Developer concept plans for revamping the Indian River Mall reveal the new owner’s apparent strategy of pumping shoppers and diners into the stores and eateries from 280 adjacent apartments with club amenities and a 120-room motel.

DTS Properties II, LLC, which recently bought the mall and the adjacent former Macy’s building, submitted rough drawings of a three-phase plan to Indian River County last week.

The Midwestern firm is hoping to breathe life back into a decaying mall that once was a jewel in the community’s State Road 60 commercial corridor by transforming it from a mid-20th Century era indoor suburban mall to a multi-use community hub.

The concept of building a motel, apartments or condos next to or on top of a mall has been accomplished successfully before in Florida — the Florida Mall steps from the Florida Hotel in Orlando, Boca Raton’s ritzy Mizner Park apartments and nearby condos, and CityPlace apartment and condo towers in West Palm Beach to name a few.

The motel and five buildings of multifamily residences – as well as a proposed school – would all be located on the 26th Street side of the existing mall, adding traffic to that already crowded road.

For a project of this scope and complexity, preliminary site plans are the first step in a long process that would likely require changes to zoning, land use and density restrictions at the very least, along with input from planners, county commissioners, and the public.

The pre-application includes a conceptual plan and proposes demolishing the central portion of the mall and the former Macy’s building.  The new owner, in three phases, would then construct:

• Retail spaces at the eastern corner of the site, possibly for a Kohl’s department store, a Dick’s Sporting Goods store, a Sprouts supermarket, a Books-A-Million store, and four additional retail stores;

• Four large retail spaces, approximately 51,000- to 87,000-square-feet each, in the central portion of the mall site;

• A five-story, 120-room motel, in the northeastern section of the site;

• Five apartment buildings with 56 units in each building, a total of 280 residential units, plus a clubhouse and pool, in the northern section of the site;

• A 9,775-square-foot school with 10 classrooms at the northwest corner of the site;

• Two small free-standing retail stores that would be built after approximately half of the movie theaters are demolished.

DTS Properties purchased the main portion of the mall on May 16 for $14.8 million and purchased the former Macy’s building in March, along with property west of the mall which includes the Big Lots store, for $4.75 million. No plans have been submitted for the Big Lots parcel.

The mall’s anchor store sites – occupied by JCPenney, Dillard’s, and formerly by Sears – are owned and managed by other companies. DTS has owned Indian River Commons, the shopping plaza east of the mall, since 2016 and paid $16.5 million. That plaza is home to Best Buy, Michael’s, and the former Bed, Bath & Beyond, which is slated to become Total Wine & More, among other stores.

The Site Plan Pre-Application will be inspected to make sure all the necessary documents are included and, if so, will be forwarded to a county planner for review, said planner Grant McFarland. No one from DTS returned messages requesting comment as of press time.