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Troubled mall lets Target go

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: November 6, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - Target Corp. has sold its interest in the struggling Cypress Creek Town Center project.

Pasco County property records how the Minnesota-based retailer last month sold its 16.6-acre site within the mall complex on the south side of State Road 56. The buyer was Cypress TP Holdings LLC, a company set up by the mall developers.

The sale price was $4.5 million.

Target took a $750,000 loss on the property, which it bought from mall developers in November 2007, property records show.

Cypress TP Holdings LLC was formed Sept. 15, about three weeks before it bought the Target land.
Cypress Creek Town Center spokesman Bill Fullington said mall developers bought back the Target property as part of their plan to restructure the development. They're also seeking a 10-year extension on their 2011 construction deadline. Regional planners have approved the request but commissioners still must sign off on the proposal.

Target was to have been part of a 1 million-square-foot regional mall. The project also includes hundreds of thousands of square feet in other retail, office and hotel space.

Federal regulators suspended work on the 510-acre site last year after heavy rain caused muddy water to pollute Cypress Creek. Eighteen months later, the Army Corps of Engineers reinstated the project's development permit after the developers paid nearly $300,000 in fines and made minor changes to the site.

The combination of permit-related delays and poor economic conditions have forced the developers, Richard E. Jacobs Group of Cleveland and John R. "Hi" Sierra Jr. of Tampa to rework the project's tenant mix, Fullington said.

"The Jacobs Group remains very committed to this project," Fullington said in a statement. It "has invested a considerable amount of resources in seeing this development come to fruition."

In the meantime, Jacobs and Sierra are locked in a civil lawsuit with Kearney Construction Co. Inc., the contractor that did the earthwork on the site.

The developers blame Kearney for the problems that led to last year's suspension. Kearney, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, says the mall developers owe it more than $1 million for unpaid work.

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