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Business trends for 2006

Retail

The line forms behind expansion, remodeling

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published January 8, 2006

Retailing is all about change, but this year promises to pack even more than usual for Tampa Bay area shoppers.

Long-ignored urban areas are getting attention for new or remodeled stores, even if it's the ground floor of a high-rise condo. Emerging new suburbs of Pasco and Hillsborough counties are filling up with new stores. Upheaval will continue as some familiar old retail names struggle to reinvent themselves.

In east Pasco County, it's crunch time for three huge retail projects elbowing one another to become the regional shopping destination in Wesley Chapel. The Shops at Wiregrass leads the pack with a JCPenney and Dillard's already in the bag. The Groves at Wesley Chapel landed a movie theater and the region's first Dick's Sporting Goods. That has left a silent Cypress Creek Town Center bringing up the rear in the race to open as soon as once promised in 2007. The project has landed a movie theater and industry buzz has the developers talking with everybody from Bass Pro Shops to Ikea, the Swedish budget furniture retailer.

Tampa Bay area newcomers committed to debut in 2006 include macho guy store Northern Tool & Equipment, college logo apparel discounter Steve & Barry's, and Wild Oats, the natural food supermarket chain. But many expect Kohl's, which has been gathering sites here for years, to finally pick what year it will open stores in the Tampa Bay area.

Outdoor lifestyle centers with sit-down signature restaurants and shops similar to Bay Street at Tampa's International Plaza are the rage. That's the look promised by all three Wesley Chapel projects. Enclosed malls are remodeling to keep current. Westfield Brandon expects to start construction on its $50-million version this year. Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg opens its $6-million version with 14 stores, a Bonefish Grill and Leroy Selmon's BBQ this winter. Tyrone is expected to follow up by announcing another addition featuring a 14-screen movie theater with stadium seating.

Kash n' Karry will transform virtually all of its tired, old stores in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties into sparkling, new Sweetbay Supermarkets to give the chain a new lease on life. University Mall, which lost its JCPenney and may well lose its Dillard's next, is reworking its position in the marketplace.

Sears Holding Co. is under intense pressure to see some results from its 2005 merger with Kmart that was supposed to create the best of two retail worlds. One of the first experimental Sears Essentials layouts in St. Petersburg carries this blend of mid-priced Sears and discount store Kmart brands. If experiments like that flop, expect lots more Kmart and Sears real estate to be vacated.

In the supermarket wars, Wal-Mart's aggressive supercenter expansion in the region stumbled after some ugly zoning skirmishes in 2005. But the Bentonville Behemoth is hardly giving up. Meanwhile, a shrunken and humbled Winn-Dixie hopes to emerge from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy by June. Analysts think the future of Albertsons' Florida stores finally will be decided now that the parent company gave up trying to sell itself whole in hopes that someone else would be confronted with selling the pieces.

[Last modified January 8, 2006, 11:28:05]