The developers are retrofitting a former Wal-Mart and Publix supermarket at the near-vacant, 314,000-sf Westside Crossing Plaza and the adjoining 36,000-sf vacant Rhodes Furniture Showroom between Kirkman and Pine Hills Roads on West Colonial Drive to be called Mandarin Plaza. The estimated conversion cost is $1 million. Seventy-one tenants already have signed leases--60 at Westside; 11 at Mandarin.

Average asking rents at Mandarin Plaza are $10 to $15 per sf, William D. "Billy" Bishop, president/owner, Bishop Realty & Development, Orlando, tells GlobeSt.com. Peter Lee, managing broker of the West Side Crossing Plaza project, couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline.

But area retail brokers familiar with the West Orlando submarket tell GlobeSt.com average asking rents will be in the $15-per-sf range. Bishop says Mandarin Plaza is 50% leased and anticipates a summer opening. West Side Crossing is about 75% pre-leased, area brokers estimate.

The two ventures come at a time when metro Orlando's permanent Asian population is at 30,000, up from 14,000 a decade ago, according to the U.S. Census. About 11,000 Asian residents live within 10 miles of the proposed Chinatown site.

The new Asian retail center is expected to compete fiercely with the existing, 20-year-old Vietnamese and Korean retail-dominated submarket five miles away in the Colonialtown district near East Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue (U.S. 17-92).

"Our retail district is now known throughout the state as a one-of-a-kind place to buy certain food and household items," a representative for a Mills Avenue retailer tells GlobeSt.com. "The new center will have a long way to go to rival our area for specialty items."

That may be, say area brokers, but Colonialtown retailers already are eyeing the new location to establish satellite stores. For example, Matthew Tang, owner of Fairway Restaurant Equipment on East Colonial Drive and the prime developer of Mandarin Plaza, expects to open a second store on West Colonial Drive, next to the Chinatown project.

Although a Chinese grocery will anchor Chinatown, the center will also comprise Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Thai and Japanese-owned businesses.