OVIEDO, Fla. – A liquidation outlet store that opened at the Oviedo Mall on Black Friday will be closing its doors next month — and now, we’re learning why.
News 6 was the first to take viewers inside Crazy Hot Buys before it even opened to the public back in November — just in time to bring new foot traffic to a mall that has been working for years to keep up with the e-commerce age. At the time, the owner, Majdi Salem, said it was their largest launch yet, and the Oviedo store was their largest location at 122,500 square feet.
The store’s owner says the business has been successful since opening and has brought customers to the mall looking to buy return or surplus items from major retailers like Target, Amazon, Kohl’s and Best Buy, at ridiculously low prices. But the business doesn’t own the space — it leases it. And the landlord had the right to terminate that lease with proper notice.
Kevin Hipes, who has been overseeing the mall’s redevelopment, explained to News 6 how the arrangement came together — and why it’s ending.
[WATCH: News 6 takes sneak peek at ‘Crazy Hot Buys’ coming to Oviedo Mall (from 2025)]
“We brought him in, and he’s a great guy. And he was a very good tenant for us because the space was sitting empty for many years,” Hipes said. “He came and approached us and he said, listen, ‘I can bring some traffic to the mall. I got good deals.’ So we put him in.”
Hipes said the store did sign a long-term lease at the former Sear’s location, but the mall retained the option to terminate it.
“We were hoping we could keep him longer, but we have a plan for that space now. And we unfortunately had to ask him to go,” he said. “He made some money. But I’m sure he wanted to stay longer. We wanted him to stay longer, too, but it just didn’t work out that way.”
What’s moving in?
Hipes isn’t revealing the new tenant just yet — but says three serious prospects are already at the table.
“I’ve got three different tenants looking at it very seriously. And quite frankly, I’m waiting a little bit longer because from a leasing perspective, I want to make sure I maximize that space and get the best tenant possible,” he said.
As for what that tenant could be, Hipes says the possibilities are wide open.
“It could be entertainment. It could be offices. Could even be another department store,” he said.
A mall in transformation
With Crazy Hot Buys closing and moving on, it marks another chapter in the mall’s ever-changing landscape — one that Hipes says is moving deliberately toward a mixed-use future.
“When you have a 1,000,000-square-foot mall, that’s too much retail. Nobody goes to the mall anymore — at least except for the super regionals or the malls that are in the tourist areas,” Hipes said. “So we have to make it a mixed use, which is eat, sleep, work, play.”
Central to that vision are apartments. For years, there have been talks and promises that the former Macy’s space would be demolished to make room for residential space.
“Once we knock down Macy’s and put up apartments there — and another 300 on this site in the grassy area — this is now a mixed-use project, and I’ve got a lot more types of tenants that will be attracted here,” he said.
[WATCH: Despite losing brewery, Oviedo Mall revamp is ‘close,’ development director says (from 2025)]
Hipes held off from making any formal announcement about the future development or the timeline.
“As soon as I announce the apartments, there’ll be signs going up on both sides of this mall saying ‘coming soon’ — million-dollar apartment complexes. And that’ll give me the leverage,” he said. “People see this mall right now as a mall with two empty department stores. It’s going to be a mixed-use project.”'C
Medical Main Street, a food hall, more
Beyond retail and residential, Hipes is reimagining entire corridors of the mall. One wing is already rebranded as what he calls “Medical Main Street.”
“We’ve already got Orlando Orthopedic here — it’s like a 16,000-square-foot space that was empty for probably 10 years,” he said. “I’ve got a pharmacy now. I’m trying to get a dentist, a chiropractor, a family practice. I will eventually get all of those.”
On the retail side, Hipes says the mall will shift away from big national chains — which he says are largely abandoning traditional malls — and lean into high-end boutique stores.
“We’re going to be more like Park Avenue or Winter Park Village,” he said. “Most of your big national chains, they’re just not going into malls anymore. So we’re going to be downsizing the retail and upsizing the other sleep, work, play concepts.”
Several unique food and beverage tenants are already in the works. Hipes highlighted D’Amico and Sons, an 8,000-square-foot Italian supermarket with a bakery, as well as Bruder Latin Restaurant & Brewery — a Latin American-Colombian brewery with 10 locations in Colombia — opening its first U.S. location at the Oviedo Mall.
“He could have gone to Miami. No, he came to the Oviedo Mall,” Hipes said. “He’s spending over $1 million in there.”
A Japanese steakhouse in the mall is also set to be converted into a sushi restaurant soon, Hipes added.
The food court itself is getting a rebrand, too. Hipes says he plans to rename it the “Oviedo Eatery” — a nod to the food hall concept — and add beer and wine service to encourage longer, more social visits.
“Instead of going in for a 30-minute meal and coming out, you get to sit in, enjoy your time, maybe watch the Super Bowl on TV,” he said.
‘It’s going to happen. It just takes time.’
The community has been vocal about the pace of change at Oviedo Mall — raising questions about closures, openings and long-promised residential development. When pressed on that criticism, Hipes acknowledged the frustration but stood firm.
“I know what I tell people. I say, ‘listen, I know what I’m doing,’” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. This is one of the best pieces of dirt that I’ve ever worked on. It’s going to happen. It just takes time.”
Part of that complexity, he says, comes down to ownership.
“You’ve got four different property owners on this mall property, and all four have to agree to everything before you can go forward. It’s a lot of lawyers involved and a lot of documents,” he said. “It’s given me a headache and gray hair — but we’re very, very close.”
Hipes even admitted he’s stepped back from posting apartment updates on social media to avoid overpromising.
“I know that I’m like the guy that cries wolf. So, I’m going to lay low until I can make the announcement,” he said. “But I think it is going to happen.”