Plaza's opening creates 'hot area'

When Coastal Way shopping center opens Wednesday, it will anchor an intersection some are calling the retail capital of Hernando County.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

SPRING HILL -- By the looks of the guest list, this isn't just any old ribbon-cutting. A Tampa Bay Devil Rays pitcher is on deck, along with a beauty queen and several soap opera stars and jazz musicians, to usher in this week's long-awaited opening of the Coastal Way shopping plaza.

But the most important guests on Wednesday, when the doors swing open to Sears, Belk and nine smaller stores, will be thousands of shoppers eager to throw down cash and credit at the county's newest and biggest retail center.

Anchored by two major department stores with room for five businesses on parcels out front -- future sites for SunTrust Bank and an Exxon/Mobile station -- Coastal Way has officially crowned the intersection of Mariner and Cortez boulevards as the retail capital of Hernando County.

"I don't think there's any question that (State Road) 50 and Mariner have become Main and Main Street for retail in Hernando County," said Buddy Selph, owner of Tommy Dawson Realty in Brooksville. Selph helped forge the deal between local property owners and developer CBL & Associates Properties Inc. of Chattanooga, Tenn.

"I think you're now going to see second-tier-type of commercial development," Selph said. "You'll see a lot of things we don't have there now. You'll start seeing furniture stores and bookstores and nicer restaurants. . . . I really think you're going to see it develop between Mariner and the expressway (Suncoast Parkway). I think that's going to be the hot area."

There's also room for more growth at the center, whose stylish terra cotta and white stone exterior is marked by awnings over some of the stores and palm trees along its front sidewalk. Selph is trustee over 18 acres of empty property to the east of the shopping center, wrapping around Ryan's Family Steak House. The grow-out potential of the plaza, which is made up of individual stores and is not an enclosed mall, easily will make it the biggest in the county, he said.

On the west side of the plaza, Sears has room to grow in the future if it chooses to add an automotive, luggage or cosmetics department, said store manager Penny Parker as workers buzzed around her last week, buffing floors and unpacking boxes.

The opening of the new site is forcing the closure of the smaller Brooksville location, which sold hardware, electronics and appliances.

The Sears at Coastal Way, staffed with 140 employees, offers hardware, home improvement merchandise, appliances and electronics, brand-name apparel, a portrait studio, an optical shop, Miracle Ear and, during tax season, H&R Block.

Also, there will be an "At Your Service" counter in the back of the store where people can take returns. And cashiers will be at the exit doors rather than in every department.

"I think we'll end up diverting traffic from Port Richey," Parker said. "Port Richey and Crystal River (Sears sites) will probably suffer due to me."

Sears opens on Wednesday, but its official grand-opening celebration kicks off Saturday, with appearances by Tampa Bay Devil Rays pitcher Bryan Rekar from 10 a.m. to noon; Miss Florida Candace Rodatz, participating in a fashion show, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and actor Michael O'Leary, who plays Dr. Rick Bauer on Guiding Light, from 1 to 3 p.m. Jazz bands will play in the store during the weekend.

More soap opera stars will make appearances at Sears on Aug. 19 and Aug. 26.

Though Belk will officially open on Wednesday, Belk credit-card holders are welcome to shop in the store on Tuesday, said store manager Kris Nelson. Belk's opening is a little more sedate than Sears', without the bands and the soap opera stars.

One of the Belk store's highlights is a cluster of several glimmering makeup counters, with products not offered in other Hernando County stores, Nelson said. Meeting shoppers as soon as they walk in the door, the counters include product lines such as Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Lancome and Clinique.

"That's one of our biggest draws," Nelson said.

Clothing fashions include designer names such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. Just beyond the makeup counters is the store's shoe section, which holds such brands as Nike, Adidas and Reebok styles.

Signs calling for "New Directions" promote business suits for women between ages 35 and 55.

The new Belk store, with its 55 employees, is one of five new Belk stores this year in the company's Jacksonville district, which runs north to Charleston, S.C., and south to Sebring.

The other nine Coastal Way tenants between Sears and Belk are: Lollipop Kids, which will keep its other children's apparel location in Brooksville; Friedman's Jewelers; The Shoe Department; Payless Shoes; Sbarros Pizza; Claire's Boutique; Bath & Body Works; Deb's Hallmark Cards, and Good Scents candle store. One storefront sits empty and is available for another tenant.

The building of the Suncoast Parkway played some role in the choice of the site for a development the size of Coastal Way, said CBL & Associates' project manager Gary Maxwell.

"I can't speak for the department stores, but I think the parkway was a major factor," he said.

Even though the developers found the property more than three years ago filled with concrete from Southdown Inc.'s operations, it was still considered the "best site in Hernando County," Maxwell said.

Across Cortez Boulevard from Coastal Way, which sits at the northeast corner of the intersection, are Bealls Department Store, the Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Publix store.

Jim Simpson, divisional vice president and director of stores for Bealls Department Stores, said his company is looking forward to the opening of Coastal Way.

"I think collectively everyone will benefit from the traffic," Simpson said. "They will benefit from the traffic that we draw."

Just to the west of Coastal Way, on the same side of Cortez, lies a reinvigorated Western Way Plaza, which this year alone filled the formerly deserted center with the 10-screen Beacon Theatres, a Bealls Outlet store, a Save A Lot grocery store, The Vanilla Bean coffee shop and Reflections of Thyme gift shop.

"The more retail there is in an intersection . . the better opportunity there is for cross shopping," said Seth Layton, executive vice president of RMC/Konover Trust LLC in Tampa, a subsidiary of Konover Property Trust, a North Carolina-based real estate investment trust. RMC/Konover is the management and leasing company for Western Way Plaza.

"That's always been a very strong intersection," Layton added. "Our company has always been aware of the strength and vitality of the Brooksville and Spring Hill market, and it was only a matter of time before others discovered it as well."

The buzz at the intersection is causing some stores to jockey for better positions.

Two of the five outparcels at the front of the 32-acre Coastal Way plaza site are slated for SunTrust Bank and an Exxon/Mobil convenience store and gasoline station, said Rusty Phillips, director of peripheral property for CBL & Associates.

That means the SunTrust branch at the northwest corner of Mariner and Cortez will close, making room for a Walgreens Drug Store. The Walgreens will move to the site from its current store in the plaza with Bealls -- Mariner Square -- said Spring Hill real estate agent John Wickert, who is handling the deal.

While the businesses shuffle their decks, two young Hernando County residents working at the Coastal Way plaza feel like they have hit the jackpot.

Shakema Broadhead, 19, and Tracey Johnson, 20, employees in the Juniors section of Belk, stood last week among racks with blue jeans and slacks draped over the top, waiting to get an assignment on what to do with the excess clothing.

Instead of commuting to jobs in Tampa, the two were among 600 applicants at Belk and will be able to work minutes from where they live.

"It was really close and easy," Johnson said.

Also, as shoppers, they no longer will need to make long trips to find favorite stores, like Bath & Body Works or Claire's Boutique.

"We would go all the way to Port Richey for that," Broadhead said.

"That's too far," Johnson said, "but there was nothing we could do."

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