The end of Ponce

Ponce De Leon Mall,

which has been dying slowly for years,
may have finally met its demise.
Since the Regal 6 shuttered in 2010
upon the arrival of Epic 20 Theaters nearby,
The mall has only suffered more and more.
Hallmark closed last year.
Other shops and small businesses left.
And in April of this year, a decision was made to close it's interior.
GNC, a tenant since 1980, has already fled to Cobblestone,
the massive Publix plaza around the corner
which is home to Michael's, Bealls and soon a Party City.
The other few tenants, which include Anchor Faith church,
a florist and a sewing lounge,
have been working out what they will do.
Perhaps the largest uncertainty is the Sears appliance store.
It has an outside-facing door, but also an entrance into the mall.
It could be forced out, but it might not.
Amazingly, the Belk and JCPenney will stay.
Typically, what kills a mall is the death of its anchors first,
which forces the interior stores to close when foot traffic dies off.
What about a tiny mall with 2 live anchors and a dead space in-between that
isn't even accessible to mall walkers?
They will have to get in their cars and drive to the other department store
on the other side.
It doesn't seem like it will take long for something to go down.

What will they do with that vacant, sealed off space?
There are rumors.... but one in particular caught my attention.
In May, an article was posted that Anchor Faith church wanted to buy the mall!
This was a suggestion I wrote in my blog a few months ago.
Maybe I wasn't the only one who thought of it?

Will there be a new "Mall-church"?

stay tuned.

The Florida Mall's Changes

The Florida Mall, summer 2015-

The (somewhat dated) food court looks eerie.
With black curtains covering up what was once a plethora of fast-food counters,
there are only 2 or 3 eateries left.
One lonely family sat at one of thirty or forty tables.
It looks like a scene from a mall well on its way to abandonment.

However, the old food court was the only portion of the mall in this somber state.
It was a Wednesday afternoon but this regional mall was as crowded as a Saturday
in our local city mall (Avenues, Jacksonville).
Thousands of tourists flood the corridors and crowd the stores.
Being near the Orlando International Airport,
which is a portal for the world to reach Disney,
Florida Mall has always been one of the busiest malls I visit.
Even on a weekday, or on Sunday one hour before the shops roll up their gates.
If I ever found it fully vacant, I'd think it was the apocalypse.
So where are all the restaurants and hungry shoppers?

In the hollowed-out, re-faced and re-designed Saks Fifth Avenue space.
Saks vacated the premises earlier this year, forfeiting 74 jobs.
But it's possible that those employees could have been redeemed.
In the new food court space, dubbed "food pavilion", there are some fresh new tenants.
There are the standard places that transferred over from their old space, like Chicken Now and Asian Chao. Now there are some new tenants like UGrean,
Dumpling and Noodle Bar and Meson Sandwiches.
I went with a salad from Ugrean but next time I will definitely try Meson.
Why? Because it had the longest line. That's usually a good sign.
Along with these restaurants, which by my visit on June 10 were mostly open for business,
there is an entire wall of "coming soon" shops and a few more restaurants that are still
under construction.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the mall....
The Nordstrom shuttered nearly a year ago.
It has been replaced by a Dick's Sporting Goods, which is becoming a popular choice
for replacing departed department stores in Florida Malls.
Next to Dick's, there's the Crayola Factory.
This is the colorful new experience that's drawing families with small children
to fill in that annex of the mall, where they will be tickled pink.
Yes, all of those puns were intended.

What will become of the old food court area?
Stay tuned......

The Mall at University Town Center, Sarasota

The Mall at University Town Center

140 University Town Center Dr, Sarasota, FL 34243
(941) 552-7000

An upscale regional development on the gulf coast of Florida,

The Mall at University Town Center is something unusual.

Not because it is upscale nor because it is in central Florida,

Because there are many like it in the area…

But because it is a brand-new fully enclosed shopping mall.

It seems like most enclosed malls in America were “born”

In about a 30-year stretch between the late 1960’s and the late 1990’s,

With a few arriving in the early 2000’s.

After that, the open-air lifestyle centers and “town centers”

began to rise up into front and center of the retail world.

Furthermore, dead malls that fell from glory in the 1990’s and 2000’s

Have been bulldozed and replaced with mega-sized Wal-mart stores

Or hotels and offices.

Making its debut “fashionably late”, UTC is one of only a few to be built

New from the ground up since the early 2000’s.

(In other words not a development out of an upgrade on a previous establishment).

It was proposed all the way back in 2002, when more malls were still being built.

The groundbreaking wasn’t until 2008 and it was meant to open its doors in 2010.

Economic decline almost aborted it.

It was re-assessed and proposed again in 2012.

Finally, it opened its doors on October 16, 2014.

This 880,000 square foot, 2-story structure cost at least $315 million to build.

It sits immediately off of I-75 on unincorporated Sarasota County,

And is surrounded by several large plazas with stores such as Petco, Staples, Super Target and various furniture stores, small restaurants and a few car dealerships.

UTC is anchored by Macy’s, Dillard’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.

It looks like Tampa’s International Plaza and it feels

like Orlando’s The Mall at Millenia.

Something unusual about it is that it doesn’t sport a standard food court area

like other malls do. Instead, it has a few small restaurants

situated as store fronts and a few free-standing “giant kiosk”

style cafes in the center areas. It also has some larger, more upscale dining such as

Seasons 52 and Cheesecake Factory, each with entrances into the mall

as well as facing outward into the parking lot nearest a mall entrance.

There is even a finer-dining restaurant inside Sak’s and a Starbucks within the Macy’s.

Eat while you shop, you say?

