The Florida Mall

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Coordinates: 28°26′45″N 81°23′44″W / 28.44592°N 81.39554°W / 28.44592; -81.39554
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Florida Mall
Total retail floor area
1,699,571 sq ft (157,900 m2)[1]
No. of floors1 (2 in Sears, Macy's, JCPenney, Dillard's, Old Navy, H&M, Zara and Crayola Experience, 12 in Florida Hotel)
ParkingParking lot, valet parking with 9,220 spaces[2]
Public transit accessLocal Transit Lynx 7, 37, 42, 107, 108, 111, 418, 441 at the Florida Mall SuperStop
WebsiteOfficial website

The Florida Mall is a super regional enclosed

Crayola Experience
.

The facility was developed by a Joint Venture of

gross leasable area and 294 retailers,[1] it is one of the largest single-story malls in the United States and the largest mall in Central Florida
.

Location

Aerial view of The Florida Mall

The Florida Mall is located in an unincorporated area of

Universal Orlando Resort, Walt Disney World, SeaWorld Orlando, and International Drive. The Florida Mall is located at the southeast corner of the intersection between US 17/US 92/US 441 (Orange Blossom Trail) and SR 482 (Sand Lake Road) and is situated near the junction of SR 528 (Beachline Expressway) and Florida's Turnpike.[1][2]

Description

The Florida Mall has a

Crayola Experience. Attached to the mall is The Florida Hotel & Conference Center, which contains 511 rooms. The Florida Mall contains numerous smaller stores and entertainment venues including the only American Girl and Disney Store locations in the Orlando area. The mall offers various dining options including 25 quick-service restaurants and 8 sit-down restaurants. The Florida Mall features a 105,000-square-foot (9,800 m2) Dining Pavilion that contains a total of 25 restaurants. The mall offers various services to shoppers including valet parking, currency exchange, and package and baggage check. The Florida Mall attracts over 20 million visitors annually, including domestic and international tourists to the Orlando area.[1][2]

History

Entrance to the mall's food court in 2015

The mall opened on March 12, 1986, with

JCPenney, Belk and the Crowne Plaza hotel (built by E.J. DeBartolo and owned in partnership with Pratt Hotel Corporation of Dallas Texas), followed by Robinson's in September of that year. [3] Many of the mall’s design features were borrowed from other DeBartolo malls like Aventura Mall for many expansions and Coral Square for its layout and space frame ceiling. A year later, store acquisitions and consolidations started varying the anchor lineup. Robinson's converted to Maison Blanche in August 1987, and the Crowne Plaza rebranded as a Sheraton Plaza in 1988. Dillard's opened two stores in 1991 at the east end filling the two remaining anchor pads. Maison Blanche was rebranded by Gayfers in early 1992 as a result of Mercantile Stores. In 1996, Belk became Saks Fifth Avenue, while the Sheraton hotel was sold to Adam's Mark. Then, in 1998, Gayfers transitioned into Parisian, whereas Dillard's added a second floor to their newly consolidated store at the east end, closing the other store on the southeast side that was razed for a new wing featuring Burdines, which opened in 1999. Lord & Taylor replaced Parisian in 2002, and the east wing was expanded again with Central Florida's first and only Nordstrom.[4] Burdines merged with Macy's in 2003, and in 2004, the hotel was purchased by a group headed by the Bank of Scotland
and was renamed The Florida Hotel & Conference Center. Burdines-Macy's simply became Macy's in 2005.

Lord & Taylor shuttered in 2006, after being repositioned.

Crayola Experience
.

The Florida Mall looking north from Macy's (from 2018)

The previous Lord & Taylor outpost was razed in 2007 and overhauled into a new outdoor plaza with stores Forever 21, H&M and Zara in 2009, with American Girl being added in the Fall of 2014.

In 2017, Shake Shack opened at the mall.[citation needed]

In early 2019, the mall hosted the Cirque du Soleil touring show Luzia under the big top.[needs update] This limited engagement was the first time Cirque's iconic big top has been raised in the Orlando area.

Current anchors

  • JCPenney (original tenant) (March 12, 1986 – present)
  • Dillard's (1993–present)
  • Macy's (March 6, 2005 – present)
  • Dick's Sporting Goods (June 2015 – present)
  • Crayola Experience
    (June 2015 – present)
  • Sears (1986- present. 1 of 2 remaining locations in Florida)

Former anchors

Junior anchors

In popular culture

The Florida Mall was prominently featured in a 1989 episode of the

The New Leave It To Beaver
.

Transportation

Right next to the mall stretches

Orange Blossom Trail) at exit 4. The exit is only few exits away from the Orlando International Airport. The mall is also accessible from exit 254 of Florida's Turnpike
, which connects to Orange Blossom Trail.

The mall is serviced by

Universal Orlando Resort.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "The Florida Mall Fact Sheet" (PDF). Simon Property Group. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "About The Florida Mall". The Florida Mall. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  3. ^ "Florida Mall; Orlando, Florida - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog". Labelscar: The Retail History Blog. March 8, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Jacobson, Susan (July 21, 2014). "Nordstrom fell to upscale and outlet competition, analysts say". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  5. ^ Chediak, Mark (September 15, 2006). "Lord & Taylor will close doors on Saturday". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  6. ^ Fluker, Anjali (May 28, 2015). "27 shops, eateries coming to Florida Mall's new Dining Pavilion". Orlando Business Journal. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  7. ^ Fluker, Anjali (July 17, 2014). "Could Nordstrom do better at another Orlando site?". Orlando Business Journal. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  8. ^ "Lynx Schedule Book" (PDF). Lynx. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  9. ^ "Florida Mall SuperStop" (PDF). Lynx. Retrieved August 5, 2018.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Florida Mall.
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