Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Maas Brothers to be first store to open at Countryside Mall

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published June 26, 2006

CLEARWATER - Countryside Mall, Pinellas County's innovative regional shopping center, will begin testing customer reaction to two-level mall merchandising.

The initial feedback is due from customers of Maas Brothers, which will be the smallest of four department stores planned at Countryside but the first to open.

No date has been formally announced, but July 23 seems to be a possibility now for the two-story outlet, where Roger Berryman is the general manager. The store has 141,945 square feet.

Shoppers will be able to park their cars either beside the ground or second levels at Maas and walk inside. Maas is in the center of the south side of the huge mall on U.S. 19 at State Road 580.

Sears will open its 223,000-square-foot store this fall, and a couple of dozen of the smaller shops and restaurants in the 1.1-million-square-foot complex should be ready to open their doors, too.

Eventually, four department stores with two stories and restaurants will anchor the mall. JCPenney will open later this year with 166,886 square feet. And Robinson's will open in 1976 with 148,480 square feet.

Countryside Mall is the commercial center of the sprawling Countryside residential development by U.S. Home Corp. and will be opening amid speculation that the mall could be sold before many of the stores get their doors open.

The project is for sale for the right offer, U.S. Home stockholders were told at Tuesday's annual meeting at the Ramada Inn at Countryside.

June 28, 1978

KKK threat concerns bank president

PALM HARBOR - Palm State Bank president Frank Weaner says he received a threat from the Ku Klux Klan on Monday and will notify the FBI.

Weaner said Tuesday he found a note in the night depository attached to a copy of the Klan's newsmagazine, Crusader. The note said, "The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are watching you," and "You could receive a visit from the Klan."

Weaner, who spoke against the establishment of the Klan's Florida headquarters on U.S. 19, about a mile from his bank, said he considers the note evidence of a threat and plans to notify the FBI. He also said that in the last two months, he has received several calls threatening his life. The callers would identify themselves only as "white Christians" and supporters of the Klan, he said.

June 4, 1945

Commissioners to appoint service officers

Proceeding under a special act passed by the 1945 Florida Legislature, the Pinellas County Commission is expected to appoint two county service officers at the regular session here tomorrow, one to work in St. Petersburg and the other in Clearwater.

The new bureaus will be maintained to assist servicemen in filing claims for compensation and other federal benefits as well as to aid dependents of deceased veterans. The commission approved a $5,000 appropriation for the two offices nearly a year ago, but the funds were held up in the face of an adverse opinion from Attorney General J. Tom Watson.

J.A. Preedom, commander of the Clearwater chapter, Disabled American Veterans, who lost an arm fighting with the 1st Division in World War I, has been endorsed by all veterans groups in the central and northern Pinellas sections for appointment as the service officer in this end of the county.

Serving without pay, Preedom has operated the local service office for 13 months. He has interviewed hundreds of ex-servicemen and their dependents and has aided scores in obtaining compensation through claims filed with the Veterans Administration at Bay Pines.

Pinellas History is compiled by Times staff writer Theresa Blackwell. She can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or 727 445-4170.

HEADLINES THROUGH THE YEARS

A look back at the events, people and places that made North Pinellas the unique place that is. The information is compiled from past edition of the St. Petersburg Times.

[Last modified June 26, 2006, 07:37:30]