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CLEARWATER - The final pieces of a widely known S Fort Harrison Avenue car dealership will be filled with a shopping center and an AmSouth Bank, executives on the projects said Tuesday.
The old Dimmitt site north of Druid Road is already home to a Publix supermarket and a SouthTrust Bank branch is being built there.
The new shopping center, Paradise Shops of Clearwater, will be anchored by a Washington Mutual bank branch and would also include a restaurant and shops, said Owen Ewing, a vice president with Paradise Development Group.
The AmSouth branch wouldn't necessarily replace its downtown Cleveland Street location, said Jim Watrous, AmSouth Clearwater city president.
Together, the two projects would complete a transformation along a large portion of one of the downtown's main arteries.
"It's really a renaissance of Fort Harrison and the adjacent areas to Harbor Oaks," said council member Frank Hibbard, who lives in the Harbor Oaks neighborhood. "I think it's going to start to expand and seep out from here."
The new shopping center will be on the northeast corner of Turner Street and Fort Harrison. The complex will be designed to match the Mediterranean feel of the Publix, Ewing said, and will include 14,000 square feet of specialty retail space.
The buildings will front Fort Harrison, with parking behind them.
"It's going to be a nice product," said Ewing, who has developed several area Walgreens, among other projects. "We've worked with the city based on their redevelopment plans and this fits in well."
Construction is scheduled to start in November and take 150 to 180 days, Ewing said. Washington Mutual, a financial institution based in Seattle with more than 2,500 branches nationwide, is the only firm tenant and will anchor the complex with a 3,600-square-foot office.
There is no specific timetable for the AmSouth expansion, Watrous said. But the new branch, which will be at the northeast corner of Druid Road and Fort Harrison, probably won't be built before 2006, he said.
"We have coverage at this point and don't have an immediate need," Watrous said. "But we thought that's certainly one of the major arteries to connect the Clearwater and Largo and Belleair communities. We think it's an important corridor."
Watrous said the bank will continue to operate out of its Cleveland Street offices, where it leases space. He said it wasn't clear whether the downtown branch would close once the Fort Harrison location opens.
Meanwhile, work continues on a SouthTrust Bank branch, which will become Wachovia, and is just south of Publix.
The Florida grocery chain started the rebirth along Fort Harrison when it opened two years ago, said Margaret Hightower, vice president of the Harbor Oaks Neighborhood Association. And soon, an entire block of one of the city's busiest streets will be changed.
"Somebody had to get it started," Hightower said. "Now you see it's starting to domino."
Aaron Sharockman can be reached at 727 445-4160 or asharockman@sptimes.com