Hundreds of rentals to rise on former Fashion Mall site

PLANTATION — Construction on hundreds of rental apartments on the site of the former Fashion Mall in Plantation is “imminent,” according to developer Art Falcone.

Building permits have been filed at City Hall for the first of three towers on land that was once occupied by the mall, which fell into disarray a decade ago along University Drive north of Broward Boulevard.

Plantation Walk, a $350 million development with 700 rental apartments, office space and 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, will be the center of a live-work-play concept.

“It’s exciting to see the rewards” of the work,” said Falcone, of Encore Capital Management. “Offices, retail, restaurants, you’re living there — it’s pretty much everything.”

The first building will have retail shops and restaurants on the ground floor, with 170 rental apartments from the second to eighth floor.

Within 30 days, Falcone expects plans for the second building to be submitted to the city that call for 230 apartments. Permit applications for the third building, which will also have retail shops and restaurants on the ground floor and the remaining units above it, will follow.

Falcone said he is also in the process of signing leases with tenants for the 170,000 square feet of office space that could be open by year’s end.

The company is working on getting leases signed for the retail end that include a specialty grocer, “health and wellness options and other retailers that will infuse energy and excitement into the project,” according to his spokeswoman.

The residential towers will be called The Rise at Plantation Walk, which may sound familiar: Falcone is also building The Rise Flagler Village in downtown Fort Lauderdale — a 30-story, 348-unit rental apartment project at 405 NE Second St. Construction is underway.

The 650,000-square-foot Fashion Mall opened in 1988 and was purchased by a Chinese investment firm, U.S. Capital, for $41.5 million in 2004. Lord & Taylor pulled out of Fashion Mall in 2003 and Macy’s followed in 2005, never reopening after damage from Hurricane Wilma. The mall closed in 2007.

In 2008, U.S. Capital said Muvico would open a 14-screen theater as part of the new development, but hat never happened. The firm and its subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012.

The property’s ownership changed hands again, when it was auctioned off for $37.7 million in 2015. It also drew the ire of the City Council for code violations.

The mall was demolished last year.

BOARDROOM PR/COURTESY Building permits have been filed at Plantation City Hall for the construction of the first of the three towers at the site of the former Fashion Mall, which closed in 2007 on University Drive north of Broward Boulevard.