REI "legitimizes" Midtown Tampa site

REI Co-op will open its third Florida location in the Midtown Tampa development in early 2021, a move that its developer says “legitimizes” the tract between downtown Tampa and the Westshore Business District as a retail destination.

REI’s planned 22,500-square-foot store joins Whole Foods Market, Ponte Group Restaurant and True Food Kitchen as tenants in the 22-acre project, at 1101 N. Dale Mabry Highway.

In all, 1.8 million square feet of office, retail, hospitality and residential space is planned in Midtown Tampa, a $500 million project being master developed by Bromley Cos., of New York.

Of that total, about 185,000 square feet will be retail space, developed by a joint venture between Casto Southeast Realty Services and Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate Inc., of Ohio.

“REI legitimizes the quality of the site as a retail destination and highlights the quality of the tenancy we already have announced,” says Brett Hutchens, Lakewood Ranch-based Casto Southeast’s CEO.

“It’s going to be a truly phenomenal project, a real game-changer for Tampa.”

REI’s Midtown Tampa store will feature an on-site bike maintenance and repair shop, while outside Bromley plans to install a recreational trail throughout the project called The Watercourse and a three-acre lake.

REI’s other Florida stores are located in Jacksonville and in a Casto Southeast project in Winter Park. In all, the Seattle-based retailer operates 155 stores nationwide.

“We’ve interacted with them and developed a relationship with them as a result of their Winter Park store, and they’ve had their eyes on Tampa for some time,” Hutchens says. “Midtown Tampa is a good regional type of location that they desire.”