ORLANDO, Fla. — For decades, Orlando Fashion Square Mall was the heartbeat of the city’s retail scene. From first dates at the cinema to back-to-school shopping at the height of the 1970s and 80s mall culture, it was *the* place to be.
Today, the palm trees are dying, the massive parking lots are desolate, and the building’s exterior is in desperate need of a pressure wash. With the recent news that the Premiere Cinema 14—the mall’s last major foot-traffic driver—is closing on March 12, 2026, many residents are asking: why hasn’t this “eyesore” been torn down yet?
The answer lies in a complicated real estate standoff. Unicorp National Developments owns the land beneath the mall, but it doesn’t own the buildings. Those “improvements” are owned by Bancorp, which holds a land lease that doesn’t expire for another 25 to 30 years.
Unicorp President Chuck Woodall, an Orlando native who grew up visiting the mall, says his company is ready to transform the site into a $1 billion open-air “lifestyle center” featuring apartments, office space, and a new theater. However, he says the bank is holding out for a price that doesn’t reflect the building’s current state.
“The problem is the buildings haven’t been taken care of and they haven’t been updated,” Woodall said. “So nobody wants to rent them. Nobody wants to be there. So the buildings are functionally obsolete.”
For long-time residents like Rob, seeing the mall in its current condition is difficult.
“It used to be pretty nice,” Rob told Channel 9. “Hopefully it comes back... it’s all run down, yeah, pretty bad.”
With the movie theater’s departure, the mall’s decline is expected to accelerate. Woodall refers to the current situation as a “bulldoze opportunity,” noting that there is actually “anti-value” in the current structures because removing them will cost millions.
Unicorp says it is prepared to be patient, even if it means waiting decades for the lease to expire, though it hopes it won’t come to that.
“We think it’s a great piece of real estate, and we’ve been extremely patient,” Woodall said. “Hopefully one day they [Bancorp] come to reality on this thing and let us move forward with it.”
WFTV reached out to Bancorp for comment on the future of the lease but has not yet received a response.
Here’s a link to the Fashion Square Mall project:
https://unicorp.com/project/fashion-square
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