Build-A-Bear Opens Largest Store Ever: Three Floors in Orlando

Build-A-Bear Workshop opened its largest location ever — a three-story flagship at Orlando's Icon Park — on Nov. 5, nearly 30 years and more than 650 stores after the brand's first workshop opened in St. Louis in October 1997.

The venue keeps the familiar stuffing ritual but scales it up and layers on new activations: a Scent Bar with 20 fragrances, a first-of-its-kind appointment-only Design Studio, a Hello Kitty and Pokémon room, a Bakeshop and an open-air Celebration Terrace overlooking The Orlando Eye and International Drive. Retail design partner on the project: Chute Gerdeman.

What does the ground floor offer?

The "Choose Me" section carries the largest selection of furry friends available at any Build-A-Bear Workshop, including Icon Park exclusives such as Friendly Flamingo, Green Alligator and Orlando Pretty Petals Pawlette.

At the Scent Bar, tables at three different heights — built for kids and adults alike — hold 20 pull-out scent tubes. A Bear Builder, the brand's term for its employees, suggested combining scents: coconut plus vanilla makes piña colada. Options included birthday cake, bubblegum, sugar cookie and cotton candy. Indecisive visitors can take a three-question Scent Finder quiz on a tablet.

The "Hear Me" sound station offers curved booths with touchscreens for selecting songs, sound effects and character voices on a squeezable sound chip. Guests can also record a personal message of six to 30 seconds.

Then comes the stuffing. A typical Build-A-Bear store runs one or two stuffing machines; this location has a dozen. The Heart Ceremony follows, staged under a two-story, multipronged heart-shaped light fixture, where guests rub the heart on their arm, leg, forehead and back, make a wish and place it inside the plush.

A "Personalize Me" station adds embroidery, screen printing and patches; ear embroidery of names and initials proved popular. The "Name Me" station prints a birth certificate, and guests leave with a Cub Condo carrier, greeted by Bearemy and Pawlette mascots.

What's upstairs?

The second floor hosts brand-dedicated rooms: a pink Build-A-Bear x Hello Kitty and Friends Workshop with Sanrio plush, apparel and exclusives, plus separate specialty spaces for Pokémon and the Promise Pets line — each with its own color schemes, stuffing machines, sound stations and photo ops.

The Design Studio is the brand's first appointment-only experience. Guests work one-on-one with a Design Consultant to customize every detail, from fur colors and fabrics to eyes and paws. The design gets a digital preview, a seamstress brings it to life, and a private reveal follows.

The floor also holds birthday party rooms, a winding slide to the ground floor and a giant spinning bear sculpture.

How does the visit end?

The third-floor Build-A-Bear Bakeshop serves brownies, pretzels, cheesecake, cake pops, cupcakes and cookies — and guests can decorate their own cupcakes and cookies with frosting and toppings. Outside, the Celebration Terrace hosted a VIP reception after the preview.

CEO Chris Hurt marked the milestone with a collective Heart Ceremony, with warmed hearts placed into a giant teddy bear that stays at the Orlando location "forever."

"We'll have all of your wishes in this bear that will stay right here, and you will always be a part of the very first day that the store opened," Hurt said. "Add a little more heart to life."

With scents, sounds, bespoke design and dessert stacked across three floors, the Orlando flagship doubles down on the bet that the store itself — not just the bear — is the product.