The anchor tenant, Home Depot, will open Thursday, and eight smaller shops are in the works.
By SHARON L. BOND
Published September 21, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Home Depot opens at 6 a.m. Thursday, marking the rebirth of Crossroads Shopping Center, where the anchor since early 2001 was an empty Montgomery Ward building.
Now it will be a Home Depot with extra exterior architectural features as well as eight outside shops along the back to avoid having a boring building face 66th Street N. In approving the Atlanta home improvement company's plan for the new store, the city required the extras.
"It's gorgeous," Carmelo Scalone said of the front.
Scalone, who has managed stores for Home Depot for 14 years and is general manager of the new store, said it has been a long time since he has seen such exterior touches.
"I'm very proud of the way it worked out," said Steve Althoff, vice president of operations for Sembler Co., the St. Petersburg developer with whom Home Depot is redoing Crossroads.
Althoff described Crossroads as a power center by virtue of tenants such as Home Depot, Toys R Us, Ross Dress for Less, Circuit City and Office Depot.
"You have a group of medium-sized to big box power tenants," he said.
Also at Crossroads are iParty, KFC and Longhorn Steakhouse. Several of the existing stores are empty, but Althoff said everything is set to be leased except the small space next to Ross Dress for Less.
He would not identify the tenants because the deals are not complete. But he said that in the building between Ross and iParty, there will be two tenants: a linens operation and a home decorating shop.
The eight new shops will have retailers that residents here are familiar with and some others that are new to the area, Althoff said. Again, he would not reveal the names but said one would sell mattresses and another food.
The tenants are "typical of what you would find in a strip shopping center," Althoff said of the line of new shops attached to Home Depot. Home Depot owns those shops, and Sembler is leasing them.
Bennigan's Grill & Tavern, which was torn down with the empty Montgomery Ward to make way for the Home Depot, will be rebuilt in the space where the AMC movie theater stood. The restaurant is supposed to open early next year.
In an empty space facing Tyrone Boulevard, a branch for Signature Bank is being built. It is supposed to be finished by early December.
Existing stores will get their facades refreshed, and new lighting will be added to the parking lot, part of which is being reconfigured.
"It's really going to be a dramatic improvement for the center after all the work is done," Althoff said of the vintage 1960s shopping center.
At 129,000 square feet, the new Home Depot is smaller than the one at 2300 22nd Ave. N, which is 168,000 square feet. It looks large, however, because of the outdoor garden area and the shops at the back. It has 170 workers.
The interior has new and improved "merchandise sets," Scalone said, citing the Design Place, which will have all items needed to decorate a home in one place. Window coverings, appliances, flooring, lighting and the like will be in the center of the storetoward the back.
The store's interior also will feature less of its signature color orange, Scalone said. Beige will be more prominent.
"It's very pleasant, very inviting and very clean," he said.
No food, though. McDonald's will not be part of the new Home Depot as it is at the 22nd Avenue store.
