The Final Days of the Orlando Fashion Square Mall (Orlando, FL) - Dead Mall Walking Tour
Orlando Fashion Square is a split one-story, two-story indoor shopping mall located in Orlando, Florida. Opened in 1973, it features 79 stores in over one million square feet of shop space. The mall's anchor stores are Macy's, Floor & Decor, and Dillard's Clearance Center. Predating the mall's opening was a Sears department store opened in 1963; this store closed in 2016 and has been razed for redevelopment. JCPenney, another anchor store, closed in 2020. Other major tenants include Premiere Cinemas and Planet Fitness. The mall is managed by UP Development, Inc.
This mall will be demolished soon to be redeveloped as a mixed use open air residential and shopping district.
This mall will be demolished soon to be redeveloped as a mixed use open air residential and shopping district.
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00For this video I'm taking you for one final look at the Orlando Fashion Square before
00:05it's closed down and demolished to be redeveloped.
01:00Sometimes it's depressing to be a YouTuber.
01:09I lived in Orlando for about 15 years, some of the best years of my life actually.
01:14I went to the University of Central Florida for both my bachelor's and master's degrees
01:19and I spent a lot of time in the city and one of my favorite hangouts with my friends
01:25in college was the Orlando Fashion Square.
01:28So the mall I'm walking around today I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours in just
01:32hanging out at the food court or shopping at the GameStop or the Babbage's, all kinds
01:40of fun adventures with my various game consoles in the 90s, mostly the Dreamcast and the Nintendo
01:4964 and PlayStation 1 and a little later on even the original Xbox.
01:56Seeing the mall in this dilapidated shape is just depressing because I remember it when
02:02it was a bustling metropolis and the place was packed.
02:06For example, I'm walking around here on a Friday afternoon and there used to be wall
02:10to wall people in here but it's been a long time since I lived in Orlando.
02:15I moved out of the Central Florida area about 10 years ago so it's been a while and it's
02:22just a stark contrast to how this place used to be.
02:26But the failure of the Orlando Fashion Square is just another example of why I'm moving
02:30out of Florida.
02:32I'm just tired of all this regression.
02:34I've looked at the plans of what they're going to replace this mall with.
02:39It's pathetic.
02:40It really is.
02:41They're just going to do another open air shopping center just like the one across the
02:44street from this mall.
02:48This mall is failing because there's an overabundance of retail in this area.
02:54There's just a lot of commercial real estate.
02:56There aren't enough retailers to support all the commercial real estate.
03:00So what they're going to do is they're going to knock down this mall because it can't support
03:03the retail stores and replace it with retail stores.
03:06So I mean it's just absolutely bonkers.
03:10They're going to get rid of the indoor air conditioned mall and knock down the movie
03:15theater.
03:16Not replacing the movie theater.
03:17And then they're going to replace it with an open air mall that in a state where we
03:23get about 75 inches of precipitation every year and the heat index is in excess of 100
03:29degrees for four to five months out of the year.
03:32So I mean it's stupid.
03:34It's absolutely dumb.
03:35This is the dumbest place to build open air malls.
03:38I know everybody's doing it but the vacancy rate is 60% at all the other open air malls
03:45on Colonial Boulevard.
03:47So you're just going to build another dead mall in the place of the old dead mall.
03:51So it doesn't make sense.
03:53If they were smart they would just build all residential here and call it a day.
03:59This whole hybrid commercial residential stuff.
04:04It doesn't work like the malls don't work.
04:06So I mean it's just going to be you know a couple condos next to empty shopping centers.
04:12That's the future of this particular location and they're going to spend billions building
04:16it and we're still going to have a dead mall at the end of it.
04:20You know the reason why Orlando Fashion Square has failed is it had four anchors three of
04:26which have gone out of business and that's what's killing this area is Sears was an anchor.
04:32That company basically is non-existent.
04:35JCPenney's was the other anchor.
04:37They're circling the drain right now just barely still solvent.
04:42And then Dillard's was the third one and they're another one that you know is in the process
04:47of reorganization because they're all losing money.
04:51And the thing is you know the brick and mortars don't just they just don't have the ability
04:56to to live in this type of economy.
04:59Everybody buys things from Amazon and stays at home now.
05:03They don't go to the mall for purchases anymore because you know I get it.
05:06A lot of people are sick of going to malls because they hunt for things they specifically
05:10need and they never find them.
05:12So it's easier just to do a Google search for what they're trying to buy.
