Colonial Plaza Mall: Orlando, Florida on DeadMalls.com

COLONIAL PLAZA MALL: ORLANDO, FL

WR Sharp's Commentary:

Posted May 11, 2005 (user submitted)

Colonial Plaza was the first "modern" shopping center in Orlando. There were cartoons in the Orlando Sentinel-Star depicting flying saucers parked in the lot. Colonial Plaza started as a strip center with a Publix Market on one end and a Belk-Lindsey that was seperated from the rest of the strip by a covered crosswalk. Later on a mall was attached at the center of the Plaza and featured a four story Jordan-Marsh store. Colonial Plaza was the ONLY place to shop the entire time I was in grade school. They expanded once again and picked up on the south end of Jordan-Marsh, building more mall and adding Belk, but decline had already set in. Orlando Fashion Square went in two blocks to the east. Jordan-Marsh, once one of the nicest and cleanest retailers started to fade due to corporate issues with them and their sister store Maas Brothers. Several redevlopemnt efforts fell short. They even built a Dillards on the front of the mall which breathed life into it for a time.

It had multiple issues, one being food. There was one restaurant named Ronnies - a jewish deli/restaurant that had rights to all the food in the mall. They operated their original location at one end of the mall (an Orlando icon for years) and a little cafe in the new portion between the new Belks and Jordan-Marsh.

Jordan-Marsh finally went under. Now the two halves of the mall were bisected by a big closed building - wooden partitions were quickly built to funnel patrons through to the end with Belks, but the place was doomed. It was sad to see it knocked down. I always liked Jordan-Marsh. I knew every nook and cranny of that mall.

Now it is Colonial Plaza Market Place - a "power center" with Babies R Us, Marshalls, Rhodes, Old Navy, Linins 'n Things, Lifeway, Steinmart, Barnes and Noble (which is in the last bit of original construction), Just for Feet (closed) and Circuit City.

Brett Castleberry's Commentary:

Posted December 2, 2006 (user submitted)

My family lived in the Audubon Park subdivision around 1960; I was in elementary school at the time. We had moved there from Pinecastle, south of Orlando.

Before Belk-Lindsey opened, Dickson & Ives was Orlando's only department store, downtown on Orange Avenue. Belk's provided the clothes I wore as a boy. I remember the somewhat scary escalator to the second floor, with its corrugated, slinky-like handrails. The meshing teeth of the steps frightened me. Belk's sold Scout uniforms and accessories, and seeing them on display made me dream of joining the Cub Scouts, which I did when I was old enough.

I was never taken to Ronnie's. My father often took us to the nearby Driftwood Cafeteria. But as a teenager, Ronnie's became the place to go late on a weekend night.

I bought most of my records at Jordan Marsh: Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Cream. Orlando's only head shop opened as a stand-alone store there. Memory fails, the Magic Mushroom, the Psychedelic Mushroom?

My wife's father was a buyer for Maas Brothers out of St. Petersburg then, and would have bought the menswear sold in Jordan Marsh at the time.

We moved to Maitland, a turn-of-the-century citrus town to the north that became a suburb of Orlando, in 1962. Soon after that, the Winter Park Mall opened, within bicycling distance of my new home. Colonial Plaza had ceased to be unique.

Ella Delaney’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2021

Infinite Mushroom was the name of the head shop you're struggling to remember.

Greg Simpson’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2020

I worked at Jordan Marsh out of HS in 1966. Worked there for 1 1/2 yrs and then during the summer while in college. I tell people today that if you were going shopping I was going to see you. It was 4 stories and it's most unique feature was the escalator. Kids would want to go there so they could ride the escalator. The store had everything from notions to furniture (1 stop shopping). Take home pay for a month, considering 40hr work weeks would pay for 1 ticket to Disney World today (after taxes). $1.45 was the minimum wage. It didn't take long to decide to get to college! There were husband and wife working there supporting a family on this income! Orlando was a beautiful city of 50,000 people and clean pristine lakes. A wonderful time and place to grow up!

Ryan C. McKay’s Commentary:

If anyone is interested, I have a two-part series on Colonial Plaza that goes through some of the stuff. Doing some history research, I was amazed bye some of the impact the Dismal had all the malls that came since, as well as some of the absolutely mind-boggling decisions they made with the design that 100% led to its demise.

