Most of Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall could soon be demolished.
Unicorp National Developers spoke with Channel 9 reporter Sarahbeth Ackerman about their goal to demolish everything on the property near Colonial Drive, except for Macy’s.
"As we all know, malls have been failing in America due to retail and Amazon and things like that, so what we are going to do is a very experiential center," Whittal said.
Unicorp officials said the company has a contract with the Fashion Square Mall to redevelop the existing property with a focus on art, landscape, architecture, parklike grounds and outdoor experiences, including theaters and bowling.
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There will also be restaurants, shopping, apartments and a hotel on the grounds.
"It will be a complete lifestyle center, and the Fashion Square today doesn't have all the landscape and water features. Our plan here is to have a big open area development where you would have a nice water feature in the middle, you have park like grounds, you have nice landscape," he said.
The Fashion Square Mall has been around for 50 years, but the president and CEO of Unicorp, Chuck Whittal, said it’s old, outdated and not working.
"We are going to start rolling out a plan. We will start the architecture on it and it will probably take nine months to a year to have all of that done with permitting. Then, we will start to construction next year," Whittal said.
Ackerman asked Whittal about how the plan will affect traffic.
"I just came from a meeting with the Department of Transportation, (and) with the I-4 improvements and the East-West Expressway, the Beachline and everything that is being done, we think the infrastructure is sufficient as it is going to be completed. So, I don't think people will have any problem," Whittal said.
The team hired Architect Orange, which is based in California, to work with developers. The plans can take between 9 months to 11 months to complete.
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