Orlando Fashion Square is a split one-story, two-story indoor shopping mall located in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Opened in 1973, it features 79 stores in over one million square feet of shop space. The mall's

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

s are

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

Floor & Decor Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc., branded as Floor & Decor, is a multi-channel American specialty retailer of hard surface flooring and related accessories that was founded in 2000 and headquartered in Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta). Histo ...

, and

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

Clearance Center. Predating the mall's opening was a

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

department store opened in 1963; this store closed in 2016 and has been razed for redevelopment.

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, another anchor store closed in 2020. Other major tenants include Premiere Cinemas, a food court, and

Planet Fitness Planet Fitness (PFIP LLC) is an American franchisor and operator of fitness centers based in Hampton, New Hampshire. The company reports that it has 2,039 clubs, making it one of the largest fitness club franchises by number of members and loc ...

. The mall is managed by UP Development, Inc.

History

The first operational store on the site was a

department store, which opened for business on October 30, 1963. The mall was first announced in 1971 by developer Leonard L. Farber, who also developed Pompano Square (now

Pompano Citi Centre Pompano Citi Centre is a primarily open-air shopping mall in Pompano Beach, Florida. The center consists of a big box retailer strip, in addition to a small lifestyle center section. The mall's main anchor stores are JCPenney, Lowe's, Ross Dress ...

) in

Pompano Beach, Florida Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2020 ...

. Under the original plans, the mall would be attached to the existing Sears store, with

Burdines Burdines (} ) was an American chain of department stores operating in the state of Florida, headquartered in Miami. The original store opened in Bartow, Florida in 1896 as a carriage-trade shop. Over its nearly 110-year history, Burdines grew i ...

as the second anchor. Burdines opened along with the rest of the mall on July 30, 1973. A third anchor,

Robinson's of Florida Robinson's of Florida was a chain of department stores on Florida's Gulf Coast and Orlando and based in St. Petersburg, Florida, starting with a store at Tyrone Square Mall in 1972. It had been founded in the 1970s as an attempt by Associated Dry G ...

, opened on the north side of the mall on October 29, 1973. Robinson's of Florida was the newly-created Florida division of California-based J.W. Robinsons. The Orlando location was their second Florida location, opening two months after their first store at

Tyrone Square Mall Tyrone Square (also referred to as Tyrone Square Mall) is an enclosed shopping mall in St. Petersburg, Florida. Opened in 1972, it features Dick's Sporting Goods, Dillard's, Five Below, J. C. Penney, Macy's, and PetSmart as its anchor stores. H ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. A free-standing movie theater was built on an outparcel in 1975 which existed until 1989. In 1988, Robinson's Florida stores were sold to

Maison Blanche Maison Blanche (''White House'' in French) was a department store in New Orleans, Louisiana, and later also a chain of department stores. It was founded in 1897 by Isidore Newman, an immigrant from Germany. Maison Blanche is perhaps best remem ...

. Maison Blanche then built a new store just northeast of the original store two years later. The previous store would become more inline mall space connecting the new store with the rest of the mall. Maison Blanche became Gayfer's in 1992, which was then sold to

in 1998.

built a new store at the mall to replace a store at Winter Park Mall in 1993. An interior renovation completed in 2002. In 2004, a new movie theater owned by

Premiere Cinemas Premiere Cinemas, officially known as Premiere Cinema Corporation., headquartered in Big Spring, Texas, is a privately held motion picture exhibitor. It is among the largest independently owned motion picture exhibitors in the U.S. and is ranked by ...

opened in the mall. Burdines became

in 2005. In 2013,

PREIT Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers mostly in the Mid-Atlantic states. History The company was founded by Sylvan M. Cohen in 1960 as one of the first equi ...

sold the mall to UP Development, Inc. for $35 million. The new owner has plans to redevelop the mall. One year later a new bowling alley was added and the movie theater was rebuilt. In 2014, Dillard's converted its store to a Dillard's Clearance Center, and closed its second floor. The mall lost several other stores such as Bath and Body Works,

Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer known for high visibility marketing and branding, starting with a popular catalog and followed by an annual fashion show with supermodels dubbed Angels. As the largest ret ...

, and

The Limited The Limited was an American clothing retailer that operated retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. After 2007, it became a brand, originally owned by the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, now owned by another private equ ...

. In 2015,

Sears Holdings Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th-l ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Orlando Fashion Square, into Seritage Growth Properties. On August 9, 2016, Sears announced their intentions to close their store at this mall. The Sears store was demolished in April 2017.

was built to replace Sears. Outparcels on the Seritage site include

Longhorn Steakhouse LongHorn Steakhouse is an American casual dining restaurant chain owned and operated by Darden Restaurants, Inc., headquartered in Orlando, Florida. As of 2016, LongHorn Steakhouse generated $1.6 billion in sales in its 559 locations. History ...

, Mission BBQ, and

Olive Garden Olive Garden is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. It is a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants, Inc., which is headquartered in Orange County, Florida. As of 2012, Olive Garden restaurants accounted ...

. On June 4, 2020, JCPenney announced that it would be closing as part of a plan to close 154 stores nationwide. The store closed on October 18, 2020.

References

External links

* {{Greater Orlando Malls Buildings and structures in Orlando, Florida Shopping malls in Florida Shopping malls established in 1973 Tourist attractions in Orlando, Florida 1973 establishments in Florida