Dana Bobalik’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2019

I managed the 5-7-9 Shops in Colonial Mall, Winter Park Mall, Fashion Square Mall, and Florida Mall. I started at the Colonial Mall and that was one of the best malls in terms of regular customers who actually knew all the people who worked in the mall. They would tell me their life story and the history of the area and Orlando since I was from NY. There actually was a pizza place in the mall as I recall directly across from me. It was not part of Ronnies. I think the pizza place had to give a portion of profit to Ronnies if memory serves correctly. I was saddened when Ronnies closed. TooJay's took their place and was not the same, but was still good replacement. The Colonial Mall also had the best hair salon to the rear of the mall, and they catered to the crossdresser people who frequented Parliament House. When Disney was filming several of their tween and teen shows, two of the costume/set directors would shop in the Colonial Mall for clothing and props on a regular basis because it was a slower mall and they claim had better selection since it was not so busy. Also, the wives of the Molly Hatchett band members shopped at Colonial Mall often as well. Side note: Cooker Restaurant was a restaurant on the Colonial redevelopment site which eventually went out of business, but someone has bought the Cooker name and menu/recipes and is now back in business here in Ohio and they hope to grow again.

Michael Brennan’s Commentary:

The head shop was called Infinite Mushroom, and it was an act of daring just to walk in there as a 12 year old. There was also a record store out front, Colony Records? The movie theater in the back lot was the "Rocking Chair" and they had great summer double-features, with filmed monkey races and prizes, etc. I loved that place in its decline. Ronnie's had total control on the food concession for the entire mall, the magazine store was even allowed to sell gum.

Scott Hadley’s Commentary:

User submitted Feb 2007

The Winter Park Mall was built in the late 1960's as the second enclosed mall serving the Orlando Metropolitan Area. Anchor Stores were Ivey's and JC Penney's, both of which had stores in Downtown Orlando and at the Colonial Plaza Mall. Ivey's was a chain based in North Carolina (sold to Dillard's).

The mall competed with a strip of street level stores in Downtown Winter Park, a couple of miles away. But in its prime, Winter Park Mall had some of Orlando's best stores (Rutland's Men's Store, selling Gant and Sero Shirts for Men, and a women's store - name escapes me). There was also a Walgreen's Drug Store, with a soda fountain style restaurant, and a pet store that attracted lots of traffic. Baer's music (where you could listen to 45 records in the store) and Casual Corner were other stores in the mall.

By the early 90's, many of the interior stores were closed or suffering. Even a front facelift, which added some additional square feet, could not overcome the problems. The Penney's store fell into disrepair, which discouraged other stores from re-signing leases, and finally only Dillard's was left open. They put up a blockade to the rest of the mall, and only some community service groups occupied the interior. The mall was finally demolished, and the Winter Park Village "Power" Center built in its place. It is now home to a 20+ screen Regal Theatre, Johnny Rockets, Borders Books, Ruth Chris, Brio, Albertsons, and various other stores and restaurants.

Rodney Waldon’s Commentary:

Colonial Plaza, as it was known prior to the adddition of the second mall wing connecting Jordan Marsh with the newly built Belk-Lindsey; (a replacement store for it's previously detached location at the opposite end of the Plaza)for a few years was one of only two enclosed AC malls in the Orlando metro area, the other being the Winter Park Mall.

The expansion was implemented as a response to the opening,and still open, of Orlando Fashion Square which was literally one city block away from Colonial Plaza Mall. In a previous submission it was mentioned that Dillards opened a bracnh store there (Colonial Plaza). While Dillards did have location, it was originally built and opened as Ivey's circa 1983. Dillard's purchased the
J.B. Ivey &Co. (both the Ivey's Florida & Ivey's Carolinas divisions) chain before moving into Colonial Plaza Mall. As a note, Ivey's initially made plans to build a branch store in the Orlando Fashion Square. However, The General Manager of Burdines Fashion Square exercised some not uncommon "tenant property owner rights" (Burdines actually owned its store and parking lot) and blocked Ivey's approval from the mall owner.

A major issue that contributed to the demise of Colonial Plaza Mall (the Plaza)was the fact that it never established a food court due to an old and archaic agreement with the owner of Ronnie's Restaurant. When Colonial Plaza first opened up, the Plaza agreed with Ronnies would be the only food establishment with the exception of retail store owned food eateries; (
i.e. Woolworth's & McCrory's food counters, Jordan Marsh's restaurant etc). Even though the Plaza went under at least two major expansions, Ronnie's Restaurant enforced his rights.