Retail vendors, restaurants, food trucks: New Ocala Mall will be housed in old Ocala Kmart – Ocala

Ocala Mall To Open In March

The Ocala Mall is scheduled to open in March at the old Kmart location on east Silver Springs Blvd. They will have about 120 vendor spots.

Doug Engle, Ocala Star-Banner

Right now, the old Kmart building at 3711 E. Silver Springs Blvd. in Ocala doesn't look like much. Piles of wooden planks are scattered around the unfinished floor. Stray chairs, trash cans and ladders dot the 83,000 square feet of show floor that has been vacant since the department store closed in April 2018.

Despite the appearance of the abandoned space, Greg Park and around 40 vendors who have signed up for spaces in the Ocala Mall see its potential to be a bustling market with a unique variety of offerings once doors open in March.

Though the mallhas been labeled as an "indoor flea market,"those associated with the operation hesitate at the term and consider it more of a miniature mall.

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I think people, when they first heard that we're opening up the flea market here, were kind of nervous. They don't want a flea market here in town, Park, owner of the new mall, said. It's not your traditional used sneakers and T-shirts. It's going to be majority all brand new items at half the price that you're going to pay anywhere else.

Park also operates the Tampa Mall, which he says has been very successful and sold out for the past two years. He initially passed on the opportunity to open the mall in Ocala a few years ago but came back to it last year after another owner tried to start the operation and ran out of money, leaving many expectant vendors without a location.

Due to fire code, Park is able to use only around 63,000 square feet of the space for 100 to 120 or so vendors. About 10 will be restaurants, and there is space outside for five food trucks. A garage will offer space for automotive service vendors, and there will be new air conditioning and bathrooms in the building.

Permanent booths vary in size but start at 10 feet by 10 feet for $400 a month. Some anchor stores are as big as 5,000 square feet. Vendors can also sell outdoors in the garden center for free. Park plans to sell produce at wholesale prices to attract customers too.

That's going to give opportunities to our vendors to make sales, and I can only be successful here if my vendors are successful, he said. These vendors that I met here are really great people, and I want all of us to be successful together.

Katherine Zuniga, owner of LuZunika, was one of the vendors who had previously paid a deposit and prepared to open under the last owner. She plans to sell various hand-crafted productsincluding soaps, creams, bath bombs, bath salts, candles, resin art and crochet items.

It's all about hoping, she said of opening a business and putting faith in the new space. It's important to Ocala to have small businesses, and right now with what's been happening around with COVID and everything, a lot of people are opening small businesses and they need that outlet.

For Zuniga, its a way to evolve her side business, which she considers her passion, and begin to pursue a dream of having a physical location rather than only selling at events and online.

Audra Caffrey, owner of The Ice Queen, also sees the Ocala Mall as a way to maintain a brick-and-mortar presence without the cost of going it alone. She recently sold her mobile Italian ice truck, opting for a 10 feet by 15 feet space at the mall.

We're just really excited that this is an opportunity that's going to help a lot of vendors who can't get out to events for whatever reason, and the prices are within reason. How can you pass it up? she asked. You can tell (Greg is) somebody who cares about the vendors that are going to be in here, and that is really important.

Caffrey will sell homemade Italian ice, shakes, real fruit smoothies, floats, gourmet sundaes, hot pretzels and popcorn.

This is going to be something new and fresh, and I think a lot of people are excited that this has been vacant for so long to have something to regenerate this area over here, she said, noting that Marion Countys other flea markets have been around a while.

Melanie Henson, who refurbishes furniture under Mels Marvelous Finds, is also pleased about expanding into a bigger space in the air-conditioned Ocala Mall.

This gives me an air conditioning type of environment so that my furniture doesn't get ruined, because when you deal with natural wood, the weather kind of warps it, she said. To bring it into an environment like this, it'll give me a better opportunity, and at my age, the air conditioning is good for me too. When I move in here, I'll be 70 years old."

Henson describes her business as taking old furniture and bringing it back to life. She creates one-of-a-kind pieces of various themes, including steampunk, Victorian, coastal and country.

She also hesitates to call it a flea market, instead opting for a mall of exceptionally different kinds of eclectic things.

This is an opportunity for the neighborhood, she said. This is something that gives everybody in the city of Ocala something different to look forward to. It gives them a place to go. It gives them a variety of things to look at.

Married couple Rocky Newman and Tressa Sanchez own RTS Liquidations in Anthony and will be expanding their business to a second location with a 2,000-square-foot anchor store at the Ocala Mall.

We do a little bit of everything from tools to housewares to small appliances, furniture, Sanchez said. We do a lot of liquidations, which is overstocks, customer returns, things like that, but we also do furniture restorations.

They aim to keep their prices around 50% of retail stores.

We're very particular about who we buy from and how much we'll pay for it so we can keep that margin where we want it to be, which is low, Newman said. Were all in it to make money, but the whole idea is to save people money.

Newman and Sanchez are also excited to be part of a community of vendors rather than another standalone building.

I think its absolutely great that theyre going to do something with this instead of just let it sit here and be dormant, Newman said. It'll bring a little bit more commerce back to this side of town.

Park is working with the city to approve construction plans and hopes to hold a grand opening forthe Ocala Mall in March. He plans for it to be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com.

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Retail vendors, restaurants, food trucks: New Ocala Mall will be housed in old Ocala Kmart - Ocala