PORT ORANGE, Fla. — The economy's so slow there are only four massive shopping centers opening nationwide and one of them is in Port Orange. The Pavilion will open this week and put 2,000 people to work despite losing some major retailers along the way.
On the sales floor at Belk, new employees opened boxes Tuesday preparing for the opening of a rare development. Belk is one of 35 businesses in the Pavilion at Port Orange (see map). It's 73 acres of stores and restaurants ready to take a risk on expansion in a shrinking economy.
"When times got tough, they stuck it out with us. And, I think they're going to be happy they stuck it out with us," said Geoff Smith, CBL Properties.
CBL developers are high on Port Orange, a community with a median income over $50,000, so CBL pushed on while other projects have been put on the shelf.
Nearly two years after groundbreaking, Daytona Live!, just up the road, consists of an office building but nothing else due to the slow economy.
"I think, up the road in Daytona, they'll certainly have a wonderful project that'll come up out of the ground and it will be a great project. I think we're just fortunate to have some anchor commitments early on," Smith said.
Some of the Pavilion's anchors backed out. Circuit City was supposed to be there, Barnes & Noble too. But developers turned to local stores to fill the spots. They'll be alongside national names like Belk, which said it has cancelled other east coast projects but was eager to open up in Port Orange.
"We wanted to come to the Daytona area, back to the Daytona area, for some time and it was a question of the right location and this is it," said David Penrod, Belk Stores.
Developers expect I-95 to be key to their success; it's the only shopping center in the region that sits directly off a freeway. People from Palm Coast to Edgewater can get there faster than navigating cross-town traffic to other stores.
WFTV
