Westshore Plaza anchor tenant moving on after a decade

Westshore Plaza, already down one anchor with the loss of Sears in 2019, is saying farewell to another anchor tenant next week.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is moving to International Plaza and Bay Street — a mile down the road. It will open as Dick’s House of Sport on Oct. 2, according to signage posted at the front of the store and is hosting a grand opening Oct. 11 with opportunities to interact with local athletes Evan Longoria, Derrick Brooks, Caeleb Dressel and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Dick’s House of Sport is an expanded concept that began in 2021. House of Sport stores are 100,000 square feet and feature a rock climbing wall, multiple golf bays with TrackMan simulators and a multi-sport cage for baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer that give athletes an opportunity to try products while measuring and tracking their performance.

Dick’s moved into a former Saks Fifth Avenue space in 2014, the same year when Washington Prime Group took over operations of the mall as a spin-off of Simon Property Group. 

Washington Prime Group couldn’t be reached for comment about any potential new tenants going into the space. The company made headlines this past spring when the city of Tampa granted approval for the mall to be demolished and a mixed use development built in its place. No permits for demolition have been filed. 

The original mall opened in 1967 and was touted as the first fully air conditioned shopping center in Tampa.