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Shopping center sells for $19M

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published June 29, 2006

New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc. and the Sembler Co. have acquired Tyrone Gardens, one of the oldest shopping centers in St. Petersburg, for $19-million.

While neighborhood scuttlebutt envisions a major rebuilding of the vintage 1958 center at Ninth Avenue N and 58th Street anchored by Winn-Dixie, Big Lots and Chuck E. Cheese, the new owners said that's only their long-term intention.

The 209,000-square-foot center is 95 percent leased. New Plan, a New York-based real estate investment trust that controls 90 percent of the partnership, will manage the property. New Plan counts a dozen Tampa Bay area shopping centers in its $3.4-billion portfolio. Sembler, one of the nation's most active center developers in 2005, last teamed up with New Plan to redevelop Clearwater Mall.

"We're still evaluating what we will do, but long term I see it as redevelopment," said Craig Sher, president and CEO of St. Petersburg-based Sembler.

Sembler has been unusually active in west St. Petersburg. A controversial retail/office project that includes townhouses within a mile of Tyrone Gardens at Ninth Avenue N and 66th Street goes before the City Council July 18. Sembler also has a deal for a Kohl's in a 150,000-square-foot shopping center planned for Park Street north of the Target in late 2007.

[Last modified June 29, 2006, 06:09:56]