Brandon Mall Taking A Turn For The Glitz
Westfield Shoppingtown Brandon will get a $50 million renovation, including an outdoor area with upscale restaurants.
ROBERT BURKE / Tribune
Published: Jan 11, 2006
BRANDON - At the moment, the most popular Saturday night pastime for Tampa's young and fabulous set might be nursing a martini at International Plaza's Bay Street area.
The area's trendy folks also have adopted restaurant row at WestShore Plaza. Now, mall officials in Brandon are betting they, too, can create a fashionable dining and shopping scene - even in an area best known for soccer moms and evening PTA meetings.
Westfield Brandon is planning a new $50 million wing on the mall's western side along Interstate 75. About half of the 150,000-square-foot wing will be traditional indoor space, but the other half will have an outdoor, streetscape feel and a mix of upscale shops and sit-down restaurants.
The new Westfield Brandon wing won't have nightclubs, but it will try to capture the same type of customers that International Plaza's Bay Street draws, namely the thousands of young professionals moving into Brandon, Bloomingdale and Riverview, mall Marketing Director Taylor Clifton said.
The only tenant identified so far is Dick's Sporting Goods, a major national competitor to Sports Authority and a newcomer to the Tampa Bay area. However, mall General Manager David Josker said a mix of 15 to 20 tenants are on the way, perhaps even a white-tablecloth restaurant.
"But I'm not saying we're bringing Bern's Steak House in here," Josker said.
Mall management is expected to hold a formal unveiling ceremony at the mall today.
Brandon residents and county leaders, though, surely will watch how the mall deals with traffic snarls outside its doors. Last week, Bob Campbell, Hillsborough County's chief transportation planner, said Westfield will have to make road improvements if it wants to go forward with its project. Campbell said Westfield has agreed to redesign its State Road 60 entrance and add a third left turn lane for people leaving the mall. Also, the county is hoping to extend Gornto Lake Road to give shoppers another mall entrance.
Clifton, the mall marketing director, said Westfield Brandon is moving a bit upscale at the request of its customers, who are getting more affluent every year. Income in areas surrounding the mall has shot up in recent years. In Riverview, for example, the median household income rose to $51,016 in 2000 from $31,545 in 1990, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data for the area. Median household incomein Bloomingdale rose to $68,911 from $50,790 during that decade.
Moving upscale has its limits, though. When asked whether Westfield Brandon is courting the likes of Tiffany & Co., Clifton said, "I don't think our customer is going that far."
The expansion at Westfield Brandon is the latest evolution of the American mall. First there were regional and super-regional malls such as Westfield Brandon and University Mall in Tampa, which are enclosed malls that draw from an entire region. Later came the "lifestyle center," which basically is a mall without a roof. Lifestyle centers often have a mix of upscale restaurants and shops, brick pavers and old-fashioned street lamps to recreate the charm of a downtown shopping area.
Now comes Westfield Brandon's hybrid model, which has elements of indoor mall and lifestyle center. Other Bay area malls have moved in this direction. International Plaza is mostly an enclosed center but also has its Bay Street open-air area. WestShore Plaza added an outdoor wing with restaurants and movie theaters in 2001. And, in St. Petersburg, Tyrone Square Mall demolished a corner of its mall and is replacing it with five shops and restaurants, including two Outback Steakhouse Inc. chains, Lee Roy Selmon's and Bonefish Grill.
These days, upscale shops and restaurants often want private entrances, so customers can drive up, shop and leave, Tyrone Square Manager Lita Sargent said.
"The lifestyle sections just have a nice feel," Sargent said. "When you drive up, it doesn't even look like a mall anymore."
Some Balk At The Price For Mall's Success
Expansions to Westfield Shoppingtown Brandon could add to the traffic along Highway 60.
CLIFF MCBRIDE / Tribune
Published: Jan 11, 2006
BRANDON - The chance to shop at additional stores or dine at more restaurants doesn't thrill Dianne Pack.
The Riverview resident is more concerned about how Westfield Brandon plans to shoehorn additional customers through entrances that routinely back up.
"I totally freaked out when I heard about their expansion plans," Pack said. "The traffic is already ludicrous. Someone missed the boat somewhere."
Traffic jams around the mall have been a constant complaint since the mall opened a decade ago, particularly at its single entrance on State Road 60.
Westfield has announced a plan to add a 150,000-square-foot pedestrian-friendly plaza on its western boundary. State and county transportation officials said Westfield must make road improvements before getting their approval.
County planners said Westfield has agreed to adding a third left turn lane for people leaving on S.R. 60 and realigning the remaining lanes to eliminate confusion.
Kris Carson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation, said that won't be enough.
"We feel other improvements will be needed," she said. "We are working closely with the county and the developer to see what those will be. We want to coordinate on what will be needed to accommodate the traffic increase we expect when adding 150,000 square feet."
Carson and county planners said Westfield's plan remains conceptual, saying only preliminary discussions about needed road work have been held.
The mall did get some good news from the local expressway authority.
The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority opened its new lanes over Interstate 75 in December. The two lanes dump traffic at Brandon Town Center Drive and give the mall an additional gateway - particularly to shoppers from south Tampa neighborhoods.
The authority was going to close the lanes to finish work on the bridge over I-75 that carries them, but the authority has decided to keep the lanes open and only close them during off-peak hours.
"We watch what our customers are doing and saw there was an overwhelming response to having those lanes open," said Beth Leytham, authority spokeswoman.
The county also is hoping to restart the stalled effort to extend Gornto Lake Road south from S.R. 60 to TownCenter Boulevard, providing another access to the mall.
Bill McCall, the county's project manager, said some major design, flooding and drainage problems must be overcome.
"People shouldn't expect to suddenly see construction out there," he said. "There are some serious issues."
David Josker, the mall's manager, said the traffic jams are the price the mall pays for its success.
"As long as everyone works together, we will find a solution," he said.