Comments on: Orange Blossom Mall; Fort Pierce, Florida

By: mike

mike — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:17:38 +0000

@Kathy, when did the murder take place? I am doing research on a guy who was killed in 1985 in that area. Thanks

By: jack favorite

jack favorite — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:24:53 +0000

@kDoes anyone remember what was there before the mall. Just a plain old pasture, but several times each year, there would be a carnival, or a small circus held on that plain old pasture. That, Too is a very good memory!

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:29:55 +0000

@Bart, what was your mothers name we hung out and worked a couple summers with buck and bum on the road thought we might know her thanks

By: kelli

kelli — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:34:10 +0000

Kathy I just ran across this blog. Sears was where the school board offices are now. Belk Lindsay was at the complete opposite end. Convergys moved into Belks after the mall closed.

There was a really nice baby clothing store next to Sears, and Kay-Bee Toys was on the other side of the hallway, also next to Sears. Also down at that end was a greeting card store (American something or other), Radio Shack, and a store that I think was called Bed Bath and Kitchen. (not Bed Bath and Beyond). I think the owner was Karen Kane who now has a store in historic area of downtown FP. Further down was a Lechtners (not sure of spelling) which was a kitchen gadgets store.

This mall was killed by the mall that opened in Vero Beach on SR 60 – they enticed the businesses out of there with offers of really low rent and a much bigger mall and more affluent population. Once they started moving out, it had a snowball effect which caused fewer to shop there and more stores to go. Treasure Coast Square in Jensen had an effect on it but not nearly as much as the one in Indian River. Right after that, a new discount Outlet Mall on the same road in Vero Beach killed our Outlet Mall that was down the road from Orange Blossom and was on the west side of I-95. That discount outlet mall in Vero is now in bankruptcy after killing ours off. Grrr.

I do think that Orange Blossom was originally a deBartolo mall but could be wrong. TC Square in Jensen was. Walmart had a different clientele and in my opinon, did not affect the shopping at OB Mall that much, although it did affect Sears to some extent. But not so much Belk’s which was a more expensive store.

In Fort Pierce we have never had a decent place to shop since Orange Blossom. Sure we have Walmart, and somehow Kmart survived on US 1 but that’s it. Sam’s was a help but then they moved to Port St. Lucie, leaving us with no discount club either, and Lowes moved out in the early 2000s too, leaving us just Home Depot by Walmart.

One thing, though, that’s good is that the downtown Fort Pierce area on Second Street has turned into a great place to find really nice merchandise, restaurants and services, and not necessarily sky high prices, either.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:55:01 +0000

Ah the Orange Blossom Mall was a fixture in my life from 1985 until the early 2000’s. In the early years when this mall was alive my mom would buy me GIJOE figures at the Sears. In the end days we use to skate board all over the place. Security was so lax or non existent it was a young punks dream.

It reminded us of Old Detroit from the Robocop movies.

By: brian

brian — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:33:12 +0000

@Kathy, the mall in stuart used to be called the martin square mall.it was located were home depot and sears essentals is now.right beside indian street and us1. it is now called the martin square center. the sears building is the only thing that is left of the original mall.

By: Bobby P.

Bobby P. — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:57:30 +0000

There’s a pic of the mallmanac but i can’t read the numbers on it.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:21:16 +0000

Oh, should have asked in the above comment, does anyone have a mall map or layout of where the stores in the OB mall were located? This mall is creepy to walk through, but the Palm Beach Mall is even worse! I guess it’s closing January 31, 2010. That was really weird feeling walking around in it….maybe it was the fact that you could see the food court where the guy was murdered!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:18:34 +0000

Where was the mall in Stuart? Haven’t seen anything there that looks like it was a mall.

By: am

am — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:19:47 +0000

The opening of the Treasure Coast Mall 15 miles to the south killed the Orange Blossom Mall. The tenants of the tiny Stuart mall moved to the new Treasure Coast Mall situated at the north edge of Martin County near fast growing Port St. Lucie in southern St. Lucie County. Ft. Pierce isn’t as nice an area and isn’t growing like Port St. Lucie. The Treasure Coast Mall is a standard large regional mall in the center of the Port St. Lucie/Stuart population area. The area wasn’t big enough to support two malls so the smaller mall in a smaller and less desirable area died.