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Mall Hits Homestretch, Set For Fall Opening

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - The developers of the Shops at Wiregrass say they're about 60 percent finished with the massive retail complex going up at the corner of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Opening Day is scheduled for Oct. 30, said Jim Richardson, vice president of Cleveland-based mall builder Forest City Enterprises.

Richardson recently led a windshield tour of the project - the southwest corner of which is about all that is visible from outside the property. That tour revealed acres of future shopping space taking shape.

Workers welded the steel-girder framing of a Macy's department store while others applied stucco to the exterior of other buildings. Stores framing the eastern entrance of JCPenney are painted in earth tones. The parking lots surrounding the half moon-shaped plaza are paved, but interior roads are still dirt.

Meanwhile, county officials are reviewing building permits for several Wiregrass tenants. The list includes clothing retailers J. Jill, Talbots and Hollister, as well as Lenscrafters, Starbucks and Zales.

Reviews Slow Some Building

In the years-long race for retail dollars in central Pasco and northern Hillsborough counties, Wiregrass appears primed to place second behind The Grove at Wesley Chapel. The Grove opened its first phase last fall at Oakley Boulevard and County Road 54 and promises more stores in the next few months.

Trailing the three-way race is the Cypress Creek Town Center, which has been plagued by environmental problems on its site at State Road 56 and Interstate 75. Ohio Developer Richard E. Jacobs Group has permits pending for a SuperTarget, Kohl's and other stores, but has yet to get beyond the earthmoving phase.

Jacobs and Forest City are fierce competitors in their hometown. That competition appears to have been carried over to Wesley Chapel as each company has struggled to push its project past regulators' roadblocks and around the recent downturn in the housing market.

Forest City got a leg up on Jacobs two years ago when, with West Palm Beach-based partner Goodman Co., Forest City persuaded county and state regulators to let it begin work on part of its mall while the overall Wiregrass Ranch project trudged through state, regional and county review.

That move persuaded J.C. Penney to weigh anchor at University Mall in Tampa and relocate to a stand-alone store at Wiregrass.

"We were surprised with the way Penney's took off in sales," Richardson said.

Richardson said landing three major department stores - Dillard's came on shortly after Penney's - helped Wiregrass attract a mix of high-end retailers, draining the pool available for Jacobs and shrinking its planned regional mall.

Jacobs' complex will be about 100,000 square feet larger than Forest City's, but that's still about 40 percent smaller than the original plans for a 1.3 million-square-foot regional mall. Jacobs officials say they expect to open by fall.

Despite earlier assertions by all three mall developers that only two of the complexes will thrive in such close quarters, Richardson said he thinks they are all different enough to do well within five miles of each other.

"The market is not being cannibalized, and that's a good thing," Richardson said.

Homes Not Popping Up Soon

All three builders began their projects at the crest of Pasco's housing wave. That wave crashed last year, wiping out plans for thousands of new homes - and millions of dollars in potential retail revenue.

One of the biggest casualties was Pulte Home Corp.'s plans to build more than 12,000 homes on Wiregrass Ranch within a few miles of Forest City's mall.

Richardson said the housing collapse put a crimp in Forest City's plans. For one thing, the company had to take over the job of extending S.R. 56 eastward from Bruce B. Downs - meant to be done by Pulte. Without that extension, shoppers will have no way to reach the new mall.

"That's a challenge the economy gave us," Richardson said of the road. The $24 million project is being financed by the owners of Wiregrass Ranch and by the developer of Meadow Pointe.

As for the lack of nearby residential housing, Richardson said his company expected to have some lag time between opening its mall and having thousands of new homes on its doorstep.

"The biggest issue right now is the inventory of housing that needs to be absorbed into the market," Richardson said.

That could happen sometime in the next year or two, Richardson said.

After that, Shops at Wiregrass will be ready to offer an attractive reason for builders to come back to the area, he said.

"We're creating a neighborhood, and that is an asset that will help Wiregrass Ranch be developed," Richardson said.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

As the Shops at Wiregrass moves toward completion, here's what happening with its competitors in the three-way race for central Pasco's retail dollars:

THE GROVE: The mall just north of Oakley Boulevard and County Road 54 (Wesley Chapel Boulevard) expects to see several more retailers open early next month. That list includes Ross, Michaels and TJ Maxx. Cosmetics seller Ulta opened last week. Work continues on Cobb Cinemas' 16-screen megaplex at the mall's north end. A building permit is pending with Pasco County for an Office Max store.

CYPRESS CREEK TOWN CENTER: Environmental problems last month caused federal regulators to block construction on about 54 acres of the 510-acre site. That ban remains in place as regulators review the developer's plan for fixing the problem that twice let storm runoff pollute Cypress Creek. County officials are reviewing a building permit for The Sports Authority.

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

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