Retired Owner Blum’s of Boca – Manalapan, Florida
Dr. Blum was raised in Peoria, Illinois where his father founded Blum’s Furniture Store in 1937. He relocated to South Florida in 1963, where he opened “Blum’s of Boca” which grew to become one of the region’s premier interior design and outdoor furniture stores, expanding to four stores from Boca Raton to Vero Beach. In 1968, Dr. Blum founded Palers Development Corporation, a real estate development business that specialized in condominiums, small shopping centers, and office buildings. Both businesses benefited considerably from the rapid expansion of the region, and Peter Blum considered his move to the area from the Midwest to have been “divinely inspired”. Dr. Blum is the former mayor of the Town of Manalapan, Florida (an intracoastal residential community just south of Palm Beach). He has served as Chairman of the Board of the Boca Raton Community Hospital and of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, and is a major supporter of many area non-profit organizations. Dr. Blum founded the YMCA in Boca Raton, a facility which now bears his name, and is a member of the Florida Board of Governors of Northwood University in West Palm Beach. In 1998, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Northwood. Dr. Blum and his wife, Teena, are the parents of two adult sons.
