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Charging Ahead In The Retail Race

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 7, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - The signs are up at The Grove at Wesley Chapel. The parking lot is striped. Opening Day is on the horizon.

Pittsburgh-based Echo Real Estate Services hasn't set a formal date for opening its new plaza but expects The Grove to have its first customers in the first week of November.

Crews are wrapping up work on the main plaza - home to big-name retailers Best Buy, PetSmart and Toys R Us, among others - in advance of the November opening.

But there's still a lot of work to do.

Workers are widening Oakley Boulevard to four lanes and building the plaza's main entrance at Gateway Boulevard and Dayflower Boulevard. It's unclear whether that work will be finished by early November, but company officials say the roads will be safe to travel when the plaza opens.

Work began last month on the 18-screen Cobb Theatres cinema. A variety of restaurants will join the theater when the plaza's second phase opens next spring, said Echo spokeswoman Elizabeth Vocke.

The opening of The Grove is timed to attract holiday shoppers. But it also kicks off a year of intensified construction by The Grove's two competitors - The Shops at Wiregrass, at State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, and Cypress Creek Town Center, at S.R. 56 and Interstate 75.

After years of planning and promotions, Wesley Chapel's future as the Tampa Bay area's shopping mecca is almost secure.

'It's a relief, more than anything, to know we're making progress,' said Jason Wilson, executive director of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

By the time all three plazas are up and running in late 2008, Wesley Chapel will have nearly 3 million square feet of retail space within six square miles.

That doesn't count the thousands of square feet of furniture stores and office buildings taking shape on S.R. 56 between Cypress Creek Town Center and Wiregrass or the car dealers strung like beads along County Road 54 just west of the interstate.

The developers of the three major plazas have all said in recent years that they think Wesley Chapel can support two - but not three - of their shopping centers. Wilson sees shoppers coming from Tampa, Hillsborough County and Hernando County to spend their money in Wesley Chapel's stores.

With thousands of people coming to Pasco County to shop, Wilson expects all three plazas to flourish.

But he's not so sure about the roads that serve those plazas.

'Initially, the huge problem we're going to have is the roads,' Wilson said. 'It's going to be a challenge for our community for the county and state to solve.'

The county and Florida Department of Transportation have millions of dollars in road work planned for the highways feeding Wesley Chapel's shopping triangle. So far, the only project even near its completion date is the widening of the northern end of C.R. 54, which should wrap up this year.

The county has begun buying land along State Road 54 in advance of a widening project slated to start late next year. The six-laning of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, which is the responsibility of Seven Oaks' developer Crown Communities, is more than a year behind schedule and may start in the spring, according to Seven Oaks officials.

The developers of Wiregrass Ranch are committed to extending S.R. 56 east from Bruce B. Downs. The first segment should start in January or February and wrap up in time for the August 2008 opening of The Shops at Wiregrass, said Jim Richardson, vice president of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, which is developing the plaza.

Steel for the 800,000-square-foot Shops at Wiregrass is going up to the east of JCPenney, which opened two years ago. Plans under review by Pasco County show a who's who of high-end retailers ranging from Williams-Sonoma to Aveda and Pottery Barn.

Hillsborough County's challenge to the overall Wiregrass Ranch plan hasn't stopped construction. Neither will an ongoing state-level review of Wiregrass Ranch's road projects, Richardson said.

'It's really a non-issue,' Richardson said.

A few miles west of Wiregrass Ranch, earthmoving is still the task at hand for the developer of Cypress Creek Town Center.

Developer Richard E. Jacobs Group is responsible for widening S.R. 54 west to Collier Parkway. That work should begin next spring, company officials say.

The Sierra Club and two other environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday trying to put a hold on further work until the site's federal wetlands and wildlife permits can get deeper scrutiny. That challenge hasn't slowed construction at the mall site.

Two building permits - for Wesley Chapel's second SuperTarget and its first Kohl's - are pending with Pasco County. Office-supply company Staples recently posted a sign on the edge of the property announcing its plans to set up shop there.

Jacobs plans to open its mall in October 2008.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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