Saturday, October 12, 2013

PI Update: Curl To Get A Neighbor

The Disney Parks Blog has announced that the vacant outparcel in the Splitsville building, Downtown Disney West Side, will become home to a new store called Fit2Run, The Runner's Superstore.  This is adjacent the new location of surf store Curl by Sammy Duval which relocated there earlier this year from Pleasure Island.  This is Fit2Run's second location in Orlando as they already have a spot in the Florida Mall.  And speaking of Florida Mall, earlier this week it was announced in the Orlando Sentinel that American Girl Place was going to open a store in that mall.  It was one of the stores rumored to be coming to Disney Springs since it appeared on their logo board.  The popular doll store only has 15 locations in the entire country so it's seems unlikely AGP would open two stores in Orlando.  Apparently another loss for Disney which has announced nothing so far for Disney Springs.
The asphalt removed, construction has begun on Downtown Disney's first parking garage, pictured here in the space formerly occupied by Parking Lots I-J-K.
Meanwhile Parking Lot H is being used as a staging area for demolition and construction.  If you can't make it down here to witness all this for yourself, stay tuned to the Save Pleasure Island Blog for all the latest news!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You people still have the Mannequines, 8Trax and A.C. buildings, isn't it about time to make them night clubs again.
So give the adults the fun they had six years ago, it's what the Save P.I. people are waiting for.

KingBob said...

As long as the buildings stand, hope remains! Until they finally announce something. And there's no truth to the rumor about a revolving Denny's going into the Mannequins space!

Jeff - Gainesville said...

There are a lot of high dollar parcels that need to be filled at the new Disney Springs. Although the economic picture is improving somewhat, this seems a bit optimistic at best to me. I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes in the scale and depth of this event. As long as they don't tear down the Margartia Bar, they are still in my good graces. BTW, hope you had a nice visit to Gainesville, KingBob. Come back soon!

KingBob said...

Hi Jeff. Always lots of good memories about Gainesville!

One would think that announcing a few anchor tenants would help Disney lease-out the other parcels to smaller parties. But no announcements whatsoever. Some experts on the subject speculate that it's because they have few tenants and little to announce.

American Girl Place would have been a perfect fit for Disney Springs. Very few stores elsewhere with thousands of guests coming that don't have access to AFP in their hometowns. Their name appeared on the DS logo board. But last week they announced that they're coming but not to DS but instead to Florida Mall. Ouch!

Jeff - Gainesville said...

Very good point and I agree. I don't really get the secrecy of it - unless you are correct in that they don't have anything to say yet. Seems like WDW higher ups are trying to make the property a one stop shop - to keep people on the property - which makes sense. But, while shopping is fun, I don't exactly think 'oh boy, let's go to the GAP at Disney Springs'. To that, your right on the money in that it needs to be something pretty unique. I guess we'll see... Cheers.

KingBob said...

I was at the main mall here in Las Vegas today which has quite a few stores from Europe that are not in Orlando yet. Several of them were on that mysterious Disney Springs logo board. They would be a good fit for Disney Springs because they are unique. I will do an article about some of the names in the near future.

Anonymous said...

Parking nightmare

KingBob said...

Yes, it's gotten pretty bad and inconvenient. And it's off season!