A closed Applebee's at Shoppes at Park Place is set to come down. The restaurant would be razed as part of a larger redevelopment at the Pinellas Park center, and a drive-thru bank could take the pad it leaves behind.
The larger piece already has a council vote on it. On April 21, Pinellas Park's City Council approved a revised master plan in a 3-0 vote, Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reported, allowing a five-story, 120-room hotel, about 28,000 square feet of retail and a drive-thru bank.
A 60-Foot Hotel and Two Retail Buildings
The hotel is proposed for the southwest portion of the property, at about 60 feet. St. Pete Rising described Shoppes at Park Place as an open-air shopping center at 7200 U.S. Highway 19 North. Five stories would be the piece that rises over that layout.
The retail is easier to pace off. Two buildings are planned south of BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, one 21,500 square feet and the other 6,525, St. Pete Rising reported. Added together, that is 28,025 square feet, in line with the roughly 28,000 square feet the council plan allows.
The bank is the Park Boulevard piece. St. Pete Rising said the former Applebee's site there is expected to be redeveloped into a bank with a drive-thru. Tampa Bay Business & Wealth described the same work as demolition of the restaurant and construction of a roughly 3,000-square-foot drive-thru bank, plus those two retail buildings.
The Tampa Bay Business Journal reported Friday that the closed Applebee's will be razed and that a drive-thru bank could replace it. The redevelopment in that account also includes a hotel and more than 20,000 square feet of retail. The spring vote allows the bank. Friday's wording still treats an operator opening on that pad as something that could happen, not something already done.
Two Votes, and No Construction Date
Council was not the first board to see the change. On March 5, the Pinellas Park Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved an amendment to the site's development plan, St. Pete Rising reported. On April 21, council approved the revised master plan, 3-0.
A revised master plan tells the city how the property may be arranged. It does not pour a footing. With that April vote, Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reported, no construction timeline or retail tenants were announced. Friday's account still describes a restaurant that will be razed, not one already cleared from Park Boulevard.
Fewer Spaces, Still Above the Minimum
The parking figures are where the plan admits a tradeoff. Following construction, St. Pete Rising reported, the center is expected to have about 2,815 spaces, down from 3,044. The vote coverage described more than 2,800 spaces, exceeding a required 2,300.
The drop is about 230 spaces. Set the post-construction count against the requirement cited with the plan, and about 2,815 spaces would still sit roughly 515 above the 2,300 minimum. The hotel adds 120 rooms. The retail adds two buildings. The lot, on these numbers, gets smaller and still clears the bar the city set.
What the $85 Million Sale Described
This is not a plan drawn for an empty property, at least not in the last sale account. JLL brokered an $85 million sale of Shoppes at Park Place to Belleair Development, which funded the acquisition with a $51 million loan, REBusinessOnline reported. CBRE represented the buyer. The center was 97.4 percent leased at the time of the sale.
That coverage listed 10 outparcels, with tenants including Chick-fil-A, Starbucks and Chase Bank, and said Belleair planned to add more retail space, apartments and a hotel. The Chase branch in that list is an existing outparcel. The drive-thru bank in the redevelopment reporting is a separate proposal, on the former Applebee's site.
Apartments are the detail that does not travel from one account to the other. They appear in the sale coverage of what Belleair planned to add. They do not appear in the description of what council allowed in April: a 120-room hotel, about 28,000 square feet of retail and the drive-thru bank.
A Mostly Leased Center, One Closed Pad
Tampa Bay Business & Wealth placed the April vote in a wider pattern on the highway the center fronts. Older retail centers along the U.S. 19 corridor, the report said, are being repositioned as tenant demand shifts. A 97.4 percent lease rate at the sale makes this a different picture from a dark mall looking for a second life. The building Friday still has coming down is a closed Applebee's.
The April vote coverage did not include a construction timeline or named retail tenants. Friday's report left the next physical step where that vote coverage had it: the restaurant will be razed, and a drive-thru bank could replace it. The hotel on the southwest side, the two retail buildings south of BJ's, and a lot planned for about 2,815 spaces are all in the approved map. A date to start was not.
