Disney Springs has lost four tenants in five months and the latest departure is one that a lot of guests did not see coming.
Johnston & Murphy, the premium footwear and apparel brand that has operated in Disney Springs' Town Center, closed permanently on Thursday, May 7th. The store gave guests roughly a week of notice before shutting down. Cast members are in the process of transferring remaining inventory to other Johnston & Murphy locations. The staff will move to a new location the company is opening at The Mall of Millenia in October.
If Johnston & Murphy is not a name you immediately recognize, the context helps. This is a brand that has been custom-designing footwear for American presidents for more than a century. Abraham Lincoln wore their shoes. So did John F. Kennedy. So did Barack Obama.
The Disney Springs location carried premium footwear, apparel, outerwear, and accessories for both men and women, and it represented a category of retail that Disney Springs does not have an obvious replacement for right now.
Guests who want Johnston & Murphy products while in Orlando still have options. The brand has stores at Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets and Orlando International Premium Outlets on International Drive, both of which are accessible from the resort corridor without a significant drive.
The Full Picture of Disney Springs Closures in 2025
Johnston & Murphy is the fourth notable closure at Disney Springs in less than six months, and the list deserves to be laid out plainly because the cumulative effect is real.
Sprinkles Cupcakes closed on January 1st. Francesca's clothing store closed on March 29th. Shore closed on April 30th. Johnston & Murphy closed on May 7th. Four businesses gone from Town Center in five months.
Disney has not publicly announced permanent replacements for any of the four. The former Sprinkles space is currently occupied by a Black Tap Craft Burgers and Shakes pop-up, which is explicitly temporary.
Gideon's Bakehouse has announced a new restaurant called Six Ravens is coming later this year, which has generated genuine excitement given how devoted the Gideon's fanbase is and how long the existing bakery's lines tend to run. But Six Ravens has not opened yet and the details remain sparse.
The honest read on Disney Springs right now is that it is a district mid-transition. Tenants have departed. Replacements are not yet confirmed or open. Guests visiting Town Center in the near term will find gaps where some familiar businesses used to be.
That transition is not unusual for a shopping and dining district that has been evolving continuously since it rebranded from Downtown Disney. But the pace of departures in 2025 has been noticeable, and guests who have not visited recently should not assume their favorite spots are still there.
What Is Actually Coming to Disney Springs
The most consequential new arrival at Disney Springs is not a store or a traditional restaurant. Level99 is an interactive entertainment venue coming this summer to the former NBA Experience building on the West Side of the district, and it represents something genuinely new for the area.
The NBA Experience opened in 2019, struggled badly almost from the start, and closed in 2020. The building has been largely dormant since. Level99 is the second attempt at making that space work, and the concept is considerably better matched to what Disney Springs guests actually want from an entertainment venue.
Level99 combines physical challenges, puzzle-solving, social gaming, food, drinks, and immersive environments in a single large venue.
The Disney Springs location will be the company's largest, featuring more than 60 life-sized mini-games and challenge rooms and more than 40 original art installations created specifically for the space. The food and beverage program includes handcrafted cocktails, rotating draft beers, Detroit-style pizza, and wagyu burgers.
The central two-story bar is designed with visual ambition that goes well beyond what most Disney Springs venues currently offer in terms of atmosphere. Disney is hiring approximately 150 employees ahead of the opening, which signals genuine operational scale rather than a small boutique experience.
Cirque du Soleil's Drawn to Life and Splitsville currently anchor the entertainment side of Disney Springs. Level99 would add a third major entertainment option, and one specifically designed for extended visits by teens and adults rather than families with young children.
A group spending three or four hours at Level99 working through challenges and eating dinner there is a group that stays in Disney Springs significantly longer than they otherwise might, which has a ripple effect on the district's overall energy and foot traffic.
What Disney Springs Guests Should Actually Do
The practical implications of all this for guests planning a Disney Springs visit are straightforward but worth spelling out.
Check before you go. The official Disney Springs website and the My Disney Experience app both have current tenant listings, and given the pace of change in Town Center over the past several months, assuming that a store or restaurant is still there based on a visit from six months ago is a real risk. Johnston & Murphy, Shore, Francesca's, and Sprinkles are all gone. Verify before you build an itinerary around any specific stop.
For guests who specifically wanted Johnston & Murphy, the International Drive outlet options remain available. For guests whose Disney Springs evening plan would benefit from a major entertainment anchor, follow Level99's official channels for the opening date announcement. The summer timeline is the most specific information currently available.
The version of Disney Springs that emerges from this transitional period will depend heavily on what fills the spaces that have opened up. Right now those spaces are mostly still empty or occupied by temporary arrangements. The next twelve months will answer the question of what Disney Springs is becoming.
Check the My Disney Experience app or the official Disney Springs website before your visit to confirm which stores and restaurants are currently operating. The recent closure run has meaningfully changed what is available in Town Center and it is faster to verify now than to discover it at the location.
When Level99 announces its opening date, that will be the biggest single addition to Disney Springs in years and worth factoring into any evening plans at the district.
