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Posh mall wants buses to stay out
By BILL VARIAN
© St. Petersburg Times,
The upscale mall will even provide a shuttle to jet-setting travelers from Tampa International Airport to the front door. But less well-to-do shoppers, the elderly and employees of the mall who rely on public transportation, might have a more difficult journey. Management for International Plaza is refusing to let Hillsborough Area Regional Transit open a bus stop at the mall that opens Sept. 14. When Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt, a HARTline board member, heard this Thursday, she canceled a hard-hat tour of the mall. "That's how outraged I am at the whole notion of such an elitist approach," Platt said. "Keep in mind that that is public property, and they have a special obligation to the people that they serve and the people who they employ there." International Plaza general manager Aj Jemison expressed surprise that the issue has surfaced. She said bus routes were discussed during planning stages for the mall and surrounding developments. Elitism wasn't a factor. She said it was decided at that time that buses should run on the main roads that separate the mall from nearby office complexes and other destinations. "I know there were some negotiations," Jemison said. "They (the bus stops) were decided based on the entire property." HARTline officials say they recall no such discussions. Even if they did take place, it makes sense that there would be branch routes to accommodate major hubs such as a mall, they said. Each of Hillsborough's other four major malls have made on-site accommodations for buses. Two routes that serve University Mall in north Hillsborough, for instance, carry from 42,000 to 47,000 a month respectively, making them two of HARTline's more popular lines. HARTline authorities acknowledge they don't know how many of those passengers are traveling to and from the mall. "It's never been an issue," said Tom Miles, general manager for WestShore Plaza, International Plaza's closest competitor in terms of location and expected customer base, which has a bus stop in its parking lot. The 1.26-million-square-foot International Plaza will be about a mile north of WestShore Plaza on land leased from the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. As it stands now, the closest bus stops for International Plaza will be a quarter-mile away at West Shore Boulevard and Boy Scout Boulevard. Some bus passengers will have to cross both major thoroughfares to hop a bus home. Jemison said she has several concerns about allowing bus traffic through mall property. The heavy buses would chew up parking lot pavement, adding costs to mall upkeep. Those buses would stall traffic in and out of the mall. And adding a bus stop would eat into the 6,000 spaces available for parking. The buses could also pose a liability, dripping oil that would create a hazard to pedestrians, though Jemison said that was a lesser concern. Further, she said, mall bus stops tend to evolve into hubs, which she has experienced at other shopping centers she has managed. "I'm not white, and I've been poor for many years in my life," Jemison said. "I used to ride public transportation. Our goal has never been and never will be to discriminate against anyone." HARTline public liaison Ed Crawford said the buses would use only a perimeter road around the mall and would stay out of the parking area, away from valuable parking spaces. He said HARTline has offered to fortify the asphalt around any stops and agreed to accept liability for any accidents it causes. He said no one at HARTline remembers any agreement that keeps buses out of the mall. "I can't find anyone at HARTline who recalls that conversation," Crawford said. "The bottom line is, whatever comes after this, that we put something on the table that will cost them nothing and will hold them harmless." International Plaza was developed on part of a 156-acre parcel that Tampa businessman Richard Corbett leases from the airport under terms that critics have long called a sweetheart deal because of low rents compared with the values of surrounding land. The mall's anchor tenants will include Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Lord & Taylor. -- Bill Varian can be reached at (813) 226-3387 or at varian@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times |
TAMPA -- International Plaza will cater to the sort of people who hire maids to clean their stuff and chauffeurs to ferry them to buy more of it.
