Heading the development parade is Rob Miller, an entrepreneur who isn't giving up on Osceola's retail potential. Miller has put his prime 850-acre Osceola Trace tract near Disney on the market and already is negotiating with undisclosed investors to build a one-million-sf, open-air shopping center along State Road 535 between US 192 and Osceola Parkway.

"He's not deterred by past failures," a former Miller associate tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. "He never takes no for an answer." However, other developers and brokers, intimate with the Osceola County retail markets, tell GlobeSt.com they doubt Osceola's permanent population of 172,493 can support 1.32 million sf of new retail, even over a five-year span.

Miller couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline. But the Orlando office of Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. confirms it is marketing Miller's land. The developer's envisioned $1.1-billion, three-million-sf World Expo Center enterprise bombed in 2001 when investors pulled out midway through the project's planning stage.

Brokers familiar with Miller's plans tell GlobeSt.com the four-phased shopping center could tentatively open in 2004 and be completed in 2006 if several land deals are closed early this year.

FaulknerUSA of Austin, TX is one name that has surfaced as a possible retail developer but only if the Texas-based firm first wins a contract from the county to build a one-million-sf, $100-million convention center on 80 acres of Miller's land, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Results of the month-long contract negotiations are expected to be announced this quarter.

Osceola County began talks with Faulkner after severing negotiations in December with Orlando-based Xentury City Development Co., the county's first choice. The new, 80-acre convention-center location is the former site of the planned World Expo Center. The retail project would be developed in front of the convention center.

Miller's mall would face direct competition from the nearby 1.8-million-sf Florida Mall; the 320,000-sf Osceola Square Mall being redeveloped by the Goodman Co. of West Palm Beach; and the Loop, a 320,000-sf open-air retail center planned by the Wilder Cos. of Boston at the northwest corner of Osceola Parkway and John Young Parkway, three miles east of the proposed convention center.