Mall gets national attention

The Sarasota-Bradenton region, specifically the Mall at University Town Center, recently got some love from the New York Times.

The newspaper published a story in its commercial real estate section titled “A New Florida Mall Defies Retailing's Headwinds,” an overview of the 880,000-square-foot Mall at UTC, which opened in October. “It's hard to conceive of a city that needs a new shopping mall in a country overpopulated with shopping sprawl,” states the first paragraph.

But the rest of the story mostly talks up the positive attributes in the region that justify the Mall at UTC — one of three enclosed malls built in the United States since 2008. A $315 million project, the Mall at UTC is a joint venture between Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman Centers and University Park-based Benderson Development.