Desoto Square Mall Closed Permanently Friday: Report

BRADENTON, FL — Desoto Square Mall, the only indoor mall in Manatee County, will shut its doors for good Friday, reports said.

The mall, located at 303 301 Blvd. West in Bradenton, first opened in 1973 and has operated for nearly 50 years. Its closure was announced by a notice taped to the entrance.

Desoto Square has experienced its ups and downs in recent years, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. After being bought out of foreclosure in 2012, redevelopment plans were announced, but never came about.

It changed hands again in 2017, purchased by Meyer Lebovitz for $22.85 million, and there was renewed talk of the mall’s revival, but this also never happened, the Bradenton Herald reported.

The mall was back in foreclosure by 2018, but this foreclosure sale was canceled in September of last year when its owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reports said. The malls owners still owe its lender, Romspen U.S. Master Mortgage LP, which is based in the Cayman Islands, nearly $21.79 million.

There’s still hope for the owners to redevelop the property, the Herald reported. They have 90 days to secure financing for a redevelopment project that would see most of the mall demolished and rebuilt as a multi-use project.

The owners have proposed building a lifestyle center, a 40,000 square-foot grocery store, 90,000 square feet of office space, three retail outparcels, 360 residential garden homes and 150 units of senior housing at the site, reports said.