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Shopping center will gain 2 retailers

T.J. Maxx and OfficeMax will fill the 46,500-square-foot space vacated byWinn-Dixie in the Citrus Center shopping plaza.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published June 30, 2006

INVERNESS - Citrus shoppers will soon have a new spot to max out their credit cards. Literally.

OfficeMax and T.J. Maxx are moving in to the 46,500-square-foot space in the Citrus Center shopping plaza left vacant when Winn-Dixie closed last August.

"Both of them would like to open this fall if they could, but depending on construction work and timing it may very well be in the spring," said Steve Althoff, vice president of leasing for the Sembler Co.

The Citrus Center shopping center, west of the city limits at State Road 44 and Croft Avenue, is in one of the county's most bustling retail areas. Anchor stores there include Regal Citrus Cinemas, Sears and a Beall's department store. A large Lowe's and a Wal-Mart Supercenter draw steady streams of customers to a shopping center immediately to the west.

But the departure of Winn-Dixie after 18 years in the Citrus Center left a significant void.

The arrival of OfficeMax and T.J. Maxx "will revitalize that whole area," said Citrus director of Community Development Chuck Dixon.

OfficeMax opened a 23,500-square-foot store near the Crystal River Mall in 1999. Its Inverness store will be 18,500 square feet, Althoff said.

The 28,000-square-foot Inverness T.J. Maxx will be the offprice retailer's first Citrus County location. Currently, the closest locations of the chain, which has more than 800 stores in 48 states, are more than 20 miles away in Ocala and the Villages.

Similar shoppers will be interested in merchandise at Beall's and T.J. Maxx, said Rick McAllister, president and CEO of the Florida Retail Federation.

Beall's is more of a traditional department store, he said, while T.J. Maxx is a "hunt and pick and find a bargain sort of store." Both of them boast of offering fashionable items at lower prices.

But the new T.J. Maxx won't cut into existing stores' business, he said.

"It will generate a lot of traffic," he said. "They will complement each other. They will compete with each other ... It will be great for Citrus County."

The area surrounding the Citrus Center is likely to see a boom in retail business, Dixon said.

Engineers are currently conducting traffic studies for another possible large shopping center in that area, he said, with more than 100,000 square feet of retail space.

Last June Winn-Dixie announced that its Citrus Center store was one of 326 it planned to close as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

During the store's final days in mid August, shoppers snatched up remaining groceries after prices were reduced by 30 to 50 percent.

The deli, bakery and produce sections were sectioned off with yellow caution tape. And employees moved the few items left on the shelves toward the front of the store.

Now the space is vacant. Gray markings cover the floor where large shelves once stood. Signs still mark the former dairy, meat and one-hour photo sections of the store.

But soon, Althoff said, significant construction work will begin to renovate the store's interior.

Next door at the Cato women's clothing store, manager Shannon Stetkar said she wasn't worried about the coming competition.

"Beall's didn't hurt us. That won't hurt us either," she said. "It will be nice to have the traffic."

As she pushed a cart full of new clothes through the shoe department at Beall's Thursday afternoon, Jeanne DiPietro, 78, of Citrus Springs said she was excited to have a new place to shop.

"That's great," she said. "That's going to do some perking up around here."

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified June 29, 2006, 23:32:34]