With no anchor, businesses drift away

Troubled by vacancy rates, Largo tries to help. But often its options are limited.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 15, 2001

LARGO -- Although the break-in took place in the middle of the night, Judy Johnson believes her business would not have been burglarized a year ago if Winn-Dixie were still around.

Since Winn-Dixie left the LaBelle Plaza shopping center in 1999, the once-alive parking lot is now virtually deserted. As a result, police do not pay as much attention to the plaza, she said. She believes potential criminals are very aware that there may not be as many people watching the place, during the day or night.

"For the neighborhood, it's not good," said Johnson, who owns a Hallmark greeting card store at the shopping center, at Belleair Road and Highland Avenue.

When an anchor tenant leaves, the stores that are left behind face a range of troubles, say merchants, city officials and business leaders.

About 12 percent of all retail space in the city is unoccupied, according to the most recent data collected by the Maddux Report, an area publication that tracks such information. The percentage has stayed consistent since February 1998, when the vacancy rate went past 10 percent.

"We are a built-out community," said City Manager Steven Stanton. "One of the challenges is not new development, but redevelopment."

The simple solution would be to find a way to quickly strike a deal with another business to set up shop in the vacant location, but that is easier said than done.

City officials have tried several things to solve the problem. They include financial incentives or concessions like allowing a company to create more parking space than previously allowed by the city, as it did when Wal-Mart moved into 105,000 square feet of space on Missouri Avenue, Stanton said.

The results have been mixed, city officials say.

"The city cannot do anything," said Anastasios Poulakis, owner of Greek Island Restaurant in the Belleair Plaza on Clearwater-Largo Road and Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

That shopping plaza lost its biggest tenant last year when, as part of cost-cutting efforts, Winn-Dixie closed its supermarket.

The dimly lit Greek Island Restaurant has survived primarily on loyal customers, some of whom have been coming to eat there since it opened 18 years ago. Several less fortunate businesses have either closed or moved.

"It's dead," said Poulakis. "Nobody. Nobody's around."

In addition to businesses that are struggling or considering permanently shutting down their operations, Poulakis said he has noticed more homeless people hanging out in the area. Merchants in a shopping center vacated by Kash n' Karry in the mid 1990s made similar complaints last year. Police began patrols of the area.

Like a person making the transition from renter to homeowner, some businesses have opted to leave strip malls or shopping centers to reopen in a building all their own. The one difference between this process and that of becoming a homeowner is that some operations continue to pay rent on the vacant property, rather than allowing a competitor to move in.

Ric Goss, the city's community development director, is frustrated by such actions. He hopes that the state Legislature will someday address the issue.

"I've said, "I don't think they should be able to do that,' " he said.

Others, like Greater Largo Chamber of Commerce president Marc Mansfield, said such a move would be a violation of basic free enterprise.

"They still have a lease," he said. "Why should they be forced to give up their lease?"

Mansfield understands the city's frustration. He, too, thinks Largo's retail vacancy rates are a tad high. But he believes the issue is "a difficult area to attack." Some retailers see the greater populations of St. Petersburg and Clearwater and quickly turn their thoughts away from Largo.

Mansfield said working with a manufacturing company could be another option, but city zoning regulations and resident objections might discourage such businesses from setting up shop in a large, vacant building.

"What are you going to do with a vacant building at 45,000 square feet that can be nothing else but a grocery store?" said Goss.

For nearly two years, Johnson and other merchants at LaBelle Plaza waited for a new business to fill the 36,000 square feet vacated by Winn-Dixie when it left in 1999. Earlier this month, a sign was erected that announced Publix is planning to open a supermarket by fall 2002.

"It's a new life for us," said Johnson, the Hallmark owner.

The new supermarket will have a bakery, deli and pharmacy and will sell greeting cards.

"We'd like to thank our customers for supporting us during the bad times and hope for the good times, even though (Publix) sells greeting cards," Johnson said with a smile.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright