For-sale mall struggles to find a niche

There's still life at ParkSide in Pinellas Park, but is there enough?

By SHARON L. BOND, Neighborhood Times Business Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 26, 2002

PINELLAS PARK -- A dance hall featuring swing lessons, a place to adopt dogs or gerbils, an Amtrak station, the chamber of commerce, a health agency, an arts center and an ice skating rink.

These are among the choices for people going to Pinellas ParkSide mall in Pinellas Park. Not typical tenants for a traditional, enclosed mall. Their presence indicates the difficult challenges facing ParkSide and efforts to redevelop it.

Owner John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. is selling ParkSide after spending five years and millions of dollars trying to resuscitate it. A stroll through the mall shows only partial success. There are traditional retail tenants, but a substantial number of empty storefronts. By square feet, ParkSide is 62 percent occupied, not counting a couple of new leases.

The closest ParkSide comes to a high-end retailer is Dillard's. This in a time when three malls in Hillsborough County have been built in the past few years and seem to thrive by catering to the higher end.

Even if its purpose is more day-to-day than high-end, ParkSide doesn't have a Sears or Bealls; and its JCPenney is a catalog outlet store.

But Hancock has not given up on the mall, said ParkSide general manager Jim Sellen. The mall is not being torn down. He said a recent story in the St. Petersburg Times about the possibility of some parts of the mall -- such as the enormous, empty Montgomery Ward store -- being torn down and rebuilt has made people think all of ParkSide is history.

"I just got permission to put in two new air conditioning systems for two spaces that are not even leased," Sellen said. "Do you think Hancock would let me do that if it was tearing the mall down?"

Since February, Sellen has renewed 11 leases, signed 10 new ones and has two pending. But as long as the mall is for sale, he said, ParkSide will be in a holding pattern.

"We are treading water right now," Sellen said. "We need to get a new owner or a development partner with Hancock to redevelop the mall."

That redevelopment must be different.

"What we need is something different from the conventional," Sellen said. "We need to be unique."

Originally Pinellas Square Mall, ParkSide opened in April 1977 at the intersection of U.S. 19 and Park Boulevard. It's near the center of south Pinellas County.

"This is a very good retail site," said Michael Milano, managing director in Tampa for Colliers Arnold. He is in charge of selling the mall.

"That is evidenced by the super Wal-Mart (nearby) and the Home Depot next to us," Milano said. "The JCPenney outlet (in the mall) is doing extremely well."

The new 16-screen movie theater that opened last year at ParkSide may draw more traffic to the mall. But it isn't helping mall stores as much as hoped. Theatergoers do not have to walk through the mall to get to the movie house, and not all walk up the long corridor into the mall before or after a show. ParkSide keeps the lights on in the mall and the doors open until 30 minutes past the last show for safety of movie patrons.

Since Montgomery Ward closed last year when the chain went out of business, one of the largest stores in the mall has stood vacant. Sellen said all retailers interested in the 140,000 square feet have said they would tear it down and rebuild.

The anchors now are the JCPenney catalog outlet and the small Dillard's. A JCPenney spokesman said Friday the company is reducing its number of catalog outlet stores but had no plans to close the one at ParkSide.

The ice-skating rink opened in 1997 and was one of the first attempts by Hancock to resuscitate ParkSide. Sellen just signed the Savoy South dance hall as another unconventional tenant and one in the entertainment field he said is a big part of ParkSide's future.

The dance hall barely had its floor installed before its Aug. 2 opening. It's owned by James and Arleene Norman, and is open five nights a week from 7 p.m. until midnight. It offers dance lessons, and serves beer and wine.

James Norman, who held swing dance nights at the Gulfport Casino in Gulfport, is happy with the mall location and not at all nervous that ParkSide is for sale.

"Everything is for sale" if the right price comes along, Norman said. He said that by the time there is a new owner, Savoy South will be doing well enough to be considered an integral part of the mall.

Other unusual mall tenants include an Amtrak ticket office, the Pinellas/Mid-County Chamber of Commerce, the Pinellas Park Art Society and an office of the county health system that helps expectant mothers. A bus transfer point is located at the mall so women using the health office have transportation to it. The chamber of commerce and art society are temporary tenants while a new building is being built for them.

In addition to the Savoy, new tenants include Global Wireless, Discount Sports Shoes, New Image Nail Salon, W&J Cards, Boardman's gifts and collectibles, and Barthlett & Morrow tax accountants. A linens store is about to be signed.

Leasing space in a mall that is for sale is not easy, Milano and Sellen said. Sellen is offering one- and two-year leases now. He hopes that lease rates low enough to rival strip centers will tempt tenants.

"We have the opportunity . . . to lease space on a short-term basis at a very low price," Sellen said. "I see this as an opportunity to help businesses as a sort of retail incubator."

He said an example of a low-price lease would be 3,500 square feet for $1,500 per month plus a percentage of sales after a break point.

What ParkSide needs now, more than higher rents for its retail spaces, are draws for shoppers. More discount retailers could be a means for success for ParkSide because they would draw buyers as the JCPenney catalog outlet has done.

"We need more traffic," Sellen said. "That will determine if the mall succeeds."

Seasonal merchants will come to ParkSide during the holidays as they have in years past. Park Avenue Coats will open in November in part of the Montgomery Ward space and stay open through February. Sellen said the store, which he likened to Burlington Coat Factory, plans to spend a lot on advertising.

"I'm not as concerned about the rent we get as the traffic (Park Avenue) brings in," Sellen said.

The SPCA of Pinellas County just celebrated its first anniversary at ParkSide. In that time more than 700 animals were adopted from the mall pet shop.

"It's been a very nice success for us," said Nora Hawkins, marketing director for the SPCA.

ParkSide donates the small space to SPCA, and the agency pays the electric bill. As the agency's main office is in Largo, the mall gives the agency a more central location.

Executive director Beth Lockwood said the shop offers dogs, cats, rabbits and so-called pocket pets, which include hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs.

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