Rooftops, then Retail

Rooftops, then Retail

Retail Development by Dave Szymanski | Tampa Bay Editor

Southern Pasco County has reached enough critical mass in population (doubled twice in 20 years) to draw fast growth in retail development.

It's a familiar refrain.

Twenty years ago, they were the boonies - Land O' Lakes and Wesley Chapel, two rural outposts in southern Pasco County, north of Tampa.

But since 1980, the population of Pasco County has doubled twice, to 423,350 today. And Land O' Lakes and Wesley Chapel are now considered part of the fast-growing suburbia of Greater Tampa.

Rows of houses have replaced the rows of orange trees.

Now comes the retail.

Shopping center developers have three major projects only one exit apart off Interstate 75 near Wesley Chapel, long known for the Saddlebrook Resort:

• Cypress Creek Town Center: a 1.3-million-square-foot, $200-million open-air mall just west of I-75 on the south side of State Road 56. The Sierra family owns the 500-acre site, which will also include a couple of hotels. It is expected to open in October 2008. The Richard E. Jacobs Group of Cleveland is developing the mall.

• The Grove at Wesley Chapel: a 1-million-square-foot, $150-million shopping center just north of State Road 54 and on the west side of Interstate 75. Echo Real Estate Services of Pittsburgh is developing The Grove as a retail, restaurant and entertainment complex. The company is seeking to place more than 90 retailers on the site.

• Wiregrass: Part of the 5,000-acre, mixed-use development on State Road 56 and County Road 581/Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. A freestanding JCPenney store sits there now. The Goodman Co. in West Palm Beach is working on the retail portion.

Drive through Land O' Lakes, and you will likely not see many lakes. There are houses all around them. And more to come on State Road 56, County Road 581, County Line Road and other areas.

On the west end of State Road 54, at the Veteran's Expressway, another node of development, including offices, stores and restaurants, is taking hold. A new fire station is planned there, too.

East of I-75, development is spreading fast.

"It's following the money," says Jim Roberts, retail broker for Colliers Arnold who works on The Grove project. "We're following the more affluent homeowner. There's been dynamic growth up there. There's gated communities. Saddlebrook was not a fluke."

Until recently, Pasco residents drove to Brandon, New Tampa and Citrus Park or even to south Tampa to International Plaza and West Shore Plaza to shop. Now the retailers are coming to Pasco.

Pasco government has tried to encourage "employment centers" in the county that will not only bring retail but a variety of businesses to fill office space with a wage base of 115% of the average Pasco wage, notes County Commissioner Michael Cox, liaison to the county's Economic Development Corp.

"We were always just a bedroom community in Pasco," says Commissioner Pat Mulieri, who represents central Pasco. "Now our posture is that we are trying to get more business here. We want the kids who grow up here to stay here."

Aesthetics have also become important to the county. "Years ago, Pasco would slap up anything," Mulieri says. "Then we passed a billboard ordinance. There are other regulations that encourage attractive roadways and developments. Collier Parkway is very attractive."

Part of the Pasco strategy is to generate tax revenue from business and help solve the county's growing traffic problems by getting people to live, work and do business in the county. While it has not raised impact fees for commercial development, the commission plans to raise them on residential as a way to raise funds for infrastructure, such as roads.

"We like smart growth," Mulieri says. "We don't think people should have to go miles and miles to get to stores and doctors."

Lower land prices have also made the county attractive to developers.

At The Grove development at the northwest quadrant of I-75 and State Road 54, the recorded deed shows a sale price of $24,045,120 on 120.51 acres or $199,528 per acre.

In comparison, two of the outparcels for the Clearwater Mall sold for $1,154,340 an acre. One restaurant outparcel sold for $1.25 million. The value of the 43-acre Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg is $28,844,972, according to the property appraiser's office.

Because of their size and locations, The Grove and Cypress Creek are competing projects. Both have movie theaters - Cypress Creek has AMC and The Grove has Cobb. Both have big-box users, destination stores. They are less than 15 minutes apart.

Bulldozers and dump trucks are rolling over the dusty Cypress Creek site, clearing the mall footprint on what was once pasture land.

It will be one of the region's largest malls, yet, like the other new mall projects in Florida and nationwide, it will have an open-air design.

Meanwhile, construction crews are putting walls up at The Grove site, which used to be grove land. The tenants so far include Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, TJ Maxx, PetSmart, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Michael's Stores, Dick's Sporting Goods and Ross.

On the Wiregrass site, department stores are flocking. There is a JCPenney, and Dillard's has agreed to build a store there. The developer has been talking to Macy's about moving there, too.

No one thinks it's too much retail for the growing area. "It's all about tenant demand," says David Conn, senior vice president, CB Richard Ellis in Tampa. "The projects are different enough that they will all be successful."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Industry: Retail development

Trend: Pasco County's fast growth.

Key: Three major shopping centers are under construction only an exit apart on I-75.