share what she's watching, discreetly and in detail. Schedule a Free Consultation.
