Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Meet you at BayWalk

With a dose of hip and an intelligent design, BayWalk has evolved into a success story.

By SHARON L. BOND
Published November 20, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - BayWalk, the downtown entertainment/retail complex, is many things: a place to watch movies, a chance to eat in different restaurants and browse shops, an evening spot for teens and an opportunity to sit and relax in the courtyard.

As such, it has become a constant destination point for downtown.

And it is one of the most visible symbols of the resurgence of the city's core.

BayWalk is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month. It took a long time to get a shopping/entertainment complex downtown. Previous efforts failed for a variety of reasons, including being too grandiose for what was an anemic downtown in the 1980s and early 1990s.

That BayWalk is here says volumes about downtown's recovered health. That BayWalk is thriving five years later - drawing 3-million to 4-million visitors annually, according to its developers - says the recovery is more than temporary relief.

"BayWalk has kind of put us over the top," Mayor Rick Baker said. "Downtown has become a place where even if you have nothing to do, you could come downtown."

Craig Sher, president and chief executive officer of Sembler Co., one of the partners that developed BayWalk and acts as its manager, says the center gave downtown a sense of place.

"Before, there was no regular spot to say, "I'll meet you at . . . ' It has become the town center."

The $40-million complex opened in November 2000.

It has a 20-screen Muvico Theater as its anchor, seven restaurants, a martini bar, ice cream shop, six clothing stores, a shoe shop, four outlets for accessories, two of which are kiosks in the courtyard, a jewelry store, a luggage shop and a games outlet.

Two stores sell unusual items like pottery and gifts. A third offers linens, dishes, pottery and furniture. Two other kiosks sell mobile phones and flowers.

Before BayWalk, St. Petersburg residents had to drive several miles to see a movie: west to Tyrone Square mall, north to Pinellas Park or across the bay to Tampa.

"There was a lack of access to movies in the south end of Pinellas County," Baker said.

Enough movie fans now go to Muvico at BayWalk to put it in the top 20 percent by performance in the Fort Lauderdale-based chain's theaters.

"It is a very good performer for us," said Jim Lee, director of marketing for Muvico. "We are very pleased with BayWalk. It is a very nice location."

While Muvico is BayWalk's obvious anchor, the restaurants also bring people in.

BayWalk has five restaurants and two bars on its second level and one restaurant on the street level, plus an ice cream shop.

"What was a surprise to me was that the restaurants upstairs became independent anchors," Baker said.

BayWalk developers went after restaurants that were not commonplace in south Pinellas in 2000. They succeeded, Baker said.

Peter Veytia, owner of Adobo Grill, closed his restaurant Nov. 13 when his five-year lease ran out at BayWalk. It was a fast-food taqueria with Southwestern and Mexican entrees.

"For me, at that location, it was really hard to get the numbers needed to make it viable," Veytia said. "We felt we did everything we could, incentive and promotions. My gut feeling is that parking is still the issue."

Street spaces around BayWalk, which often are full, are timed to prevent the center's employees from using them and to force moviegoers and other BayWalk patrons to use a nearby parking garage. Veytia said eating at a fast-food restaurant often is an impulse decision, one seldom made when parking in a garage is involved.

Not many other tenants have left BayWalk. Shapiro's, a local arts seller, took over one of the larger spots when a pottery shop left. Owner Michael Shapiro moved to BayWalk from Central Avenue in April 2002.

"It's been an absolutely phenomenal move for us," he said. "Being next to a 20-screen movie theater makes a huge difference. Not only do you get visitors and tourists . . . What brings locals back over and over is the movie theater. We see customers several times a month going to the movies. I didn't see them when I was on Central."

Sales have increased enough to offset the high rent Shapiro pays at BayWalk, which Sher put at between $20 to $30 a square foot.

"It is possible that it would take us three to four years on Central to do the business we do in one year at BayWalk," Shapiro said.

When the center opened in 2000, not all the retailers were in place.

Continuing construction proved uncomfortable at times. Muvico ended up with some rats in theaters. Management thought it was the result of a buildout at a nearby store. Exterminators took care of the problem. Moviegoers also were disturbed at times by the second-floor stand for live music in BayWalk's courtyard, which sometimes bled through Muvico's walls.

In recent years, antiwar protesters have used BayWalk as a place to deliver their peace messages.

"They were drawn to it because so many people go to it," Baker said.

Sher and Sembler asked the city for help, saying the protesters drove business away and also endangered pedestrians trying to get around them to get in BayWalk.

Eventually barricades were put up to keep the protesters off BayWalk property. After heavy criticism, those came down. The protests continue.

[Last modified November 20, 2005, 00:54:20]