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Dillard's picks a side in mall battle

The Shops at Wiregrass developer says it has a commitment from the retail chain, giving that project a leg up on a rival in Wesley Chapel.

By MARK ALBRIGHT and JAMES THORNER
Published May 19, 2005

The Shops at Wiregrass took another giant stride ahead in the fierce race to build the first mall-size project in Wesley Chapel by signing up a full-line Dillard's store.

Dillard Inc. officials could not be reached for confirmation, but developers for Wiregrass Ranch felt confident enough to announce they have landed a second tenant to anchor their 60-store outdoor Main Street-style development. The 150,000 square foot Dillard's would open in fall 2007.

"We've got the commitment from Dillard's," said Jim Richardson, vice president of development for Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, which will manage the center in a joint venture with the Goodman Company of West Palm Beach. "What sold it was our location, the market potential, the relationship with Dillard's and their knowing that our shopping center will be built."

JCPenney already has started building a Wiregrass location that will replace its University Mall store in Tampa. Retailers have herd instincts, so landing the first two full-line department stores at east Pasco - and exhibiting confidence that they will get a third - will make it doubly difficult for rivals to land any. The move also could lead to Dillard's to pull out of University Mall, 10 miles south.

The rush is part of a frenzy to become the retail hub of the population explosion that's just beginning as New Tampa stretches into the rural cow pastures of eastern Pasco County.

Wiregrass is located on State Road 56 at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and already has a Sam's Club and a Wal-Mart Supercenter lined up in the immediate neighborhood.

Rival Cypress Creek Town Center, which is being developed by Richard E. Jacobs Group of Cleveland, is a few miles west but caught up in environmental permitting. ECHO Real Estate Services of Pittsburgh is marketing to retailers property north of CR 54 on the west side of Interstate 75 for its Groves at Wesley Chapel, but that project's developers have been counting less on department stores.

The timing the announcement is no coincidence. The mall industry stages its annual convention in Las Vegas next week. That's where a majority of all real estate deals among retail chains are hatched every year. Developers usually announce significant tenant signings just before the event in hopes of starting a parade of smaller tenants to their project.

Goodman Company, which is the master retail developer at Wiregrass Ranch, signed up Forest City last year for more firepower when competition got tighter.

"Whoever gets the anchor tenants gets the shopping center," said John Dowd III, senior vice president of development for Goodman. "Right now, we've got the anchors."

Officials with rival shopping center projects angling to land many of the same tenants could not be reached for comment.

The center is part of a 5,022-acre mixed-use development in a market projected to have upwards of 30,000 new residents within a decade. At buildout, Wiregrass Ranch alone is planned to have 16,000 residential units.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified May 19, 2005, 00:43:18]