Orlando Fashion Square mall redevelopment talks resume
Talks have resumed in the complicated road to redevelopment for the Orlando Fashion Square shopping mall, Orlando Business Journal has learned.
In addition, a joint venture between the two main stakeholders may be near. Unicorp President Chuck Whittall told OBJ that discussions are ongoing between his firm, which owns the dirt the Fashion Square mall sits upon, and building owner TBB Orlando LLC — an entity related to Wilmington, Delaware-based The Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: TBBK) — which is the tenant of a ground lease with Unicorp National Development Inc. through 2071.
“We’ve been in very productive conversations with the bank which owns the improvements on top of the real estate,” Whittall said. “We believe we’re going to possibly do a joint venture together and are discussing that. We’re in the process of developing plans.”
This represents a significant change in tenor between the two sides, which previously sparred over Unicorp’s planned $1 billion redevelopment of the mall at 3201 E. Colonial Drive — with Bancorp going so far as to submit its own plan for the redevelopment of the property to the city of Orlando.
Bancorp’s plans were submitted last September and signed off on by the city’s municipal planning board in November. City officials confirmed that Bancorp has not taken the next step of submitting a final site plan since that approval.
In addition to owning the dirt beneath the mall, Unicorp had been trying for years to buy the buildings atop it, which Bancorp took control of in 2017 after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Because it owns the buildings, Bancorp could have redeveloped the site itself, but would have to do so with the understanding that everything on the land would become Unicorp’s once the ground lease expires in 2071.
Negotiations between the two sides stalled in 2021 and the matter quieted down after Bancorp’s surprise redevelopment submittal — but now it appears they are working together.
Bancorp executives and Hal Kantor, a Lowndes shareholder and the land-use attorney for Bancorp, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Whittall said the project being discussed would be a “complete redevelopment” of the Fashion Square property, with apartments, bars and restaurants and other uses — with one possible exception. The Macy’s department store may stay, Whittall said, as the store continues to do well and its representatives would like to remain.
Otherwise, Whittall said the redevelopment will involve a pivot from one end of the retail to spectrum to another. “It’s not going to be centered on soft-goods retail — it’s going to be more lifestyle retail focused.”
The talks, which are still in early stages, also involve Orlando-based Baker Barrios Architects Inc. and Raleigh, North Carolina-based civil engineer Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc.
Though the discussions represent a positive indication that the mall’s long-awaited redevelopment may yet happen, Whittall anticipates no movement until next year, at the earliest, due to some of the economic uncertainty that is plaguing the commercial real estate and construction industries.
“We’re waiting to see what the market does,” Whittall said. “Prices are just crazy right now for construction costs.”
The redevelopment of the mall may be a massive economic driver for the city of Orlando and could benefit from favorable demographics in its immediate vicinity, thanks to high population density and affluent residents.
John Crossman, a retail expert and the president of Winter Park-based CrossMarc Services, previously told OBJ that Fashion Square is “one of the greatest potential sites in Central Florida.