05:17You know that's what's killing the brick and mortars.
05:19But when this mall goes away you know there are no other enclosed malls around here and
05:24there are also no movie theaters.
05:26You know you're going to have to drive all the way down to Waterford Lakes to see a movie
05:29now.
05:30If you want to go shopping at a real mall you got to drive either down to the Florida
05:34Mall in the tourist corridor or go all the way up to the Altamont Springs Mall.
05:40And that's crazy.
05:41You know Orlando's not going to have a mall soon and it's it's just nuts.
05:47This particular mall has a long long history of being here too.
05:51This is a historic mall.
05:52It opened in 1973.
05:55So this thing has ties to this community.
05:58It's not like something that was built in the recession or you know the crazy mall boom
06:05in the 90s.
06:07This place was well the Sears that started out here at this retail pad opened in 1963.
06:14So there's a lot of history in this community and it's just it's just pathetic that the
06:20residents here don't support malls.
06:23I don't see their plan working out.
06:26So they're going to they're going to put all this effort into knocking down this mall and
06:29building basically an outdoor version of the same thing and I just it just seems like another
06:35failure you know.
06:37They're not learning from the mistakes they already made here.
06:40There's an open air mall directly across the street called Colonial Landing and the
06:45vacancy rate is atrocious.
06:47It's just awful.
06:48I mean they have a couple big stores big box stores there and the rest of the strip is
06:53empty.
06:54So all the small boutique shops they're going to be marketing this open air shopping to
07:00nobody is renting the existing spaces already for that exact same concept.
07:04So it's dumb.
07:07Since a lot of the history of this particular mall happened when I wasn't living here.
07:11It either happened before I was born or after I moved out of Orlando.
07:15I'm just going to read the history of this place from the Wikipedia entry.
07:20So the first operational store on the site was the hundred and seventy three thousand
07:24square foot Sears department store which opened for business in October 1963.
07:30The mall was first announced in 1971 by developer Leonard Farber who also developed the Pompano
07:36Square which is another mall I grew up with as a kid.
07:39Under the original plans the mall would be attached to the existing Sears store with
07:44Burdines as the second anchor.
07:46Burdines opened along with the rest of the mall on July 30th 1973.
07:51A third anchor Robinson's of Florida opened on the north side of the mall on October 29th
07:571973.
07:58Robinson's of Florida was the newly created Florida division of California based JW Robinson's.
08:04The Orlando location was their second Florida location opening two months after their first
08:08store at Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg.
08:12A freestanding movie theater was built on an out parcel in 1975 which existed until
08:171989.
08:18In 1988 Robinson's Florida stores were sold to Mason Blanche.
08:22Mason Blanche then built a new store just northeast of the original store two years
08:26later.
08:27The previous store would become more in line mall space connecting to the new store with
08:32the rest of the mall.
08:33Mason Blanche became Gafer's in 1992 which was then sold to Dillard's in 1998.
08:39JCPenney built a new store at the mall to replace a store at Winter Park Mall in 1993.
08:45An interior renovation completed in 2002.
08:48In 2004 a new movie theater owned by Premier Cinemas opened in the mall.
08:53Burdines became Macy's in 2005.
08:56In 2013 Pritt sold the mall to UP Development Incorporated for $35 million.
09:02The new owner has plans to redevelop the mall.
09:05One year later a new bowling alley was added and the movie theater was rebuilt.
09:10In 2014 Dillard's converted its store to a Dillard's Clearance Center and closed its
09:14second floor.
09:15The mall lost several other stores during this year such as Bath and Body Works, Victoria
09:20Secret and The Limited.
09:22In 2015 Sears Holdings spun off 235 of its properties including the Sears at Orlando
09:26Fashion Square into Ceritage Growth Properties.
09:30On August 9th, 2016 Sears announced their intentions to close their store at this mall.
09:35The Sears store was demolished in April 2017.
09:39The floor and decor store was built to replace the Sears.
09:42Out parcels on the Ceritage site include the Longhorn Steakhouse, Mission Barbecue and
09:47the Olive Garden.
09:48On June 4th, 2020 JCPenney announced that it would be closing as part of a plan to close
09:53another 154 stores nationwide.
09:56The store at the Orlando Fashion Square closed on October 18th, 2020.
10:02Stores that have closed at the mall in 2022-2023 include Claire's, Finish Line, Journeys
10:07and T-Mobile.
10:09So yeah just reading that history the retail apocalypse has struck again and has basically
10:15mortally wounded the Orlando Fashion Square.
