A Belleair Shore developer picks up the long-suffering center for $12-million.
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published May 28, 2003
PINELLAS PARK - A Belleair Shore developer has paid $12-million for Pinellas ParkSide in hopes he can inject new life into the long-ailing mall.
Changes will come in spurts rather than all at once, said Bob Schmidt, whose Boulder Venture South LLC also signed contracts to spend about $8-million in securing two of the mall's biggest drawing cards. Schmidt has a contract to buy the mall's Dillard's and an option to acquire the popular JCPenney Outlet store, with the expectation that both will remain as tenants at least for now.
"We don't know exactly what we're going to do yet," said Schmidt, a Belleair Shore town commissioner whose company has pulled off similar rebuilding projects for smaller outdated malls in Daytona Beach and Milwaukee. "We want to continue operating everything just like it is as this project evolves."
Built in 1974, the regional mall at the intersection of Park Boulevard and U.S. 19 fell on hard times in the early 1990s. Most of the big chains pulled out, and lender John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. took the property back from its developers. The insurance company poured millions into remodeling and opened a food court, an ice rink and a movie theater with stadium seating. Last summer Hancock gave up on the investment and put the 880,000-square-foot property up for sale.
Today ParkSide is about 70 percent leased. Many of its retailers are locals rather than national chains. Many of its storefronts have been converted to office space or non-retail uses such as an Amtrak waiting room where Pinellas passengers catch a bus to the railroad station in Tampa.
"What Pinellas ParkSide has above all else is location," said Schmidt. "This will be a shopping and entertainment magnet."
With 244,000 people living within five miles and more than 100,000 motorists driving by daily, ParkSide has some of the required ingredients. Schmidt says the neighborhood demographics are as good as at Clearwater Mall, which is being converted from an enclosed mall to an open-air shopping center anchored by Lowe's, Costco and a SuperTarget.
Schmidt says his company had $145-million in commercial projects under way in 2002, about half of them in Florida. His shopping center projects include discount stores such as Wal-Mart and grocery chains such as Publix. In August, he expects to complete the Calais Park apartments, a $25-million development under construction at the former Pet Dairy plant next to Interstate 275 just north of 54th Avenue N in St. Petersburg.
Colliers Arnold, the Clearwater real estate company that brokered the ParkSide sale, will continue to manage the mall.
Colliers Arnold marketed the property with the idea that the mall could be sold in pieces and parts or all of it torn down. One unidentified prospective buyer in March showed city officials "conceptual" plans that included an option for leveling all of the 28-year-old mall.
Schmidt said long-term fixes may require tearing down parts of the mall to make way for large new tenants. But he said he wants to keep as many current tenants as he can and is prepared to move them around to avoid conflicts.
That includes the mall's ice rink, which has several years left on its lease. Schmidt says he wants the ice rink to remain "open as long as it can."
"It's good news we finally have a new owner," said Terry Killian, manager of the Tampa Bay Skating Academy. "The problem is we still don't know exactly what's going to happen. It's hurt our business because people are less likely to sign a long-term contract."
Officials with JCPenney and Dillard's said both will continue operating at ParkSide despite the prospective sales of their buildings.
"We want to work with the new owners and have no plans to change anything at this point," said JCPenney spokesman Quinton Crenshaw. JCPenney closed 10 of its outlet stores in 2002 and continues to shrink the selection of goods sold through its catalog division, which feeds stock to the outlets.
"We'll continue to run (Dillard's) as a regular store," said Gene Baker, Dillard's regional vice president of stores. "In fact, we did pretty well there last weekend."
Schmidt is securing the anchor department stores to gain control over the entire site as plans advance. Otherwise they could veto many redevelopment schemes.
Tenants remain wary. But several see the certainty of having a new owner step up at last as a positive sign.
"I don't think anybody here is going to go along with any plan to tear it all down," said Maureen McKenna, manager of Merle Norman, a cosmetics store. "I think he can make it work and keep us intact."
