Dezerland Park Orlando

Dezerland Park Orlando
	Artegon Marketplace in 2016
Location	Orlando, Florida
Coordinates	28°28′07″N 81°26′52″W / 28.4685°N 81.447867°W
Address	5250 International Drive
Opening date	2002 (as Festival Bay Mall); 2014 (as Artegon Marketplace); 2020 (as Dezerland Park Orlando)
Developer	Belz Enterprises
Management	Paragon Outlet Partners LLC
Owner	Dezer Development
No. of stores and services	65
No. of anchor tenants	5
Total retail floor area	865,000 square feet (80,400 m2)
No. of floors	1 (2 in former Vans Skatepark and Bass Pro Shops)

Dezerland Park Orlando (formerly known as the Festival Bay and Artegon Marketplace) is an enclosed shopping mall and amusement park located on International Drive in Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened in 2002 as a property of the Belz Factory Outlets, it is owned and managed by Dezer Development. As Festival Bay Marketplace, the complex was 860,000 square feet (80,000 m²) in size with Bass Pro Shops, Boot Barn, Book Warehouse, Gods & Monsters, and Ron Jon Surf Shop as anchor stores. It also comprised several entertainment venues, including a Cinemark movie theater, Sky Zone Trampoline Park, Sky Trail Ropes Course, and a Putting Edge glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course. Having failed twice as a shopping mall, the complex reopened in 2020 as Dezerland Park Orlando.

History

Festival Bay Mall

The mall was planned and developed by Belz Enterprises. It was originally planned to open in 2000, but the opening was delayed until 2002.^[2] Initial plans called for the mall to be 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m²) in size,^[3] but it was scaled back to 865,000 square feet (80,400 m²).

In 2004, plans were announced for a surfing park, named Ron Jon Surfpark, to be built inside the mall.^[4] This project was never opened.

In January 2012, Vans Skatepark, one of the mall's anchors, closed. While it was one of the most popular attractions at the mall, no reason was given for the closure. It is stated that after two years, the mall is expected to reopen most likely as a newly named, open-air complex with shops, entertainment and maybe even hotels.^[5]

Artegon Marketplace

In early 2011, the mall was acquired by a division of The Lightstone Group, which announced plans to redevelop the mall. Festival Bay was re-opened as Artegon Marketplace on November 20, 2014.^[6]

The $70 million renovation removed the mall's signature lake and tile-mosaic signage in favor of a modernized theme. The renovation also converted two-thirds of Festival Bay's original space into small storefronts (40–300 square feet (3.7–27.9 m²) in size), which were rented out to local artisanal vendors.^[6] The mall's anchor stores were retained.

Artegon Marketplace closed on January 26, 2017. The closure was announced to tenants only two weeks prior, which led to larger tenants filing a lawsuit against Lightstone. As with the closure of Festival Bay, the mall's anchors, such as Bass Pro Shops and Cinemark, remained open.^[7]

Dezerland Park Orlando

In January 2018, Dezer Development of Miami acquired the property, encompassing its 104 acres and 865,000-square-foot (80,400 m²) mall, for $23.7 million. The complex, now known as Dezerland Park, officially reopened in 2021. One of the site's focal points is the Orlando Auto Museum, which contains a collection of automobiles and automotive memorabilia previously located at the Miami Auto Museum at the Dezer Collection in North Miami, Florida. Dezerland Park contains Florida's largest indoor karting track, as well as a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m²) trampoline park, bowling, laser tag, bumper cars, and arcade.^[8]