MELBOURNE, FL-CBL & Associates Properties Inc. of Chattanooga, TN has broken ground on its second Central Florida shopping center project in a year with the start of the 170,000-sf Shops at Pineda Ridge. The center is one quarter mile south of Pineda Causeway on Wickham Road.

Home Depot plans to open its 140,000-sf retail and garden center tomorrow. Small shops occupying the remaining 30,000 sf are expected to open in October, bringing the endeavor to 100% occupancy at completion.

"With such a strong anchor draw as Home Depot and the excellent location and trade area demographics, the Shops at Pineda Ridge is perfectly positioned to benefit from Brevard County's continued growth," says CBL president Stephen Lebovitz.

A company representative tells GlobeSt.com CBL declines to disclose development costs "at this time." However, Brevard County area construction sources familiar with the erection of comparable properties tell GlobeSt.com Shops at Pineda Ridge will probably be built at an estimated hard construction cost of $100 per sf. That would place the estimated construction cost of the project in the $17-million to $20-million range, construction sources say.

The Melbourne project complements CBL's recent opening of the 1.7-million-sf Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers. "We have been very active on the development front in Florida," Lebovitz says. The Shops at Pineda Ridge is "part of our 2006 development pipeline that totals over 1.6 million sf."