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SHARON L. BONDThe grocery will open next month. Soon, shops and restaurants topped by condos will be built.
ST. PETERSBURG - Carillon office park will have the first part of its Town Center operating by the middle of next month when a Publix grocery opens.
In January, a second phase begins with construction of a nine-story building that will have retailers, parking and condominiums.
"We'll probably start after the first of the year," said Jim White of White Development Co. "We'll be finished in 15 months."
White bought land from Carillon developer Echelon Development LLC to build the grocery and will put up the second building, to be called 180 Carillon. Together, the construction will cost $35-million, White said.
Carillon office park, 432 acres tucked beside Roosevelt and Ulmerton in the Gateway area, is home to a number of large companies and 11,000 workers.
It has apartments and condominiums but needs services for workers and residents. So the opening of the Publix and the beginning of another building that will have retailers for neighborhood needs is significant.
Echelon began the office park nearly 20 years ago. The Town Center first was designed to be much bigger with a large entertainment element. Developers downsized the plan during the past few years and decided on building in phases rather than all at once.
Initially, the 17,000-square-foot, nine-story building was to include retailers, parking and offices. Plans now call for one floor of retailers, two floors of parking and six floors of condos in the $800,000 range.
Starbucks was part of the early plans but instead chose a site at Ulmerton Road and Egret Boulevard, where a fast food restaurant was. Starbucks officials said the coffee shop will open early this winter and will include a drive-through window.
"We will have another coffee shop," White said, although he would not say which one.
He said some of the retailers in 180 Carillon would appeal to businesses and some to homeowners. He cited a men's tailoring shop as an example of a business retailer. Of the 10 shops on the ground floor, two or three will be restaurants, White said.
AmSouth plans to build a branch facing Ulmerton Road in the Town Center. Officials said the number of employees in the area should be a good customer base for the bank.
For now, it is just Publix. The new grocery sits at the corner of Carillon Parkway and Ulmerton Road. It is one of the chain's smaller ones, at 28,000 feet, but looks large because of its 55-foot tower.
White described it as more upscale architecturally. Its design, which includes the tower and stonework, brick and stucco, will fit in with the rest of the Town Center as it is built during the next five years.