Vacant BayWalk space gets a tenant

A home furnishings and accessories store will open in September, leaving only 3,000 square feet left to fill.

By SHARON L. BOND

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 8, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- The empty space in BayWalk that was supposed to be a bookstore will house an upscale home furnishings and accessories store -- Being -- scheduled to open in September.

Being will take about two-thirds of the bookstore space, according to Mel Sembler, whose company developed and manages the $40-million entertainment and shopping center downtown. BayWalk opened in November.

"It will front both the courtyard and First Street," Sembler said of the new store. "We'll have to reconfigure the space. They are taking off about 3,000 square feet."

Sembler said he is about to sign a national tenant for the 3,000 square feet, but he would not disclose who it is until the lease is signed.

Being will have more than 5,000 square feet and expects to draw customers from downtown and throughout the Tampa Bay area, including Bradenton and Sarasota, one of its owners said.

"There definitely is a market down there. The community down there is growing. With all of the new condominiums being built, there is an extensive market," said Jasmine Marston, of the downtown St. Petersburg area. The co-owner is Amy Bromley, and Louis E. Edmondson is the financier of the project, Marston said.

"We are importing from all over the world, and we will have American-made things as well," Marston said.

The store will carry furniture and home accessories of the type seen in Elle Decor and Metropolitan Home magazines, "items that are hot at the moment," Marston said. Being also will sell gifts and aromatherapy products.

Marston said her store will be very different from Fanitsa's Ultimate Home Shoppe, which she said is more gift oriented. Fanitsa's, a furnishings and accessories store, opened in November on the ground floor of the Florencia, one of the new luxury condominiums from which Marston hopes to draw business.

She said the store will open Sept. 15 or soon after. BayWalk is a collection of shops, restaurants, bars and a 20-screen Muvico theater that helped revitalize downtown and added a shopping element for the increasing number of people moving to downtown.

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