The facility was developed by a joint venture of Eddie DeBartolo of DeBartolo Realty & JCP Realty, Inc. (Subsidiary of J. C. Penney Company) starting in 1979-1984; it is currently managed by Simon Property Group, which owns 50%, having fallen to Simon following the 1996 merger of Simon and DeBartolo Realty into Simon DeBartolo Group. With 1,699,571sqft (157,900m2) of gross leasable area and 294 retailers,[3] it is one of the largest single-story malls in the United States and the largest mall in Central Florida.
The Florida Mall has a gross leasable area of 1,718,000 square feet (159,600m2) and contains over 250 stores, making it the largest mall in Central Florida. The mall is one level and is anchored by Dillard's, Macy's, JCPenney, Sears, Dick's Sporting Goods, and the Crayola Experience. Attached to the mall is The Florida Hotel & Conference Center, which contains 511 rooms. The Florida Mall contains numerous smaller stores and entertainment venues including the only American Girl and Disney Store locations in the Orlando area. The mall offers various dining options including 25 quick-service restaurants and 8 sit-down restaurants. The Florida Mall features a 105,000-square-foot (9,800m2)Dining Pavilion that contains a total of 25 restaurants. The mall offers various services to shoppers including valet parking, currency exchange, and package and baggage check. The Florida Mall attracts over 20 million visitors annually, including domestic and international tourists to the Orlando area.[1][2] As of June 2025, the mall is also home to one of only 8 (soon to be 5) Sears stores remaining in the United States.
History
Entrance to the mall's food court in 2015
The mall opened on March 12, 1986, with Sears, JCPenney, Belk and the Crowne Plaza hotel (built by E.J. DeBartolo and owned in partnership with Pratt Hotel Corporation of Dallas, Texas), followed by Robinson's in September of that year.[4] Many of the mall’s design features were borrowed from other DeBartolo malls like Aventura Mall for many expansions and Coral Square for its layout and space frame ceiling. A year later, store acquisitions and consolidations started varying the anchor lineup. Robinson's converted to Maison Blanche in August 1987, and the Crowne Plaza rebranded as a Sheraton Plaza in 1988. Dillard's opened two stores in 1991 at the east end filling the two remaining anchor pads. Maison Blanche was rebranded by Gayfers in early 1992 as a result of Mercantile Stores. In 1996, Belk became Saks Fifth Avenue, while the Sheraton hotel was sold to Adam's Mark. Then, in 1998, Gayfers transitioned into Parisian, whereas Dillard's added a second floor to their newly consolidated store at the east end, closing the other store on the southeast side that was razed for a new wing featuring Burdines, which opened in 1999. Lord & Taylor replaced Parisian in 2002, and the east wing was expanded again with Central Florida's first and only Nordstrom.[5] Burdines merged with Macy's in 2003, and in 2004, the hotel was purchased by a group headed by the Bank of Scotland and was renamed The Florida Hotel & Conference Center. Burdines-Macy's simply became Macy's in 2005.
Lord & Taylor closed in 2006.[6] Saks Fifth Avenue closed in 2014. The Saks Fifth Avenue anchor store was reconstructed for a new wing with a new Dining Pavilion. The old food court was reconfigured to include more retail and dining space. Champs Sports and Footaction (now closed) were added next to the existing Foot Locker store.[7] In August 2014, it was announced that the Nordstrom anchor store would close.[5][8] In June 2015, Nordstrom was redesigned for Dick's Sporting Goods and the Crayola Experience.
The Florida Mall looking north from Macy's (from 2018)
The Lord & Taylor anchor store was demolished in 2007 and redeveloped into a new outdoor plaza with stores Forever 21, H&M and Zara in 2009, with American Girl being added in fall 2014.
In early 2019, the mall hosted the Cirque du Soleil touring show Luzia under the big top.[9] This limited engagement was the first time Cirque's iconic big top has been raised in the Orlando area.
In 2023, Forever 21 relocated its store from across American Girl to a smaller space next to the Dining Pavilion.
On August 29, 2024, Primark opened in the old Forever 21 location.
In March 2025, it was announced that the entire Forever 21 chain was closing. Their new anchor store closed on May 1, 2025.
[10]
In 2025, a portion of the Sears store was leased to Round1. Round1 began construction on one of their arcades in the former Sears space in 2025. The Sears store will continue to operate on a smaller footprint. Round1 is set to open in 2026.[11]
