Unicorp updates groundbreaking details for Orlando Fashion Square mall redevelopment

By Jack Witthaus  – Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal
Jul 6, 2020, 2:19pm EDT Updated Jul 6, 2020, 3:48pm EDT

Groundbreaking may begin in mid-2021 on a roughly $1 billion redevelopment of the long-struggling Orlando Fashion Square mall northeast of Maguire Boulevard and Colonial Drive near downtown Orlando.

That’s according to Chuck Whittall, president of Orlando-based Unicorp National Developments Inc. which owns the roughly 46 acres of dirt beneath Orlando Fashion Square along with Orlando-based Maury L. Carter & Associates Inc. The mall, which opened in 1973, was in its prime in the 1980s and ’90s, but since has seen a decline.

Currently, the development team is negotiating with Philadelphia-based The Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: TBBK) whose related TBB Orlando LLC owns the mall’s improvements, or the buildings above the dirt. The development team must buy those buildings before it can start construction.

The mall itself appears to be 40-50% vacant, Whittall said. “Discussions have been good,” Whittall said. “I don’t think bank wants to keep it.”

Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2020/07/06/unicorp-fashion-square-mall-groundbreaking.html?iana=hpmvp_orl_news_headline