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Just what's in store?

As curiosity about the looks and tenants of a Tampa Palms center rises, the developer stays mum.

By RODNEY THRASH
Published February 6, 2005

TAMPA PALMS - Kathleen Cote, Mary Carroll and Kerry Estevez wondered last week what the Tampa Palms Shopping Center would look like.

Would it include the area's first bookstore? Perhaps a Best Buy? Or would it resemble all the other strip malls that line Bruce B. Downs Boulevard?

The women, who live in the Cambridge II Village in Tampa Palms, thought they would have some answers by now. Since January, they have watched tall trees that long dotted the site come down to make way for a 306,303-square-foot shopping center at Commerce Palms and Bruce B. Downs boulevards. And yet, homeowners like Cote are still asking, "What's going in there?"

No one is sure, except mall developer Warren Kinsler, who has touted the shopping center as high end. So closely guarded is information about the mall's tenants that even the city of Tampa is clueless. And it issued Kinsler the permits he needed to clear the site - land the Hillsborough property appraiser says is worth $2.98-million.

As strange as it may sound to some of the neighbors, there's nothing underhanded or improper about it. Developers don't have to talk specifics, and they rarely do, said Susan Johnson, a land development coordinator with the city.

"On commercial site plans," she said, "the developer is not required (to) nor do they ever really give tenancy, (that is) whether it's a Lowe's or a Barnes & Noble."

To be sure, Tampa land development officials are not totally in the dark. It is the city that outlined, in general terms, what Kinsler can and cannot build based on the land's designation as a community commercial site.

But those guidelines don't begin to paint a picture of what the mall will look like. A zoning application filed with the city in 1999 gives Kinsler lots of latitude. A community commercial site has at least 47 different uses, from a heliport and a tobacco shop to a veterinary office and bed & breakfast. And there are other kinds of uses the agreement does not outline.

A design filed with the city's land development division shows the mall divided into six buildings ranging from 21,525 to 115,386 square feet. At least 192,107 square feet of green space, 63,651 square feet of sidewalks and 1,305 parking spaces must be provided.

From a developer's perspective, that is more than enough information. The retail industry is so competitive, Kinsler said, it makes good business sense to safeguard information about prospective tenants.

He should know. In the midst of trying to lure a bookstore, something he discussed publicly for more than a year, the Borders chain ended negotiations with Kinsler last year. Since then, he has not said much about plans for the mall.

"There are other shopping centers," Kinsler said. "We're vying for the same pool of tenants ... Why would we want to assist the competition when we're trying to develop the highest quality center we can?

"If it wasn't for that, I would let it out."

Besides, he said, "you don't want to announce one (tenant) here and there. You want to do an announcement when everything is completed, when all the leases are completed and signed."

He said last week that some leases are signed, but he would not name names or say how many tenants he has secured. He wouldn't describe the sort of retailers that have come aboard, either. That announcement will not come until March, he said.

It will be longer than that before the shopping center opens. Wal Den Greene Developers Inc., a Port Richey land development company that's clearing the site and installing underground utilities and other infrastructure for Kinsler, won't likely be done with its work until year's end, said Scott Lay, the project manager overseeing the work. Only after Wal Den Greene completes its work - and the city issues Kinsler a permit to begin building - can construction of the mall begin, he said. Still, Kinsler said he hopes the center's first tenant is up and running by year's end.

At least until March, homeowners like Cote, Carroll and Estevez will have to wait and wonder what will become of the 45.7-acre shopping center. On a recent Tuesday, they had various suggestions.

Estevez wants a Best Buy. But with a Circuit City just north of Interstate 75 in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve, Cote and Carroll weren't convinced Tampa Palms needed a Best Buy as badly as it needed a bookstore. They talked about how nice it would be to spend a weekend afternoon with their daughters reading at a bookstore within walking distance of their homes. They were just as adamant about what they did not want, namely another strip mall.

"You can't do the old mom and pop store anymore," Carroll said.

So agreed Cote.

"They always talk about not putting strip malls on Bruce B. Downs, but it seems like that's what they build," Cote said. "Now that would be a problem.

"I want things that I can't get here, not things I (can) go up the road for."

Rodney Thrash can be reached at 813 269-5313 or rthrash@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 5, 2005, 09:49:05]