About 30 retailers are waiting for their stores to be finished. Developer Belz Enterprises of Memphis, TN expects the 39-store center to be at 70% occupancy by July, according to a published report. But area brokers and consultants tell GlobeSt.com that achievement will be challenging for Festival Bay.

"To be successful in this hyper-competitive environment, Festival Bay needs to be a 'Have to See' project," David W. Marks, president, Marketplace Advisors Inc., Orlando, tells GlobeSt.com. "If it doesn't make it on the visitors' top three list of fashion/entertainment destinations, it will have a very tough road ahead."

Marks, a former Trammell Crow Co. vice president, says Festival Bay marketers "need to focus first on the tourist market and secondarily on the Central Florida market." He agrees with other industry analysts that most local shoppers don't recognize the mall's name or its location in retail-suffering North International Drive, once part of metro Orlando's premier tourist corridor.