The site was originally home to Winter Park Mall, which was Greater Orlando's first enclosed shopping mall. At the time, the JCPenney store was the second-largest in the nation. A large section of the mall burned on Easter morning, April 6, 1969, in "the first major fire incident in the United States involving an enclosed shopping mall," and was rebuilt. Ivey's was sold to
Dillard's in 1990. Over the years, the mall lost popularity, as many shoppers preferred the Park Avenue, Winter Park's upscale shopping district, or newer malls in the area. JCPenney moved to
Orlando Fashion Square in 1993 leaving Dillard's as the only anchor store. At the time, developers had begun seeking replacements for the JCPenney store, with prospective replacements including
Belk and
Parisian. After this, the mall's owners entered into a joint venture between Don M. Casto Organization and the Nikitine family for redevelopment. The mall was razed in 1998 However, Dillard's did not renew its lease in 1999, and the store was redeveloped. Winter Park Village was officially dedicated on November 15, 1999, but some stores and restaurants such as
Borders and
P. F. Chang's China Bistro opened as early as March. The empty Dillard's building was divided into smaller spaces to house
The Cheesecake Factory and
Guitar Center on the lower level and 58 loft apartments on the upper level. The new center also included a new
Albertsons supermarket and a Regal Cinemas. Albertsons closed in 2008 and was replaced with
Publix. Borders closed in 2011 after the company decided to close all stores, and the building was demolished and replaced with two smaller buildings housing
Chase and
Starbucks. Chamberlins Market & Cafe—which was one of the only stores that remained from the Winter Park Mall—closed in 2016 with
REI taking its place in 2017. In 2024, a new
Arhaus would be opening its doors at the mall. ==References==