ORLANDO, Fla. – The Mall at Millennia reopened Monday with some new rules to keep people safe. 

Only a quarter of the mall will be open but Mall General Manager Steven Jamieson says that’s still thousands of people all who will have to adhere to new safety guidelines. The mall’s reopening also means much-needed sales tax revenue for Orange County.

“We intend to maintain our social distancing practices this year; we have created environments for spaces where we sort of have guests that will be in our common area so up in our food court at our concierge desk at our post offices,” Jamieson said.

There is also constant cleaning, signs separating people in lines and hand sanitizing stations. Jamieson says he’s hopeful these new measure will keep everyone safe and bring much needed business back to the Mall at Millennia.

“We have high hopes that our stores will come back online very soon and that business and sales will over a period of time come back to what they were,” he said.  

Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond says the county depends on sales tax revenue from retail businesses across the area like Mall at Millennia, and since the economy has been severely impacted by coronavirus, that revenue is needed now more than ever.

“As far as the numbers, the county is obviously going to take a big hit on sales tax just because of where the economy has been over the past couple of months,” Diamond said.

Monday Diamond said the tourism tax brought in about $13 million in March, that’s a more than 50 percent decrease from last year. Diamond anticipates sales taxes to be down as well.

“The fact that a lot of people have lost jobs or gotten furloughed seen their hours cut and people aren’t making as much they can’t spend as much and if they can’t spend as much that’s going to really have an impact on the sales tax,” Phil Diamond said.

But things are on the turnaround said Jamieson. His priority is making sure people are safe while shopping.

“We are here and we are ready to make the experience right for our guests,” he said.

Diamond says while sales tax revenue generates a lot of money for the local economy, they rely mainly on property taxes for the largest portion of their revenue stream.

For the time being, the Mall at Millennia will be open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.