OSCEOLA SQUARE MALL: KISSIMMEE (ORLANDO), FL
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Published April 30, 2005
Osceola Square Mall sold:
Tenants say they are optimistic about future of center
By Susan Jacobson | Sentinel Staff Writer
KISSIMMEE -- Tenants at the Osceola Square Mall were cautiously optimistic Friday after learning that the 18-year-old center has been sold to a Minnesota company that specializes in sprucing up distressed shopping plazas.
Grootwassink/Hotzler Real Estate of Eden Prairie sealed the deal late Thursday, said Robert Grootwassink, owner of the firm.
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Chris Whittaker's Commentary:
Posted March 23, 2005 (user submitted June 20, 2004)
There are several reasons that a mall goes dead. a bad location, an inability to change itself to serve a changing demographic, overwhelming competition, and a lack of clarity in reaching a target audience tend to be traits that most of the malls on the site tend to hold. Anoter example of this, one that holds all of these traits is the Osceola Square Mall in Kissimmee, FL.
Opened in 1986, the mall, located 10 miles east of Disney World at the western edge of Kissimmee, the mall was built to sereve two interests. First, to serve the needs of the residents of Osceola County, a rapidly growing suburb of Orlando, populated mainly by tourist industry workers. Also, the mall attempted to market itself to the toruists that came into Orlando to visit. It had a limited amount of success, at least until the Wal Mart that was an original anchor of the mall moved down the street as part of the conversion to a Super Wal Mart. At the same time, Walt Disney WOrld expanded its retail core to include a 24 screen theater ( a far cry from the 6 screen complex attached to the mall) and a series of shops.
Also, the Florida Mall, although 10 miles away, was perceived as the real mall, as it expanded to a 7 anchor, 2.1 million square foot behemoth, Several Outlet Malls, and the opening of the high end Mall at Millenia worked to supplant the limited
(350,000 square feet, with no room for expansion) offerings that the Osceola Square Mall had to offer the residents of the Kissimmee-St. Cloud area. Plus, the remaining anchors of the mall (Bealls, Ross, and until 1999, Uptons) were not able compete with the Wal-Mart and the Multitude of outlaet malls in better locations for both the local crowd (with low incomes) and tourists, who were not going out of their way for a mall that offered little in copmparison for both price and selection).
Currently, the mall is about 50 percent occupied, with only 4 national stores other than the two anchors still in the mall. The food court is empty, with only 2 stores available, the Picadilly Cafeteria is now the home of the Vietnam Veterans of Osceola County the theater, home to horrible sound, sticky floors and bland ambience has closed, and the former Eckerd Store is now the site of a Salvation Army store. This is illustrative of a mall on its last legs. With talk of this undersized center seeming waiting to be converted to a power center, along with the impending competition of two large power centers looking to be built within 3 miles of this location, this is definitly a mall that is not long
for this world in any case.
Nate Mayfield's Commentary:
Posted March 23, 2005 (user submitted)
In 2003, while in Orlando Florida, my rental condo was just a few miles
from a long, gray hulk looking building with low traffic and faded
labelscars of past retailers with a battered American flag flying high in
the sky. One evening on the way to the grocery, I stopped at this
building to find, what I had thought it would was, Osceola Square Mall.
The mall was actually open. The faded letters stating the mall's name
hung on the awning of the battered entrance. When I walked in, I
found 95% of the store rental spaces were empty, gates to former stores
were locked, and the feeling of a dead mall was certainly present.
I walked inside only to find elderly people walking the mall for excercise,
an off-brand shoe store by the front entrance, a cafe with a big
screen television and a bunch of men watching a football game together
smoking cigarettes, and a small arcade that was only open three days a week. I knew Orlando had the Mall of Florida but,
In the center court, there was a small cingular wirless kiosk, and a
small (still operational) in ground water fountain spitting water
from it's faucets every five seconds. The mall had beautiful floor tile,
and was very well lit on the inside. Labelscars told me
whom former inhabitants of the mall were, such as Foot Locker, Andria's
Candies, Alltel, and many other big national retailers from the past.
The restrooms were in very poor condition. The tops of the toilet stalls
were cut off 50% making it possible for anyone to see you while
engaging their use. The mall office was dark and shuttered. There
was no mall security visible, neither was there any janitors doing their job.
