Seminole Towne Center reopens

Many stores were closed for three days after the mall owner failed to pay power bill

After three days without power, the lights came back on Sunday at the Seminole Towne Center in Sanford, and stores reopened for business, mall officials announced this weekend.

Florida Power & Light had pulled the plug on the center’s electricity on Thursday after the mall’s owner, Seminole Mall Realty Holding, failed to pay the power bill.

However, the big-box anchor stores — including Dick’s Sporting Goods, JCPenney, Dillards and Elev8 Fun — remained open and with the lights on. Those businesses are independently owned and on separate power connections.

“Hello everyone, I just wanted to let you know that the power has been restored and we will resume normal operating hours tomorrow,” according to a pair of Facebook posts on Sunday. “Please stop by and support our local small businesses throughout the mall.”

FP&L officials could not be reached for comment. It’s unclear whether the mall’s owner has paid its delinquent power bill in full.

First opened in the mid-1990s, the Seminole Towne Center once offered high-end stores to attract high-end shoppers from the nearby affluent communities of Heathrow and Alaqua.

But in recent years, the fancy stores have left and more than two-thirds of the shop spaces inside the split-level mall sit dark and vacant. The parking lots are now wide open spaces of asphalt.

Similar to many malls across the county, the Seminole Towne Center became a casualty of online shopping. Also, dozens of new retail stores have sprouted around the mall just south of State Road 46 and east of Interstate 4.

Sanford city leaders have long wanted to see the mall property turned into a mixeduse center with residential units along with shops and offices.