Dillard's Plans 150,000-SF Store in Tampa Suburb

WESLEY CHAPEL, FL-Dillard's plans to open a two-story, 150,000-sf store at the planned 750,000-sf, 60-store Shops at Wiregrass at Wiregrass Ranch in this Tampa suburb. Forest City Commercial Development Co. of Cleveland and the Goodman Co. of West Palm Beach are developing the outdoor Main Street-style shopping and entertainment center.

The joint venture partners declined to disclose the estimated hard construction cost of either the Dillard's store or the Shops at Wiregrass. However, Tampa retail and industrial brokers and consultants familiar with comparable endeavors tell GlobeSt.com the Dillard's store will probably be built for at least $200 per sf or an estimated total $30 million. The Shops at Wiregrass will probably be a minimum $100-million development, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Dillard's, J.C. Penney and a third national retailer who hasn't signed a lease yet are the expected anchors. There is no preleasing volume at the moment, Jim Richardson, vice president, development, Forest City Development, tells GlobeSt.com. "We're just starting that phase," he says.

The shopping center will be located on State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and is only one component of the 5,022-acre Wiregrass Ranch mixed-use project. Wiregrass Ranch will consist of an adjacent 500,000-sf power center and a 220,000-sf Wal-Mart Supercenter on the northeast end and along State Road 54.

Those projects are scheduled to open in spring 2006. The 37-acre parcel between the power center and the lifestyle center will include a large sporting goods store, a stadium cinema and other retail and residential units, Richardson says. The entire Wiregrass Ranch is expected to take 10 years to build out.

Wiregrass Ranch will also have an educational campus consisting of an elementary, middle and high school which is scheduled to open for the 2006 school year. Other civic uses include a national tennis center, county offices and a regional hospital and medical center. The lifestyle center is being designed by Atlanta-based architect Cooper Carry Inc.