Palm Beach Illustrated: “The New Royal”

Samantha David has been coming to Palm Beach all her life, and each visit always started at The Royal Poinciana Plaza. “Whenever we would get to the island, the first thing we would do was go to TooJay’s and buy a loaf of rye bread,” says David, who admits her family would often purchase two loaves—one to enjoy on the ride home and one for later.

David, the daughter of hedge fund manager Richard Perry and fashion designer Lisa Perry, is forging her own path as chief operating officer of WS Development and head of Up Markets, a division of WS. In 2014, David purchased The Royal Poinciana Plaza with the goal of reinvigorating it for a new generation of Palm Beachers.

The John Volk-designed shopping center has gone through many phases of repair and disrepair since opening in the 1950s. David enlisted Smith and Moore Architects and Nievera Williams Landscape Architecture to help recapture Volk’s original concept for the Plaza and add modern finishes, too.