Sembler Breaks Ground on $100M Center

WINTER GARDEN, FL-Sembler Co. of St. Petersburg has broken ground on Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves, the largest planned open-air shopping center in West Orlando at 1.15 million sf and 175 acres. The project is also the largest Sembler has ever attempted, according to company officials.

The project has been reduced from 1.6 million sf after area residents complained of its size. The center is tentatively scheduled to open in October 2007. The largest enclosed retail center in Central Florida is Simon Property Group’s 1.8-million-sf Florida Mall in south Orlando, about 15 miles from the Sembler project.

The Sembler site is 10 miles west of Downtown Orlando and will compete directly with the 1.1-million-sf, 10-year-old enclosed West Oaks Mall owned by Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc, area retail brokers tell GlobeSt.com. The property is about two miles east of Winter Garden on State Road 50.