WANTED: One developer to revitalize a (mostly empty) shopping plaza on prime real estate in Orlando.
The Colonial Promenade Shopping Center on East Colonial Drive has sat largely empty for several years.
One of the last businesses is vacating this week, and the owner of the plaza, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, says redevelopment is “imminent.”
That’s according to an item on the agenda for the authority’s monthly board meeting Wednesday.
The board approved a decision to terminate the lease for a beauty business called Emporium 7, located on the east side of the sprawling plaza. According to a staff memorandum, the business owner said it was no longer able to handle payment obligations.
That business is expected to leave the property on or before Sept. 18.
“The revitalization and redevelopment of Colonial Promenade Shopping Center is imminent,” wrote Jay Cassens, senior vice president of aviation real estate, in the staff memorandum. “In connection with such redevelopment, a future developer would reasonably expect the property to be delivered vacant and available for new commercial activity.”
A spokesperson for GOAA said they do not have a developer yet for such a project.
“The Aviation Authority is hopeful that a developer will see the Colonial Promenade property as an attractive redevelopment opportunity. While we always welcome conversations with developers about Colonial Promenade, no contracts have been approved by the Board or executed. We continue to promote it as a retail site and anticipate that a developer will take advantage of it soon,” said spokesperson Angela Starke.
Only one other business is currently open in the shopping center — an Aerus Electrolux that has been in operation for more than 40 years. A person closing the store for the day on Wednesday told News 6 they were being told to leave the plaza.
Starke said GOAA sent the business a letter notifying them that their lease would end soon, exercising a right to give a 30-day notice, and they are working with the owners to find a new location.
First built in 1985, the Colonial Promenade Shopping Center sits at the entrance to Orlando Executive Airport and in a highly-trafficked shopping district, with more than 180,000 square feet of space available.
At one time, the plaza was home to a Sam Ash music store, a cinema, a Sweet Tomatoes, a Michaels craft store, and an Orange County Public Library branch, among others.
But over the last 10 years, the businesses closed up for one reason or another. The Sweet Tomatoes and the library closed in 2020. The Sam Ash closed in 2024 when the company went out of business.
In an April GOAA board meeting, staff showed a “visioning video” that teased a revitalized Colonial Promenade as part of its future plans.
“The Colonial Promenade becomes a vibrant activity center, with new buildings illuminated from within signalling businesses, restaurants, offices and aviation services in operation,” the video narrator said.
The renderings in the video look much the same as the current plaza.
Colonial Promenade is not the only shopping plaza in that part of East Colonial that’s been stuck in a kind of development hell.
[WATCH: As Premiere Cinema 14 closes, Orlando Fashion Square mall redevelopment remains in limbo]
Plans to redevelop the nearby Orlando Fashion Square mall into a mixed-use complex with stores, businesses, a hotel and apartments have been in the works for years.
The property is under a continued feud between the owner of the land, Unicorp, and the owner of the actual building, Bancorp, which foreclosed on the property years ago.