The Mall at University Town Center is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

located in

Sarasota County, Florida Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota, Florida, Sarasota and its largest city is North Port, Florida, North Port. Sara ...

, United States, just south of the

Manatee County Manatee County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat and largest ci ...

line near the planned community of

Lakewood Ranch Lakewood Ranch is a planned community and census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Manatee County and northeastern Sarasota County, Florida, United States, consisting of approximately . It is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Flor ...

. It opened on October 16, 2014 and is anchored by

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street and 7th Street shopping districts, F Street shopping distric ...

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

and

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company a ...

History

The Mall at University Town Center began in 2002 when Benderson Corporation purchased the land and announced their intention to build the land into a regional mall. In 2007,

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and a seco ...

signed a letter of intent to open at the mall.

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by Saks Global, a Corporate spin-off, spin-o ...

and

signed letters of intent soon after, with a planned groundbreaking in 2008 and a planned opening in 2010. The Taubman Corp. joined the project in May 2008, a 50/50 split with Benderson. In summer of 2009, the project was placed on hold due to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, and the three planned anchor stores pulled out. On October 15, 2012, a revamped Mall at University Town Center was unveiled.

rejoined the project, this time joined by

and

. Groundbreaking would occur on October 15, 2012. The Mall would officially open on October 16, 2014. At the time of its opening it was the first regional shopping center built in Sarasota in 35 years and was one of two enclosed malls that opened in the United States during 2014. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

the mall would close starting on March 19, 2020 and ended up reopening on May 6.

The District at UTC

The District East and The District West are two shopping centers located just east and west of the Mall at UTC. The District West includes retailers such as

Super Target Target Corporation is an American retail corporation that operates a chain of discount department stores and hypermarkets, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the United States, and a component of the ...

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

Ulta Beauty Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of cosmetic stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high- and low-end cosmetics, fragra ...

Petco Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. is an American Pet store, pet retailer with corporate offices in San Diego and San Antonio. Petco sells pet food, products, and services, as well as certain types of live small animals. Founded in 1965 as ...

, and

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized in all caps as DICK'S Sporting Goods) is an American chain of sporting goods stores founded in 1948 by Richard "Dick" Stack. It is the largest sporting goods retailer in the United States and is listed ...

. The District East is slated to include shopping, hotels, a movie theater and housing. Bordering

Nathan Benderson Park Nathan Benderson Park, previously known as North Metro Park and Cooper Creek Park, is a park in the U.S. state of Florida, owned by Sarasota County. It incorporates a artificial lake in northern Sarasota County, Florida, Sarasota County, direct ...

, home of the

2017 World Rowing Championships The 2017 World Rowing Championships were the 47th edition of the World Rowing Championships that were held from 24 September to 1 October 2017 in Sarasota, Florida. Host selection During 2013, Plovdiv and Sarasota, Florida both applied to host ...

. The District East is currently under development. On June 29, 2023, it was announced that

Christmas Tree Shops Christmas Tree Shops (also known as Christmas Tree Shops andThat!, or simply andThat!) was an American chain of Big-box store, big-box specialty retail stores, headquartered in Middleborough, Massachusetts. At its peak, the chain operated 72 stor ...

would be closing as part of a plan to close all 82 stores nationwide. The store closed on August 12, 2023.

References

External links

* {{Tampa Bay Area malls Shopping malls in Florida Shopping malls established in 2014 Taubman Centers Buildings and structures in Sarasota, Florida Tourist attractions in Sarasota County, Florida 2014 establishments in Florida