ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A management shakeup could mean more life in the struggling Baldwin Park Village. The shopping and dining district along Lake Baldwin has 190,000-square-feet of retail and restaurant space and one of the highest vacancy rates in Orlando.
But as Channel 9’s Mark Joyella learned, new management aims to fix the problem.
“It's very hard looking at this place, because it seems most places are dark, meaning the stores are empty,” said business owner Charlie Leduc.
Baldwin Park Village has a retail vacancy rate nearly five times higher than Orlando, at 18.6 percent.
“I think the reason it's not doing better than it looks has primarily to do with the past,” said Harry Collison Jr. of the Real Estate Consortium.
Collison is part of the new leasing and management team that has taken over Baldwin Park Village, replacing a group that turned off store owners with poor service, no marketing and inflated rents.
“Nobody with any business sense is going to come in and pay premium rents for empty store fronts,” said business owner Chris Poulos. “There's more supply than there is demand."
The new managers said they're working to be more flexible and creative, and they've got a half-dozen potential new tenants.
Other plans to drum up business include converting one empty storefront into an event space that could host weddings near the lake and a monthly farmer's market.
WFTV
