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3 mall makers in a tussle over tenants

Three malls are planned, but only two may be viable. The tenant list may decide which project doesn't survive.

By JAMES THORNER
Published December 30, 2005

Three mall-sized shopping centers, all vying to open in central Pasco County by late 2007, are scrambling to sign up retail tenants.

To get an idea what the process has been like this year, imagine placing three tomcats in a sack and adding a sardine.

The biggest proposed project is Cypress Creek Town Center. Plans call for a 1.3-million-square-foot mall, with another 600,000 square feet of "big box" shopping across the street.

Cypress Creek's developer, the Richard E. Jacobs Group, calls its site the best in the area, boasting of a location at Interstate 75 and State Road 56 that its rivals can't match.

A few miles farther north, the Grove at Wesley Chapel, is pitching an 800,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex northwest of I-75 and State Road 54.

The property owner, ECHO Real Estate Services, has dropped the names of about a dozen big national players supposedly keen for its site.

They include Best Buy, Ross Stores, Michaels craft store, Old Navy, Lowe's home improvement and the Kohl's discount department store chain.

Three miles east of Cypress Creek at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and SR 56, the Shops at Wiregrass insists it has nabbed prospective tenants for about a quarter to half of its planned 750,000-square-foot "lifestyle center."

Real estate analysts suggest the central Pasco/New Tampa market, despite massive growth of several thousand homes a year, can sustain two of the projects, but probably not three.

The honchos behind the three rival shopping centers might agree with that assessment but insist it's the other guy destined to fall on his face.

In some respects, the Grove is furthest ahead. The site, which runs along the west side of I-75, is rezoned. ECHO closed on the property in November for $24-million.

But as its rivals take pains to point out, the Grove's prospective tenants have signed only "letters of intent," documents that indicate interest but fall short of binding contracts.

Among the Grove's other disadvantages: It's farthest removed from middle- to high-income New Tampa and access roads suffer from some of the area's worst traffic jams.

John Dowd, a vice president with the Goodman Co., the Palm Beach developer behind Wiregrass, said some of the tenants listed on the Grove's maps are named erroneously.

How does he know? Because those retailers have actually signed up with Wiregrass, Dowd said, without naming names.

One of Wiregrass' tactics has been to take prospective tenants up in helicopters so they can judge the rival mall sites from the air.

"That's the way the game is played," Dowd said.

Wiregrass opened its first store, JCPenney, in the fall. The store replaced the JCPenney at University Mall in Tampa. Its second anchor, Dillards, can't open until the site is rezoned further, and approval isn't expected until well into 2006.

Despite its key location at the first exit north of Tampa on I-75, Cypress Creek Town Center isn't out of the woods yet.

Jacobs, the developer, proposes removing about 55 acres of wetlands to build the mall. That has earned the company enmity from environmentalists eager to deny Jacobs permits they need from the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Of special concern is a stream called Cypress Creek, which forms the southern boundary of the Jacobs property. The creek, a tributary of the Hillsborough River, ultimately supplies much of Tampa's drinking water.

Jacobs already has bested its rivals in the hunt for a cinema. It's signed up AMC Theaters, the nation's second-largest movie theater chain. So competitive is AMC that a regional player named Marquee Cinemas canceled its deal to build at Wiregrass.

Outside analysts suggest many of the biggest retailers - including Barnes & Noble bookstores and the Costco discount warehouse chain - remain up for grabs.

"Costco is out there looking," said Patrick Berman of the Cushman & Wakefield real estate firm in Tampa. "The logical place to go is the Jacobs mall."

Cypress Creek Town Center's goal is to get environmental permits in the spring and break ground in the summer. Wiregrass officials habitually cast doubts on that schedule, provoking grumbling from the more soft-spoken Jacobs team.

"We're just blowing down the road with our project," said Jim Richardson, whose company, Forest City Enterprises, is partnering with Goodman on Wiregrass.

"As for Cypress Creek, you read so much about their troubles with wetlands. ..."

During the next six months, as the rival projects hit the home stretch, expect the cats to keep their teeth and claws bared.

[Last modified December 30, 2005, 00:57:15]