The project has been reduced from 1.6 million sf after area residents complained of its size. The center is tentatively scheduled to open in October 2007. The largest enclosed retail center in Central Florida is Simon Property Group's 1.8-million-sf Florida Mall in south Orlando, about 15 miles from the Sembler project.

The Sembler site is 10 miles west of Downtown Orlando and will compete directly with the 1.1-million-sf, 10-year-old enclosed West Oaks Mall owned by Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc, area retail brokers tell GlobeSt.com. The property is about two miles east of Winter Garden on State Road 50.

Sembler officials expect their center to be at least 90% leased at opening, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Among the big-box anchors are Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, Marshalls, Ross Dress for Less, Staples, Famous Footwear and Cost Plus World Market. Average gross rent for non-anchors is running from $20 to $30 per sf, plus a percentage of annual sales, area retail brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.

As the construction of Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves gets under way, still another retail venture is planned for the West Orlando market. John Hussey, owner of Orlando-based Realtrend Inc., and Dale and Ray Parsons of Parsons Design & Development, have filed preliminary plans with Winter Garden city planners for Garden Plaza, a $32-million retail and residential condo complex on West State Road 50.

The developers reportedly paid $4.2 million, or $525,000 per acre ($12.05 per sf), for the eight-acre site, according to local industrial brokers familiar with the transaction. A construction timetable for the project is being worked out.