By Dominick Tao, Times Staff Writer
Friday, October 15, 2010
An architect’s rendering shows Largo Towne Center as it was first proposed. More recent plans have been scaled back.
LARGO — When the Largo Towne Center project was first proposed, back when the economy was booming and the housing bubble fat, Largo commissioners swooned at the concept.
It would not merely be a shopping mall, but a destination. A hub for entertainment and commerce, where people from Largo and beyond would shop among multi-tiered promenades, browse high-end stores and relax around sidewalk cafe tables, slurping gourmet coffee.
Fast forward to 2010.
Gone now is the notion of such a mixed-use, consumerist wonderland. It was smothered by the recession.
But evidence that the darkest days of the downturn have waned is rising from the scrapped plan.
A new developer — the Sembler Co. — has replaced Weingarten Realty Investors, and drawn up a new vision for the Towne Center site at Roosevelt Boulevard and U.S. 19. They want to build again.
City commissioners received a preview Tuesday night at a work session.
Sembler proposed two big-box stores with a strip of smaller outlets in between. Gone are the cobblestone walkways. Out are the built-in condos. And instead of a parking garage, there is simply a vast asphalt field.
A mass transit hub was included in the new plans, but is at least a football field away from the largest of the stores.
The new normal, compared to the expectations of the recent past, underwhelmed a majority of those the developers sought to impress.
Commissioner Harriet Crozier: "I don't like this. I don't like the parking lot. I'd like more creativity."
Commissioner Woody Brown: "I think it could be much, much better."
Commissioner Curtis Homes: "It may be store-friendly, but it might not be customer-friendly."
And Commissioner Robert Murray: "It looks like a typical mall."
The developer, in a letter to the city, indicated that the new goal is conservative. The idea now is to "proceed with some type of development on the site."
But it is progress.
And city officials embraced it.
"We do believe there is substantial market interest," said Carol Stricklin, Largo's community development director, among major retailers.
The city staff was directed to work with developers on drafting a new or revised development agreement, and after the meeting, the suits from Sembler and other firms involved clustered in the City Hall lobby, a huddle before the next play.
Dominick Tao can be reached at (727) 580-2951 or dtao@sptimes.com.