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'Rising from the ashes'

In rebuilding Crossroads Shopping Center, the city required builders to place a high priority on appearance.

ST. PETERSBURG - The importance of the commercial rebirth at Crossroads Shopping Center in the western part of the city goes beyond the opening of Home Depot and several new stores.

Appearances matter too. That's what the city decided when it approved plans for Crossroads to morph from a community shopping center into a power center.

"It's just going to have to look better," said John R. Hixenbaugh, the city's zoning official. "All we have to show for it at the end of the day is what the city looks like."

To that end, Crossroads has plateaus to slow down traffic and will have all signs on the property looking the same. Home Depot was required to have decorative fencing around its garden center. It cannot have any outdoor displays and has put its trash containers in a stucco enclosure that matches the exterior of the building.

As a result of all the changes, Hixenbaugh said, "Crossroads is rising from the ashes."

Crossroads hit bottom in 2001 when Montgomery Ward left. And the center was ugly to boot. It was a mass of concrete and asphalt, nothing to pull shoppers in from the busy roads that surround it: Tyrone Boulevard, 66th Street N and 22nd Avenue. Proof of that, according to Hixenbaugh was the back of the AMC theater building facing Tyrone Boulevard. It since has been torn down. In other parts of the center, nothing much faced the thoroughfares but the edges of parking lots.

As Montgomery Ward sat vacant, the center took on a very worn look. Still doing business there were a number of retailers, including iParty, Toys R Us, Office Depot, Circuit City, Ross Dress for Less, KFC and Longhorn Steakhouse.

Then came Home Depot with plans to tear down the old department store and a nearby restaurant to build one of its home improvement centers. As far as Hixenbaugh was concerned, this was a chance to redevelop the entire center, which has an out-of-state owner and is managed by the Sembler Co.

"Seeing a lot of space come on the market, we had these great opportunities for redevelopment," he said. When some properties begin sprucing up in a center, it is easier to get the others to follow.

Instead of allowing one of the big box Home Depots, city officials required a dressed-up one with architectural features more reminiscent of a Mediterranean Revival building. The side of the building that faces 66th Street will be more than a plaster wall.

"We required them to put all those retailers on the back side of the building," Hixenbaugh said. The strip of stores also has decorative cornices in several places atop it and is dotted with medallions. Foundation landscaping hugs the walls.

Thursday, workers were starting to build interiors in some of the eight shops that face 66th Street N. Among the retailers planning to locate there are Tropical Cafe, which will sell smoothies, and New Image Nails. Hixenbaugh said all but two of the spaces were leased, but Sembler could not provide tenants' names.

Other retailers coming to the center include a Walgreens drug store at 66th Street N and 22nd Avenue and a Linens-n-Things, which will take space near Ross Dress for Less. Also locating near Ross will be Pier 1 Imports, which is moving from its nearby site across 66th Street N.

"We've been in this building for 15 years," said Theresa Devlin, store manager at Pier 1. "It's very old. It's unlike any store the company is pulling out now."

Devlin said Pier 1 will have about the same square footage in its new store, which will open in May, but the layout will be better.

When the center is finished, "I think it will look amazing," Devlin said.

Signature Bank now is under construction on a Crossroads site facing Tyrone Boulevard. A new Bennigan's Grill & Tavern with outdoor seating is planned.

Hixenbaugh, the city planner, hopes Crossroads will be easy for pedestrian shoppers. Walking from the Home Depot shops facing 66th Street N over to Toys R Us is a bit of a hike but no farther than walking the length of Tyrone Square Mall.