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At a crossroads
By SHARON L. BOND, Neighborhood Times Business Editor ST. PETERSBURG -- Dave Hara, manager of iParty at Crossroads Shopping Center, knows firsthand about the impact of Home Depot, which plans to put one of its home improvement centers into Crossroads. He was the owner of George and Cliff's Hardware Center in 1995 when a Home Depot opened just 12 blocks away on 22nd Avenue N. And it wasn't just a regular Home Depot. It was one of the largest in the Southeast at 168,000 square feet. George and Cliff's had all of 5,000 square feet. Pretty soon it was history. "We couldn't do it anymore. It was a small store. We lost a lot of business to Home Depot," Hara said last week. The hardware store that his father, George Hara, started in 1957 with partner Cliff Maskell closed in October 1996. This time, with Home Depot moving into Crossroads, where his party supply store is located, Dave Hara's prospects look much better, since he won't be competing directly with the giant home improvement chain. "I think they will be good for the complex," he said. "I think they will pull business in." Home Depot, headquartered in Atlanta, has filed plans with the city to build a 129,000-square-foot store where the empty Montgomery Ward store and the Bennigan's restaurant now stand. It will be Home Depot's fourth store in south Pinellas County, giving the chain more than a half-million square feet of space here. In addition to the store in St. Petersburg, there are stores in Seminole and Pinellas Park. "We are opening a store somewhere every 43 hours," said Don Harrison, manager of public relations for Home Depot. The new store, which probably will open in the final quarter of next year, will be about 40 blocks or a 15-minute drive from the huge Home Depot on 22nd Avenue N. Not too close as far as the chain is concerned. "We have approximately 50 stores in greater Atlanta," said Harrison "Some are as close as 10- to 15-minute drive-time away. You can drive 10 minutes and get a different or an additional customer set." Harrison acknowledged that the new store could "cannibalize" some of the 22nd Avenue store's customers. But he said it should be a definite boost for the other merchants at Crossroads, which include Toys R Us, Office Depot, iParty, Verizon, Ross Dress for Less and Circuit City, most of which are expected to stay. Two restaurants, KFC and LongHorn Steakhouse, also will stay. "We are a destination store," said Harrison, the public relations manager. "The typical Home Depot customer is not somebody who makes a stop spontaneously. You get in your car and go to Home Depot." A Home Depot averages 20,000 to 30,000 customers per week. Knowing that, "if I'm a manager of another store, I'm licking my chops. I'm ready for Home Depot to come in," Harrison said. The AMC Crossroads 8 theater will be torn down in the renovation, perhaps to be replaced by a bookstore. AMC decided not to renew its lease at the spot, which expires in November, according to Craig Sher, president and chief executive officer of the Sembler Co., which is working with Home Depot to redevelop Crossroads. It is not likely that a new theater will be built. "There is not room for a 20-plex theater at that corner," Sher said. "The industry is closing most of its six- to eight-screen slope-floor theaters." The city's zoning official, John Hixenbaugh, has been dealing with Home Depot for a year concerning the new store. He said that its arrival, along with AMC's departure, is not so much a concern. "They are not being booted out," Hixenbaugh said of AMC. "The message there is that in terms of a corporate decision, it doesn't make sense for them to renew the lease." An AMC spokesman said last week that the company does not discuss theater closings. South Pinellas has added two new multiscreen theaters in the past few years, BayWalk's Muvico, with 20 screens and stadium seating in St. Petersburg, and ParkSide 16 in Pinellas Park. Hixenbaugh said the departure of the theaters changes the atmosphere at Crossroads, but not in a negative way. "It will be a little more of a shopping destination and a little bit less an entertainment destination," he said. -- Staff writer Robert Trigaux contributed to this story.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
