By:Dave Balut
Pinellas Park, Florida - Stephanie and Brianna Turbeville are trying to skate at least one a week until Parkside Mall closes.STEPHANIE TURBEVILLE, Ice Skater:
“It’s kind of sad because this is the place that we like to come to go ice skating over here and now it won’t be here anymore.”The 30-year-old mall at US 19 and Park Boulevard in Pinellas Park is closing June 30th, and the building will be demolished. Most of the stores are gone. Some are still selling out and relocating.Only the Parkside R/C Movie Theatre is staying but Robert Schmidt of mall owner BoulderVenture South says the theatre will have a new entrance on the ground level. It will be closed from July 1st through December 1st.As for the rest of the project, Schmidt says an anchor tenant, five large stores, and 11 smaller stores and restaurants will go around the outside of the property, with parking in the middle.ROBERT SCHMIDT, BoulderVenture South:
“People want to drive up to a specific store they want to shop in. They don’t want to wander around in a mall looking for that unless it’s a higher end mall.”Schmidt says the new Shoppes at Park Place will mirror the developer’s Midtown Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The project will cost an estimated $70 million and take 18 months to two years to complete.Before the building is demolished, the mall owner is giving away office supplies and other items to schools and other organizations. A sound system and piano was donated to the Nina Harris exceptional student center.