10:19You know as I walk around this mall I can't help but feel like deja vu because I just
10:25filmed a video like this like a year ago at the Crystal River Mall and it was the same
10:30kind of circumstances.
10:32They're knocking down that mall and movie theater to build another one of these outdoor
10:38shopping centers with some residential properties and you know if that's the only business model
10:44that works for you then maybe you should find a new line of work because we don't need all
10:51these dead stripped shopping centers.
10:52We really don't.
10:54Florida is already being overdeveloped to oblivion and all it is is just urban sprawl
10:59and empty storefronts.
11:00I mean come on already.
11:02Haven't you noticed that nobody is renting the existing properties?
11:06There was a recent article on West Channel 2 that was talking about how Orlando's vacancy
11:12rate is already the highest in the country.
11:14So what are they going to do?
11:15They're going to build more retail to make that vacancy rate even higher.
11:21It's bonkers and that's exactly why I'm moving out of the state.
11:25I'm just tired of it.
11:27They're going to block traffic and destroy Colonial yet again to build an empty mall
11:34and it's just oh my god these people are just brain dead.
11:38Well that's pretty much everything I have to say about the Orlando Fashion Square.
11:42I'm just going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what
11:46the place looks like before they knock it down.
12:16I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
12:23place looks like before they knock it down.
12:46I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
12:53place looks like before they knock it down.
13:16I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
13:23place looks like before they knock it down.
13:46I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
13:53place looks like before they knock it down.
14:16I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
14:23place looks like before they knock it down.
14:46I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
14:53place looks like before they knock it down.
15:16I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
15:23place looks like before they knock it down.
15:25I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
15:30place looks like before they knock it down.
15:32I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
15:37place looks like before they knock it down.
15:39I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
15:44place looks like before they knock it down.
16:14I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
16:21place looks like before they knock it down.
16:23I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
16:28place looks like before they knock it down.
16:30I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
16:35place looks like before they knock it down.
16:37I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
16:42place looks like before they knock it down.
17:12I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
17:19place looks like before they knock it down.
17:42I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
17:49place looks like before they knock it down.
17:51I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
17:56place looks like before they knock it down.
17:58I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
18:03place looks like before they knock it down.
18:05I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
18:10place looks like before they knock it down.
18:40I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
18:47place looks like before they knock it down.
18:49I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
18:54place looks like before they knock it down.
18:56I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
19:01place looks like before they knock it down.
19:03I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
19:08place looks like before they knock it down.
19:38I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
19:45place looks like before they knock it down.
19:47I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
19:52place looks like before they knock it down.
19:54I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
19:59place looks like before they knock it down.
20:01I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
20:06place looks like before they knock it down.
20:36I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
20:43place looks like before they knock it down.
20:45I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
20:50place looks like before they knock it down.
20:52I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
20:57place looks like before they knock it down.
20:59I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
21:04place looks like before they knock it down.
21:34I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
21:41place looks like before they knock it down.
21:43I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
21:48place looks like before they knock it down.
21:50I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
21:55place looks like before they knock it down.
21:57I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
22:01place looks like before they knock it down.
22:03I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
22:07place looks like before they knock it down.
22:09I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
22:14place looks like before they knock it down.
22:16I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
22:20place looks like before they knock it down.
22:22I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
22:26place looks like before they knock it down.
22:28I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
22:32place looks like before they knock it down.
23:02I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
23:06place looks like before they knock it down.
23:08I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
23:12place looks like before they knock it down.
23:14I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
23:18place looks like before they knock it down.
23:20I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
23:24place looks like before they knock it down.
23:26I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
23:30place looks like before they knock it down.
24:00I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
24:04place looks like before they knock it down.
24:06I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
24:10place looks like before they knock it down.
24:12I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
24:16place looks like before they knock it down.
24:18I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
24:22place looks like before they knock it down.
24:24I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
24:28place looks like before they knock it down.
24:58I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
25:02place looks like before they knock it down.
25:04I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
25:08place looks like before they knock it down.
25:10I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
25:14place looks like before they knock it down.
25:16I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
25:20place looks like before they knock it down.
25:22I'm going to play a little music now as I finish walking around showing you what the
25:27place looks like before they knock it down.
25:36Thanks for joining me on one last walk around the Orlando Fashion Square.
25:40This place really does hold a lot of great memories for me, and I'm truly going to miss
25:44it.
25:45If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe.