SARASOTA, Fla. — The Sarasota Square Mall is noticeably vacant. Local residents walk up and down its halls daily past empty storefronts, some just cutting through to get to the AMC Theatres, Costco, or J.C Penney while others are just trying to get their steps in.
The majority of the mall is silent and offers a glimpse into what was once a bustling shopping mall.
One developer hopes to give the property a makeover. Torburn Partners, who own the property, which includes the former Macy's and Sears, has proposed building up to 1,200 apartments and as much as 500,000 square feet of retail stores, restaurants, and office space.
"Redevelopment of those spaces makes sense because they're usually in urban areas or in areas where people are," Angela Grannan said.
Grannan is a commercial realtor and she says these town center mixed-use communities are becoming more common in the Bay Area.
"Then you've created a place where a person can basically walk out their front door, have everything they typically need – office space, right there at their fingertips," Grannan said. "And of course, that's also good for them because they can walk to those. It's a more walkable community living and, of course, that's more sustainable."
Torburn Partners said it intends to rent the apartments at market rate.
The developer recently held a virtual workshop with neighboring residents, closed to the public, to discuss the design concept and allow residents to comment.
Other examples in the Bay Area of malls currently being repurposed as mixed-use spaces are Gulf View Square Mall in Port Richey and University Mall in Tampa. Both are currently undergoing renovations to add apartment buildings and retail shops to reinvigorate those communities.
But building mixed-use spaces has its challenges.
"When you create a mixed-use development, you have a lot more moving parts involved because there are different types of developers, they'll be different architects, a lot of partnerships are usually involved as well," Grannan said.
