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Business headlines
By SHARON L. BOND, Neighborhood Times Business Editor College Landings stirs againST. PETERSBURG -- Another development group has signed a contract to buy College Landings, the unfinished housing development at Eckerd College started nearly 10 years ago. Swan Landings LLC in Tampa has signed a contract with Eckerd College Properties, said properties vice president Bill McKenna. "Assuming everything works out, I anticipate closing before the end of January," McKenna said. This deal seems to be on track because all residents favor it, he said. It will have fewer units than previous plans called for and more open space. Now the development has 52 homes. "There will be 48 more garden homes built and 64 low-rise condominium units," McKenna said. The condominiums will have two living units over garage space. Garden units are a single living level. Neither McKenna nor Mike Sabet, a partner in Swan LLC, would disclose the sales price. Sabet said none of the new units planned by Swan will be for rent. McKenna said the land is included in this transaction. When the project began, Eckerd retained ownership of the land, hoping to generate income for the college from leases. Residents already living in College Landings will receive their plots of land at no charge as a result of the sale to Swan Landings, McKenna said. In May, Crescent Resources Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., canceled its plan to buy the project and finish it because of lawsuits filed by residents who objected to the number of units and height of some units in Crescent's plans. BayWalk leather shop to closeST. PETERSBURG -- BayWalk is losing another tenant because a chain is closing down. El Portal, the upper-end leather goods store that has been open only a year, will close after the holidays, BayWalk store manager Mike Goff confirmed. Its parent company, Wilsons the Leather Experts Inc., is closing both El Portal and Bentley's Luggage. Late last year, BayWalk lost People's Pottery when the chain filed for federal bankruptcy protection. It had been one of the first stores when BayWalk opened in late 2000. A local artisan shop, Shapiro Studio & Gallery, now is in that space. El Portal opened in early December last year. Goff said that even though the store sells leather goods, handbags and jewelry in addition to luggage, its business had been hurt by the falloff in travel after Sept. 11, 2001. Goff said the BayWalk store will close after selling as much inventory as possible. It probably won't be open any later than the end of January. Starbucks on Fourth Street opensST. PETERSBURG -- The new Starbucks at Fourth Street N and Ninth Avenue opened last week, and latte sippers have found it. "It's mostly a morning crowd," said shift supervisor Iva Groudkova. "It's picking up slowly." She said she thought part of the crowd at the new shop, at 900 Fourth St. N, are Starbucks lovers who don't want to go to the trouble of finding a parking place near the Starbucks downtown, in the BayWalk garage. Starbucks is a coffeehouse and cult that finally moved east from Seattle and is spreading in St. Petersburg. In just the past year and a half, free-standing Starbucks shops have opened at Fourth Street N, Marketplace shopping center near Tyrone Square Mall, and BayWalk.
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