Florida Parque is the newest Western-style shopping mall in Medellín, but it isn’t located in El Poblado.
Florida Parque is located near Cerro El Volador in Robledo, a barrio that hasn’t been discovered by many foreigners.
Construction of Florida Parque started in early 2012 and the mall opened in May 2013, so the mall has been open a little over a year.
The mall was built with an investment of about 100 billion pesos (over $54 million). The shops in Florida Parque employee about 2,000 staff.
The company that built Florida Parque found during their research that the area was underserved without a shopping mall with a population of about 700,000 in barrios nearby.
People living in this area had no close mall option and had to travel to shop in Bello or El Centro or in malls even further away before Florida Parque was built.
The company also felt that malls already saturate neighborhoods like El Poblado and further south in Sabeneta.
I tend to agree and I believe that El Poblado is overbuilt with malls, which is why you can see some vacancies in some of the malls such as Oviedo.
The Shops in Florida Parque
On the opening date last year, 95% out of a total of 204 shops in Florida Parque were occupied in the new mall. I only saw a couple of vacancies when I was at the mall recently.
The anchor tenants of Florida Parque are Euro Supermercado, Alkomprar, Agaval and a seven screen Cinemas Procinal movie theater.
Euro Supermercado is a supermarket where I found something difficult to find in Medellin, dill pickles. A large 46-oz jar of Valasic dill pickles imported from the US cost 8,860 pesos ($4.77).
You can also find Euro in Central Mayorista in Itagüí and there are also two Euro stores in Envigado.
Alkomprar is like a small Best Buy selling televisions, computers, appliances and other electronics and they frequently have sales.
You can also find Alkomprar in several other malls in Medellin including Los Molinos, Puerta del Norte, Mayorca and also one is located in El Centro.
Agaval is a large store primarily selling major brand tennis shoes (i.e. Adidas, LA Gear, New Balance, Nike, Puma, Reebok, and others) at discount prices but also selling clothes and televisions and other electronics.
At Agaval I purchased a pair of New Balance tennis shoes on sale for 99,990 pesos ($53), which was about 45 percent cheaper than I had seen for the same shoes in stores in the Los Molinos mall near my apartment.
Agaval also has standalone stores in Bello, Itagüí, Junin and El Centro.
Agaval was probably the busiest store I saw while walking around Florida Parque.
Of the nearly 200 other stores in Florida Parque selling clothes, shoes and other items, Esprit Outlet was another fairly popular store with 50 percent discounts on clothes.
Of course, no larger mall in Medellín is complete without several lingerie stores and Florida Parque has several. I understand that Colombia is the third largest producer of lingerie globally.
Food Options
Florida Parque has two food courts located on two floors, which have about 40 different options to choose from.
You will find several of the typical fast food places in Medellín here including Frisby, KFC, Kokoriko, QBano, Sr. Wok and Subway.
You will also find several restaurants in Florida Parque including Crepes and Waffles, El Covacho, Il Forno, J&C Delicias and La Olla Criolla.
Conclusions
Pro’s – It’s a nice new mall and not yet very busy compared to some of the other malls in Medellín, if you don’t like crowds. It also has several stores with good prices.
Con’s – It is relatively far from the neighborhoods where most foreigners stay or live (El Poblado, Laureles/Estadio, Envigado and Belén).
My Verdict – Unless you live in one of the barrios nearby there really isn’t a reason to go, as there isn’t something unique at Florida Parque that you can’t find in other locations in Medellín.
How to Get There – From the metro station Hospital you can take a feeder bus to Robledo, integrated route 254 or a taxi. You can also take bus routes 282, 283, 284, 289 and 402.
Note: we plan to publish a detailed profile of the Robledo comuna at the end of the month.
I am glad to see someone has explored areas other than El Poblado, Laureles, and Envigado. I agree with your review, but I would also like to mention other popular bus routes that go past Florida Parque Comercial, including Robledo 260 / 260A and Ruta de la Salud (you can take the latter just outside Colombo Americano, located in the city center of Medellín). Thanks!