Sales tactic so the customers don’t get absorbed in a giant “foodie corner”,

or brilliant way to save space and money? Or could it be both?

UTC is designed to suit middle class and on up to a more affluent class of shopper.

It is a mix of stores like Journey’s, GNC (vitamins),

Charlotte Russe and Aerie, which were meant for the

average American shopper with places like J. Crew, Anthropologie, Free People

and Arhaus (fine home furnishings) which were meant for shoppers with more expendable income.

With a few stores like Tommy Bahama, it is also clearly targeted at the tourists who pass by on I-75 on the way to the various Tampa Bay Area beaches.   

At UTC, I encountered something I never saw before in a mall here in Florida

(Though I’m sure it exists somewhere else): a car store.

Yes, a shop in the mall with cars inside.

Normally you see cars parked in the main corridors between kiosks and lounge areas,

But at UTC a special new brand of eco-friendly electric car called Tesla

Has opened its own store front so there can be plenty of wall space

To explain what the whole Tesla experience is all about.

There is also a store called “Lovesac”, where sectional couches are sold

Piece-by-piece. You buy each perfect square cushion separately,

slong with perfect square base and backing parts.

Over all, it adds up to over $3000, but it forms a couch you can stack up

And break down and rearrange however you like.

It is something I dream of… someday.

After my husband has saved up and bought his new car,

Then saved up a second time for “the couch thingy.” *sigh*

Over all, our experience was excellent at this mall.

My husband doesn’t like to “troll” the malls for fun like I do,

So we went in with a mission: find my dad a hat.

It worked. I got to see everything as he marched at a good pace

Up and down both floors twice and we finally found a fedora

Big enough for my dad’s giant head.

(Just kidding dad, love you).

Since UTC is brand new, there is no decline yet.

Only store fronts that haven’t been occupied because they are still

Being built inside and have giant “coming soon” signs on the front.

The Oaks Mall, Gainesville

The Oaks Mall

6419 W. Newberry Rd. Gainesville, FL

Is a 901,000 square foot one-story setup that forms a circuit.

This means that a mall walker going into the front entrance

Could choose to go left or right and eventually after passing through

The food court they would wind up back at the entrance again.

There are a few wings that go off in a different direction,

Making the actual shape more like half an ampersand.

Opened in 1978, the mall is currently owned by General Growth Properties,

Making it one of the few in my “collection”

That doesn’t belong to either Simon or Westfield.

It does appear to have been updated in the last decade or so.

Its home of Gainesville, FL is a college town,

With much of the area’s livelihood centered around

University of Florida and the Gators football team.

It is also the only mall for quite a vast span of middle-Florida.

It serves 11 counties, and most of the area surrounding Gainesville

Is very rural.

The trip from St. Augustine to Gainesville requires one to

Drive 80 miles on a collection of back roads that pass through

Such towns as Hollister and Hawthorne-

The types of places where the only attraction is a Dollar General.

Likewise, the mall is geared mostly towards a

Middle to lower tier crowd.

Walking through the mall, it was very quiet.

It was a Monday morning, the first day back to school in January,

So the only people walking the mall were elderly folks,

A few drifters and some stay-at-home moms.

The mall seemed a bit dark.

They don’t turn all the lights on during the day, I guess.

There was one part of the mall that seemed darkest,

And quietest. The only establishments in that area were

Dillard’s, a few small stores including Teavanna,

And a vast space of a large store front that had been converted

Into a massage spa… closed for that day.

I went into the Teavanna for a drink

and asked the employees about it.

They said the mall always seems dark and it’s never busy

During the week.

And the light outside Dillard’s flickers, giving it a creepy vibe,

The young man said.

Despite this somewhat negative description of the retail facility,

It was by no means a “dead mall”.

The mall sports

five fully functional brand-name anchors and at least 9/10

Small stores were filled, even if some of the occupants

are family owned retail ventures.

In the center of the mall is a large gator, standing upright on its hind legs,

So people can take photos with it.

There is a store that specializes only in the

familiar blue-and-orange clothing of the UF students and Gators fans.

Dillard’s, Belk and JCPenney are all “in” the circuit, while Sears and Macy’s are off on their own wing. When you walk into the main entrance,

Belk is to your left while JCPenney is to your right.

Clothing stores for youth and young adults include such names as

Forever XXI, Hollister, American Eagle, Cotton On, Buckle and several others.

Some other types of clothing stores include

Loft, Express, Jos A Bank, Banana Republic and a few others.

There are children’s stores like Gymboree.

There are also some other specialized types of retail such as 

Helzberg Diamonds, Foot Locker, Artsy Abode, Pearle Vision and more.

There is a Starbucks inside the mall, a Red Robin restaurant that

Faces out with an inside entrance, a Teavanna, and some typical

Food court restaurants like Chick-Fil-A and some Japanese fare.

At the front entrance, there are the

Red Robin and the Loft stores facing outward.

Next to the Loft is a vacant restaurant that appears to have been

Something like a Carrabbas Italian Grill.

Other restaurants like it

Are placed around the outside of the mall’s lot,

So I’m unsure what “killed” it. High rent? Competition?

Another thing I thought was odd was in the food court.

It had some of the pricier Japanese restaurants in it,

But the Subway was vacant.

Subway is a fairly standard, cheap restaurant that can be found

In all types of economic statuses.

In St. Augustine, we have a nicer, newer restaurant

Complete with a few couches

In historic downtown next to an art gallery,

But we also have an older, simpler Subway inside the chaotic

And notoriously lower class Wal-Mart.

How it got trumped in a mall built for college kids

That also serves everyone for 100 miles

I have no idea.

Oaks Mall holds a few mysteries that I will have to research further.

<to be continued>