Reagan Center Mega-Project Advances in Central Florida

A massive mixed-use complex has been approved for a vacant 110-acre site in Central Florida that used to be home to the largest flea market in the U.S.

Seminole County commissioners have approved plans for a project known as the Reagan Center that will include 1.4M square feet of office space, nearly 300K SF of retail, a 250-room hotel and more than 1,000 apartments.

The project will be built on Ronald Reagan Boulevard and U.S. Highway 17-92 near Sanford north of Orlando, across the highway from the county’s expanding Five Points government center.

The site has been vacant since a popular attraction known as Flea World, which billed itself as “the nation’s largest flea market under one roof” before shutting down in 2015.

The Reagan Center will be developed by Integra Land Co. on the property, which now is owned by a subsidiary of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida Foundation, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Syd Levy, the Orlando entrepreneur who started Flea World in 1983, willed the property to the non-profit organization before he died in 2018.

When plans for the Reagan Center were presented last year, nearby property owners expressed concern that the development might increase the flood risk as well as traffic congestion in the area. The project will conserve 35 acres of the site as wetlands and build a stormwater retention pond to control any flooding.

Jay Zembower, a county commissioner, said the project will be a boon to a corridor that has long been eyed for revitalization, clickorlando.com reported.

“It does so much for the spine of the county, the urban area and the urban corridor and getting what is arguably now an eyesore back on the market for affordable living in that corridor,” Zembower said.

At its zenith, Flea World included more than 1,700 vendors who sold everything from tools, toys and bamboo butterfly nets to legal advice, fortune telling and eyebrow waxing. There also were Elvis impersonators and undertakers.

In 1988, Levy put in a zoo with lions, tigers, bears and monkeys, each named after local television personalities. The zoo closed after protests from animal rights groups, according to the Sentinel. Levy later added Fun World, which featured a go-kart track, bumper cars and carnival rides.

Levy, who at one time claimed Flea World had more than 3M visitors per year, announced plans in 2014 to close the market and redevelop the site. Demolition began at Flea World in 2016, in conjunction with the widening of U.S. 17-92.