OVIEDO, Fla. – In a bid to stay relevant in the rapidly evolving retail landscape, malls across the United States are undergoing ambitious redevelopment projects aimed at transforming these traditional shopping hubs into dynamic, multi-purpose spaces.
On the surface, the Oviedo Mall looks like your typical mall, but if you look past the food court and the Dillard’s, you’ll find it’s anything but typical.
Kevin Hipes has been working to revitalize the mall for the last decade, bringing in an orthopedic center, a childcare facility, cosmetology school and gym, and filling the space inside with unique, locally owned businesses.
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“People don’t come and walk the mall anymore, you have to give them a reason,” Hipes said. “Little by little, I’ve brought in different kinds of non-retail, but good mall uses for the eat, sleep, work, play concept.”
That concept is now just missing one piece – sleep. Talks have been going on for years to bring apartments to the property, but Hipes says it’s been a hard sell.
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“A lot of these guys wanted to build their developments far away from the mall,” he explained. “They didn’t want to build a $100 million apartment complex next to, in their mind, a dead mall.”
That’s no longer the case, though, as one developer’s plans to build a gated apartment complex in the parking lot of the former Macy’s is one vote away from becoming a reality. A public hearing ahead of a final vote is scheduled for Dec. 4.
“It’s going to be about 400, maybe 425 of what they call market-rate apartments, which are first class,” Hipes said. “That’s probably a $150 million complex.”
Oviedo is expected to add another 10,000 people to its population in the next decade, so the housing is needed in the growing city. Hipes said the mall is in a great location to balance the anticipated influx of new residents.
“It’s on the edge of Winter Springs, so it’s a little bit farther outside, but for density you want to be over by the 417,” he said. “Nobody’s going to commute from an apartment at the mall to Chuluota every morning and create traffic. It’s not going to happen. Right now, they’re coming the other way and it’s creating chaos.”
Along with Macy’s, Sears also closed its doors at the Oviedo Mall in 2019, but those doors could also re-open with something new.
The Oviedo Police Department desperately needs an updated police station with more space, but the $35.5 million needed to build a new one was rejected by voters last week. Hipes says his offer, which he initially made over the summer, to move the police department and city hall to the former department store is still on the table.
“At the end of the day, they can sell their property for about the same amount of money it costs to buy mine,” Hipes said. “Now, they own the building, and they have another $11.4 million approved six years ago they can use to fix it up. Sounds pretty appealing to me.”
It also sounds appealing to Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek.
“If we vacated [city hall], returned it to the market, we would return three times as much land to the market as we are removing from the tax base,” Sladek said. “I think the economics of that would be a lot more positive for taxpayers than just building a new police station.”
Sladek said the city also needs to add one or two additional fire stations as more people move to the area.
“One of the locations where one is most needed is right by the mall,” she said.
Hipes admits there are better anchors for the mall, like a hospital or a tech company, but he’s an Oviedo resident and wants what’s best for the city.
“The problem is, I also have it on the market, and I got people calling me,” he said. “If somebody steps up and does a deal, like a hospital or Google, we have to react to that. We need to help city hall, but we also need jobs and I need traffic in the mall. I can’t turn people down and wait two years for the city, so today it’s available.”
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