Big changes are planned as officials work to bring new life to the struggling property.
Joseph Scarfone, the project manager and leasing head broker for the Indian River Mall property, and owner of One Investment Group, explained the renovation plans Wednesday afternoon.
Scarfone said part of the vision includes re-imagining the old food court space as a family entertainment area.
“Well, this right here is the old food court, and as you can see, you have these big beautiful high ceilings that you don’t see as much anymore,” Scarfone said. “You have a lot of light coming in, so we’d like to put some type of entertainment for the kids, like a trampoline park or ice-skating rink.”
Some shoppers, like Debbie Barber, are encouraged by the plans.
Barber said she and her husband spend about six months out of the year in Vero Beach.
“This is one of our favorite places to come,” Barber said. “We like to eat, we like to go to the bookstore, the movie theater.”
She’s happy to hear about the renovations.
“I’m glad to see that they’re going to bring it back to life,” Barber said.
According to the proposal, the west side of the mall, including the food court and AMC theater, is expected to stay.
The east side of the mall, where the now-closed Sears and Macy’s stores are located, would be replaced with outdoor retail stores and a drive-thru restaurant, with Sprouts Farmers Market expected to be one of the tenants.
“So, we wanted to integrate both indoor, outdoor, OK, basically people can have it both ways. So, you still have a little bit of the old and you to a little bit of the new,” Scarfone said.
There is still no timeline for when construction could begin.
Right now, the project is going through the county’s review process.
“Once we get our approvals done for our demo on putting up the mall itself, and at that point, we’re going to start working,” Scarfone said.