OCOEE, Fla. — A struggling shopping mall on Orange County's west side could soon get a new look.
The owners of the West Oaks Mall in Ocoee are looking at plans to transform it into a modern outdoor-style mall.
Plans for the mall makeover show that the mall won't just be a place for shopping, but will include residential units.
Slideshow: West Oaks mall makeover
Shopper Jeanese Wells told Channel 9's Jeff Deal that she drives to the Florida Mall or to the Mall at Millenia for her shopping, citing the number of stores, large and small, that have left the West Oaks Mall.
Moonbeam Capital Investments, the owner of the mall, is hoping a revamping of the mall will revived interest.
The company recently posted the illustrations on its website and made a presentation to city leaders.
They said their plans call for a mix of the existing indoor mall and an outdoor village-style mall.
They said it would also include a hotel, conference center and residential units, that Ocoee's mayor said would be condominiums.
"With all the development going on around here, it will probably be a good idea," Ocoee resident Eddie Vega said.
Vega said he believes the 20-year-old mall started going downhill fast once the outdoor Winter Garden Village opened across town.
Wells said she isn't enthralled with the idea of another outdoor mall.
"Well, I don't like the storefront kind of malls where you just walk around," she said.
Vega said he thinks that anything will be an improvement over the mall as it now exists.
"That's what's happening right now. The west oaks mall died," Vega said.
While nothing has been given final approval, the developer's website indicates it will begin the process of rebuilding the mall in 2017.
Ocoee's mayor said the proposal the company hasn't said yet how much it would spend on the redevelopment project.
WFTV
