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Clothing store's fate hangs on parkingBy MAUREEN BYRNE © St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2000 SEMINOLE -- Burlington Coat Factory, which operates more than 280 stores in 42 states, is negotiating with the city to occupy the former Roberds store, one of Seminole's most visible retail corners. If the city's Land Development Review Board approves a zoning variance, the Burlington, N.J.-based company The space occupies more than half of Seminole Plaza, a 144,000-square-foot strip center that also includes TJ Maxx and Shoe Carnival. Burlington would hire up to 100 employees to work at the Seminole store, company representatives said. The company also would spend $1-million to upgrade the property. But according to a formula in a city ordinance, there would not be enough parking spaces to accommodate the store's customers. So Burlington officials have asked the city to waive the parking requirements, said Mitch Bobowski, the city's general services director. The board will consider the request at a Nov. 20 meeting. "If everything is okay, we plan on opening up as early in the spring as we can," said Monroe G. Milstein, president and chief executive officer of Burlington Coat Factory, which employs 28,000 full- and part-time employees nationwide. The company sells men's, women's and children's clothing, shoes, linens and accessories. In 1999, it sold $2-billion in merchandise, Milstein said. "We have the opportunity for a first-class business to come in and make significant improvements to the site," Bobowski said. Part of those improvements would include remodeling the interior and exterior of the store and adding landscaping to the property "so it is not a sea of concrete," Bobowski said. Roberds moved into the site in 1993. Before then, it housed a Kmart, which moved in 1992 to Seminole Mall. The store has been vacant since the spring, when Roberds, a Dayton, Ohio, chain that sells furniture, electronics and appliances, closed its retail stores in the Tampa Bay area. Since Roberds left, the plaza's owner and the Greater Area Seminole Chamber of Commerce have been working on filling the empty space. Jimmy Johnson, executive director of the Greater Area Seminole Chamber of Commerce, said there are about a dozen vacant spaces in the city, with most on Seminole and Park boulevards. "We don't like to see those empty storefronts," he said. Representatives from New Plan Excel Realty Trust, a New York City company that bought the shopping center in 1998 for $4.3-million, did not return phone calls. According to the Burlington's Web site, the company's roots trace back to 1924, when Abe Milstein launched a wholesale outerwear business. In the 1950s, Monroe G. Milstein joined his father and began a small sideline retail trade. In 1972, the company began operations as a retailer through the acquisition of one coat factory and outlet store in Burlington. The company has 12 stores in Florida and two stores in Pinellas County, one in Clearwater and one in St. Petersburg.
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
will open a store at the 87,000-square-foot site at Seminole and Park boulevards.
