As plans to redevelop Orlando’s beleaguered Fashion Square mall into a mixed-use destination continue to languish, another property owner is securing approvals to build new apartments on neighboring land.
Orlando’s Municipal Planning Board approved a master plan filed by California-based Kennedy Wilson for a 5-story, 378-unit apartment community on the 6.6-acre site at 815 Herndon Ave., just east of the mall. The plan was approved on consent without discussion and now proceeds to the City Council for approval. The building is designed as an urban infill property with a combination of surface and structured parking, an integrated clubhouse, an internal pool courtyard and a dog park.
Kennedy Wilson is a global real estate investment company with $36 billion in assets under management. Last October, Kennedy Wilson acquired Toll Brothers’ Apartment Living platform, including its in-house development team and its interests in a portfolio of completed properties and assets under development, for a total purchase price of $347 million. This year, CEO William McMorrow and other executives joined with Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited to take the company private. The merger closed in June.
The company’s portfolio spans multiple markets in the U.S. and Europe, but this would be its first in Florida. The development team includes Kimley-Horn and Dwell Design Studio.
Apartment developer Kennedy Wilson is the applicant for the new project at 815 Herndon Ave., on the former Bliss Healthcare site. (Rendering by Dwell Design Studio)
The property is owned by Bliss Healthcare, which operates a medical clinic next door at 3901 E. Colonial Dr. Bliss Founder Dr. Roberto Ortiz has previously secured approvals for an expanded, 3-story medical office building on the Herndon site, but those plans never moved forward.
This is the latest of several proposed multifamily developments on and around the mall property, all endorsed by city leaders eager to see the corridor transition from aged retail and office buildings into high-density residential and mixed-use developments. In 2021, Bancorp, the owner of the mall building, won approval for a master development plan to replace everything except the Macy’s store and a parking garage with new construction. The plan entitles the property for 1,400 residential units, a hotel plus another 177,000 square feet of new retail uses. But the bank, which holds a ground lease for the property, has yet to reach a deal with the landowners, led by Unicorp National Development’s Chuck Whittall, for the sale of the asset.
Meanwhile, Mill Creek Residential Trust, the nation’s sixth-largest apartment developer, submitted plans for two apartment communities — Modera at Baldwin Park and Modera Baldwin Square — with over 700 combined units on Bennet Road, just east of the Herndon site. Those plans were approved by the city in 2022 and 2024, but the developer has not closed on either site.
Closer to Downtown Orlando, Terrian Developments broke ground in April on Emi on 50, a nine-story 336-unit multifamily project in the Mills 50 district on the southeast corner of East Colonial and Hampton Drive.
Orlando’s apartment market continues to normalize after the post-COVID building boom that peaked in 2024 with over 15,000 new units delivered. The market ended 2025 with 11,367 units under construction, but new starts were down 12.6% year-over-year. Marcus & Millichap’s 2026 Mid-Year Market Report projects that new multifamily completions this year will decline for the second year in a row, leading to improved absorption rates and modest rent increases.
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