From Blueprint to Grand Opening: The Oaks Mall, 1974-1978
Before The Oaks Mall was a place for early-morning Black Friday crowds and mall walkers, it was a proposal on paper in 1974, floated by developers Alan Squitieri and David Hocker.
Gainesville already had one indoor shopping center, the Gainesville Mall, but this new project promised something bigger, closer to Interstate 75, and, most importantly, led by well-known stores: JCPenney and Belk-Lindsey were the first main stores to join.
From the start, county officials were skeptical. They worried about flooding and traffic if a large regional mall opened on West Newberry Road.
The condition for moving the project ahead was better roads, along with improved retention ponds.
Those prosaic early meetings carefully fixed the paths and systems that now carry shoppers and students toward the surrounding area.
By February 1978, most of the concerns had faded into the background. The Oaks Mall opened as Gainesville's second indoor mall, marked not by grand speeches but by new escalators and cool air conditioning.
Belk-Lindsey and JCPenney flanked a corridor that also housed an AMC six-screen theater along what is now the hallway where Hot Topic sits.
From Expansion to Dominance: The Oaks Mall and the Fall of Gainesville Mall
In the early 1980s, The Oaks Mall grew from a newcomer into the region's main shopping destination. In 1983, it expanded twice in quick succession, adding Burdines, Sears, and Ivey's as new anchor stores.
The mall became more than just a place to shop - it showed where Gainesville's economic center was shifting.
Sears made the most decisive move. It moved from the older Gainesville Mall to The Oaks Mall. While it might have seemed like a routine business decision, it had a big impact.
The older mall, which was farther from I-75, struggled after that and eventually closed in 1993.
After closure, the property was redeveloped for a Kmart, which later gave way to a Lowe's that opened in 2006.
Meanwhile, The Oaks Mall settled into its regional role. Its trade area extended into 11 counties, drawing shoppers from smaller communities that lacked large enclosed malls of their own.
The nearby University of Florida and Santa Fe College, with more than 64,000 students between them, supplied a steady stream of customers and workers.
The mall became a routine destination for clothing, entertainment, and everyday errands.
Black Friday Crowds, Santa Photos, and a Parking-Lot Carnival
As the mall aged into the 1990s, it added a second role to its retail one: civic backdrop.
The mall hosted a 3M night run that started in its parking lot, organized senior health events, and used its hallways for charity drives.
Before smartphones, it was like a real-life newsfeed where you could see who was doing well and who had started a family.
The building itself needed work, and in 1995, a $3.9 million renovation showed that the owners knew it would not stay in good shape by itself.
The AMC theater eventually went dark, making way for future reinvention.
Around the same time, the rituals hardened into tradition. On Black Friday, the mall opened early, drawing lines of shoppers who swore the deals were better before they had to fight for parking with online orders.
In December, Santa took up residence for photos, the mall's annual reminder that childhood wonder could be commodified by the 5x7 print.
Once a year, a modest carnival set up in the parking lot, its rides a short walk from the food court.
These events turned The Oaks Mall into more than just a building. It became a place where the community marked important moments, even as shopping habits began to shift.
Bigger Food Court, Bigger Brands
In 2002, while The Oaks Mall was still a relatively young mall, it started a six-month renovation costing millions.
The food court grew to 18,000 square feet and could seat 650 people. There were special areas for children and disabled guests, making the space more inclusive and practical.
The restaurant lineup looked like a syllabus in early-2000s mall dining: Chick-fil-A, Great Steak & Potato, Nature's Table, Suki Hana, Wendy's, and Yeung's Lotus Express, with Subway penciled in soon after.
The renovation changed the old AMC theater into new store space.
The hallway that used to smell like popcorn now had Hot Topic, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister Co., and EB Games, along with new restrooms and a children's play area where there used to be a small stage.
An 800-square-foot spot stayed empty for a while, showing that even in good times, landlords still had a few empty spaces.
The mall kept upgrading. In 2015, Sears was spun off into Seritage Growth Properties, a corporate maneuver that hinted at looming trouble for anchors.
In 2017, occupancy hit 96 percent, and all five anchor spaces were filled; the same year, the mall installed LED bulbs and solar panels, a nod to energy efficiency and perhaps to rising utility bills.