When I got home, I went online and did research on the Osceola Square Mall
to find that a man had bought the mall, never renewed any leases, and
planned to tear the mall down in summer of 2004.
The new plans call for a Wal*Mart Supercenter, Dicks Sporting Goods,
Salvation Army Church, and a place called Pioneer Dishes, all combined
together in an outdoor shopping center called Osceola Square Commons.
It looked to have once been successful, but, as with most dead malls that
were once successful, tenants left to go to a larger mall for better
business. Osceola Square will certainly be remembered to
the people of Orlando Florida as the first enclosed shopping mall
in the city.
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Shannon's Commentary:
User submitted October 2018The mall was never a huge place obviously, but it had quite the activity in it's heyday. I used to work at the Eckerd there when I was in high school and then after (from late 1995 until about 2000) in the photo lab.
Once Wal-Mart opened the superstore in 1996, the mall changed dramatically. But, with the movie theater and all the other stores still open, it was still a good, busy place. It was a big hang out for kids on Friday nights and weekends with the movie theater and arcade.
I have good memories of the little mall while I worked at Eckerd. The merchants were nice, and Schiano's Pizza was the best thing in the food court. It's sad that by the end of the 90s the place started to dwindle.
While it's now called Plaza Del Sol, it will always be known as the Osceola Mall to me.
We did holiday events in the mall all the time back then too. Too bad it has become kinda crummy due to management.
Jipper's Commentary:
User submitted December 2016Some time ago, Osceola Square Mall was re-branded as Plaza del Sol. Their website describes the 400,000 foot facility as "styled after the traditional plazas found in Latin American countries". Lots of bright colors throughout. Anchors include Ross and Burlington stores. There are a number of small clothing and service shops, along with a branch of Florida Technical College.
This space opened in the mid 1980s with a Walmart store, Ross, J. Byrons Department Store (later Upton's, which closed in a few years) and a few others. When Walmart left for their Supercenter, Bealls Department Store took their place. Bealls has since moved to a new Power Center in Kissimmee.
Reviews in Yelp, which are few, are positive about the stores, but not the facility. Although Bealls did an extensive renovation on the Walmart prior to moving in, the rest of the mall has not been renovated.
Link to their website: https://www.plazadelsolkissimmee.com.
giovanni’s Commentary:
User submitted May 2014Hi,
I represent and do marketing for the Oscela square mall and some of the owners have requested me to find out how we can take out a comment/listing from our mall from 9 years ago.
The mall is going a major renovation and this listings comes up in all major search engines.
http://deadmalls.com/stories.html#FL
Thanks for your help and support.
Gio
Loren Bagby's Commentary:
User submitted February 2012The Wal-mart at Osceola Square Mall was opened before my family moved out of Kissimmee in 1986, and the mall was added on to it after we moved. Back then, in that area, more of the residents were in the tourist industry, but most of the rest of the population of Kissimmee was not. And the mall was not very big so it mostly served the immediate area around it. The residents of St Cloud did not really go there as there was a Bealls outlet mall much closer to them, or they could hop on the turnpike and get to shopping in Orlando much quicker.
After we moved we would go back to visit my grandparents several times a year, and we would usually take them over to the Osceola Square Mall for shopping. And for a while, it was a nice little mall. But over the next 4 - 5 years, it became a such seedy place that people quit shopping there and businesses closed down or moved out. The last time I went there, I saw police officers lock their car when they parked right in front of the doors and in the middle of the day to go in the mall in response to a call. We also had known some of the workers at Wal-mart, and they would tell us what went on with drug dealers hanging out at the mall, and the huge problem Wal-mart had with theft. A lot of it from the tourists.
The Florida Mall when opened did draw away some business, but not as much from the commerce aspect as they had different shops, but because it was a safer place. The Osceola Square Mall died because criminals took it over and drove everyone away.
Andrew's Commentary:
User submitted May 2005According to a recent article in the Orlando Sentinel, the Osceola Square mall which has been a "dead mall" for several years now and is listed here at deadmalls.com has been recently purchased by a new owner. The original owner which had promised an outdoor shopping center dropped all plans and sold the property to a new developer, the new owner claims the non-retail tenants will be removed from the mall and there will be a push for new tenants by lowering tenant rental prices and possibly renovating some areas in the mall.