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Target sets sights on intersection
By JAMES THORNER
© St. Petersburg Times, WESLEY CHAPEL -- Target, the popular chain of discount department stores, has selected one of the area's hottest corridors for its first plunge into central Pasco County. A partly built concrete-block shell marks the future home of the SuperTarget at County Line Road and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. The opening date advertised on a construction site banner is March. The 184,000 square-foot store, which is rising beside the gates of the Lakes at Northwood neighborhood, across the street from the Meadow Pointe subdivision, combines the company's regular discount store with a supermarket. Other possible offerings within the store include a bank, bakery, deli, one-hour photo center, a Starbucks, pharmacy, optical center and a restaurant. Target, a division of the Dayton-Hudson Corp. of Minneapolis, has covered 48 states with 991 stores, including 68 in Florida. Superstores are a growing segment of the company's business. Each of the company's 37 superstores, including one in Orlando, employs about 450 people. The County Line Road store is an extension of the "New Tampa" shopping district south of the Pasco line in northern Hillsborough County. Gary Passardi, an executive board member with the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, is happy that thousands of central Pasco residents will no longer have to shop out-of-county. But he hopes the community, once sated with stores, will start attracting better paying jobs. "Obviously retail helps, but we're still looking for industry, something that brings in tax base and jobs," he said. Target is moving into a neighborhood served by a Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened a mile to the south last year beside Wharton High School. Target spokeswoman Kristin Jahnke said her company typically competes head-to-head with the likes of Wal-Mart and Kmart. "About 97 percent of existing stores are within 5 miles of our competitors," Jahnke said. It's a competition Target thinks it can win. The company markets itself as upscale compared to Wal-Mart. Stores are known for extra wide aisles and bright wall paint. Marketers harp on their stores' trendy fashion and home decor departments. According to a company press release, the SuperTarget grocery line boasts "gourmet groceries, fine meats and European-style baked goods." Unlike Wal-Mart, the chain does not sell rifles and shotguns. Wal-Mart officials decided against selling guns at its New Tampa store after residents expressed concern about guns being available so close to a high school. But Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said Target's challenge is good for the community. "It makes us really concentrate on meeting the needs of our customers because our customers don't need to shop with us anymore," Weber said. Plans for a shopping center at Bruce B. Downs and County Line Road are as old as the blueprints for the Lakes at Northwood neighborhood, conceived about a decade ago. But some were surprised at the size of what will be a regional mega-store with 1,300 parking spaces. Four satellite stores totaling 80,000 square feet will accompany the SuperTarget. Jack Brott, a member of the Lakes at Northwood homeowners association, lives on a cul-de-sac with a view of the scaffolded side of the future Target. "It doesn't really bother me, although I didn't expect it to be so big," Brott said as workers slapped mortar between concrete blocks. "Bruce B. Downs is building up something terrible anyway. It will be nice to be able to walk to the store." The homeowner's association is privy to plans showing more stores north of the SuperTarget on the west side of Bruce B. Downs, Brott said. Plans call for a Michaels crafts store, a Staples office supply, a large pet supply store and a 7-Eleven. Developers of Meadow Pointe have proposed building a supermarket on the east side of Bruce B. Downs north of the SuperTarget.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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