Mall housing project moves another step closer

Apartments and a hotel are officially on the horizon for the Oviedo Mall after the Oviedo City Council approved the conceptual plan for the first residential component Monday night.

Developer Marc Hagle owns the 180,000 square-foot former Macy’s property within the mall with plans to construct 425 apartments — 175 of which are planned to be age-restricted — and a 124-room hotel. The city won’t know the specific ages those apartments will be limited to until the more detailed plans are submitted by Hagle. Macy’s shuttered its Oviedo store in 2017.

The Council’s approval opened the door for Hagle to submit his project’s site plan for the Council’s approval.

There have been disagreements between Hagle and one of the mall’s owners, Oviedo Mall Holding. One of the main issues is the connectivity between Hagle’s project and the mall.

Hagle’s latest plans show a driving lane and parking separating the mall and the proposed residential project. During the meeting, Kevin Hipes, Oviedo Mall development director and spokesperson for Oviedo Mall Holding, said he believes this separation could be detrimental to the mall. But after Monday’s meeting, he said he and Hagle came to an understanding and will work out a plan so the project can move forward.

“We don’t want to look like we’re standing in the way of something that will help the mall,” Hipes said. “We want this to happen, so does he. We’re going to have to work it out.”

The community development district that governs part of the mall property has offered its surplus property to the city for future park land. Hagle also owns the Sprouts shopping plaza and said that there’s property adjacent to city-owned property that he’d also like to donate to the city. Exact acreage was not provided.

There are three other landowners within the mall property. There’s Sears, with a store that closed in 2019 and remains empty, Dillard’s department store, which is still open, and Oviedo Fund LLC, which owns the 12 acres of undeveloped land within the mall property.