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Optimistic, Wiregrass Mall To Open In Wesley Chapel

Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

Dillard's is one of the 72 stores at The Shops at Wiregrass at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56 in Wesley Chapel.

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Published: October 29, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - The Shops at Wiregrass couldn't have found itself with a gloomier time for a grand debut.

The new mall is opening with a likely global recession in the works and many people finding that their retirement accounts are down 30 percent or more this month.

But this isn't the first time international events have rained on a new mall's opening celebration in the Bay area - Tampa's International Plaza opened the week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

The owners of the Shops at Wire- grass mall, its 72 retailers and hundreds of newly-hired store employees are betting that shoppers in this part of the Tampa Bay area are so hungry for a new mall that even a beaten-down economy won't keep them - and their money - away.

Mall general manager Greg Lenners said he expects to draw customers from as far as 25 miles away. He's heartened that the mall, which opens Thursday, has about 75 percent of its retail spaces leased, higher than average for a new mall.

"By opening with 75 percent occupancy, as opposed to 65 percent, I think that's a great testament to the demand," said Lenners, who previously managed a mall in suburban Los Angeles.

The Shops at Wiregrass opens at 10 a.m. Thursday at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56 in Wesley Chapel.

Pasco County shoppers got their first taste of the mall three years ago, when JCPenney opened. The mall's other two anchors, Macy's and Dillard's, opened last week. Shops at Wiregrass has space for 90 stores and so far has leased 72 . Of those, 68 will open Thursday and four others will open by Dec. 1, Lenners said.

A 'Lifestyle Center'

Like most new malls, Shops at Wiregrass is an open-air "lifestyle center," instead of an indoor mall. It aims to re-create a downtown shopping district. Mall owners Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland and the Goodman Co. of West Palm Beach arranged the 90 small mall stores in 12 separate buildings and laid them out in a semicircular pattern.

Lenners knows Shops at Wiregrass can't compete with mega-mall competitors such as Westfield Brandon - which has 207 stores - in terms of size or number of stores. So he's counting on his mall's atmosphere and its location in a mall-starved part of the Bay area to give it an edge. Currently, area residents drive to Brandon, University Mall in Tampa or Westfield Citrus Park malls to shop and dine.

The area surrounding the mall also has a fairly high average household income, about $80,000. That helped Shops at Wiregrass bring in high-end retailers, such as Coach, Lenners said.

Todd Dziubek, co-owner of the GrillSmith restaurant chain, said customers routinely ask when GrillSmith is coming to Pasco. He will open his company's fifth GrillSmith in Shops at Wiregrass' restaurant row Thursday. "I believe this will be one of our busiest stores, if not the busiest," Dziubek said.

No Denying Bad Economy

Still, the mall is confronted with an economy that many economists are comparing with the gloomy 1970s. Whether the mall can prosper, especially in the crucial upcoming holiday season, will be a test of its appeal.

Last week, the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research released the dismal results of its monthly consumer confidence survey. Consumer confidence in Florida this month fell to a level of 60, one point above the survey's all-time low of 59 in June. A consumer confidence level of 100 is relatively high, said survey director Chris McCarty. When confidence falls into the 70s, it's disturbing, and when it falls into the 60s, it's distressing, McCarty said.

This spells trouble for retailers. "As is characteristic of most recessions, consumers are putting off discretionary purchases and holding on to their cash," McCarty wrote in his survey report.

Also, some of the best-known names in mall retailing are closing stores amid financial losses. Among companies that have closed stores recently are Talbots, Pacific Sunwear and Charming Shoppes, which operates the Lane Bryant chain, according to a July economic report by the International Council of Shopping Centers. All of those chains plan to open stores at Shops at Wiregrass.

Love Goel, who tracks the retail industry as head of retail investment company Growth Ventures Group, said some well-known mall stores will probably go bankrupt in the near future. So-called lifestyle centers such as the Shops at Wiregrass will probably fare better, because shoppers today prefer outdoor shopping centers and big-box stores, Goel said.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.

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