From Fallen Anchors to Medical Hub at The Oaks
Then came 2018, the year the department store model truly wobbled. Macy's closed its location after a liquidation sale that ran into March.
Sears closed by July. Instead of leaving, Dillard's expanded into the old Macy's space while keeping its original store in the former Ivey's location.
Gainesville, improbably, gained a second Dillard's. At the same time, the mall accepted a tenant that did not sell sweaters or televisions.
UF Health transformed the old Sears space into a large medical complex for eye, ear, nose, and throat care. The new facility has dozens of exam rooms, procedure areas, and diagnostic suites.
Covering more than 139,000 square feet, it also includes radiology services and a surgical center to meet the area's growing need for specialty care.
By the time the clinics opened in January 2020, followed by a 23,500-square-foot surgical center later that year, the former Sears had become UF Health The Oaks, with more than 500 parking spaces and skylit concourses cooled by variable refrigerant flow systems designed to cut energy use in half.
Brookfield, U.S. Bank, and The Oaks Mall Foreclosure
Brookfield Properties controlled The Oaks Mall in the early 2020s, even as its own bond rating slipped to just above junk in 2021, an anxiety-provoking label for a company whose assets are, by definition, hard to move.
Local zoning quietly repositioned the area in 2019, allowing more residential uses around the mall.
In March 2023, nearly eight acres of overflow parking on the mall's southern flank were sold for $3.8 million and rezoned for apartments.
Evergreen Westside, a 240-unit complex, eventually broke ground across the street, promising to "drop potential shoppers right on the doorstep" of the mall.
The phrase carried a whiff of optimism, as if proximity to a food court could settle regional retail economics.
Inside the mall, life went on. In June 2024, police descended on the property after a false report of a hostage situation that escalated into an active-shooter rumor.
The building was evacuated and combed store by store by law enforcement. By 10 p.m., officers announced there was no evidence of a shooter, no hostages, no injuries.
Two months later, in early August, a local chain, Mi Apa Latin Cafe, opened in the food court, serving Cuban dishes to students, interstate travelers, and employees from nearby offices.
By Black Friday 2024, Belk management was reporting stronger in-person traffic than in recent post-COVID years, even if discounts seemed less thrilling.
A 2012 loan of $118 million, borrowed from German American Capital Corp, matured on October 1, 2024. According to court filings, roughly $78 million in principal and $1.4 million in interest remained unpaid.
In December 2024, U.S. Bank, as trustee, filed a foreclosure complaint and asked a judge to place the mall into receivership, proposing Spinoso Real Estate Group as the neutral manager.
Evergreen Neighbors and a Contested Future
By January 2025, Evergreen Westside was under construction, its foundations rising from what had been seas of asphalt.
The apartments promised hundreds of residents within walking distance of Belk's cosmetics counters and BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse.
Across the parking-lot road, the mall's own fate was being debated in legal language rather than leasing brochures.
In March 2025, the Eighth Judicial Circuit agreed with U.S. Bank and put The Oaks Mall into receivership.
Spinoso Real Estate Group DLS, LLC, based in Syracuse and already managing more than 30 malls nationwide, was appointed receiver.
On April 8, Spinoso publicly announced that it had been awarded the property management and leasing assignment.
Repairs that had been put off for a long time were finally being addressed. Work on the roof had started, and plans were being made to fix up the parking lot.
With Spinoso in charge, the mall had small but steady increases in visitors during the summer of 2025, with the most people coming in August.
However, money was still tight. The mall was making much less money than planned for the year, and this continued a drop that had lasted for several years, even as the mall still had to pay for expensive past projects.
Busy Mall, Broken Balance Sheet
By late 2025, The Oaks Mall is still very much in use.
More than a hundred stores are open, the food court stays busy, and UF Health The Oaks in the former Sears space has become one of the most reliable anchors on the property.
Belk, two Dillard's locations, and JCPenney continue to frame the main corridors.
The university is woven into the place: Gator colors in shop windows, an alligator statue near Belk, and steady traffic from students and staff who treat the mall as part of their regular circuit.
South of the property, the Evergreen Westside apartments are now open and leasing, and they're already being talked about as a new source of foot traffic as more residents move in.
All of this sits against the fact that the mall is in foreclosure and under a court-appointed receiver. The buildings are busy, but the final decisions will be made on paper.
