ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Premiere Cinema 14 will close on Friday, the theater announced last week on social media, ending an era inside Orlando\u2019s Fashion Square Mall.<\/p>\n
On its website<\/a>, the theater said March 12 will be its last day of operation as \u201cOrlando Fashion Square prepares to enter its next phase of future redevelopment.\u201d<\/p>\n While no other details were given, Unicorp National Developments, the owners of the land the movie theater and the rest of the 625-foot square mall sit on, has a vision in mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been developing property here in Orlando for 30 plus years and gosh, we do a couple million dollars of real estate development a year,\u201d said Chuck Whittall, president of Unicorp National Developments.<\/p>\n Whittall tells News 6 that the company purchased the land with hopes of revitalizing the area. <\/p>\n \u201cWe bought the dirt underneath the mall,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t own the buildings. That\u2019s owned by Bancorp, which they foreclosed on it from a previous developer several years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittall said ownership questions and what he described as a bank\u2019s unrealistic valuation of the buildings have delayed Unicorp\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost to upkeep it is substantially higher than the income they\u2019re generating,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, eventually I think they\u2019re going to want to just hand the keys and let us do something different with the property.\u201d<\/p>\n [WATCH: Orlando Fashion Square Mall is up for sale (from 2024)]<\/p>\n Whittall said potential ideas include outdoor dining and entertainment, more restaurants and shops, possibly outdoor golf, and even another theater.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hope has been to redevelop the property. It\u2019s a great piece of land. It\u2019s ideally located between Orlando and Winter Park, and we think it\u2019d be a great redevelopment to do a lifestyle center,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would be a great addition to the area. There\u2019s a lot of great neighborhoods that surround it, and I think they would enjoy the entertainment and the restaurants we could bring to the property.\u201d<\/p>\n For more on Unicorp\u2019s proposal for the area, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n News 6 reached out to Bancorp for comment, but so far the company has not responded.<\/p>\n Malls in Central Florida<\/p>\n Orlando Fashion Square is not the only mall that has struggled with the changing times, as once-popular staple stores have pulled out or gone out of business entirely. <\/p>\n