By:Dave Balut
Pinellas Park – What had been the old Montgomery Ward store at the old ParkSide Mall, is now just a skeleton of a building on the way down. And the rest of the mall isn’t far behind. DEVELOPER JOHN SABOW: “The Dillards, and the JC Penney will be coming down in the next seven days also. It will happen fast since the buildings have been gutted.”John Sabow with developer Boulder Venture South says hurricanes and wet weather delayed the project for about 60 days, but it’s moving quickly now.DEVELOPER JOHN SABOW: “It’s quite a relief now that the weather’s let up and we’re able to start working hard.”Sabow says about 80% of the dirt has been removed. It’s being used in other projects in Pinellas County. Much of the old building material will be recycled and used again on-site.While most of the workers are tearing down the old mall, others are laying pipelines for the new project. Sabow says about 70% of the space has been leases to businesses like Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, Chili’s, Panda Express and Wachovia Bank.A couple of larger stores, Target and Kohl’s haven’t formally announced they’re coming to the new Shoppes at Park Place, but the Zoning Director for Pinellas Park says both stores are interested. And Dean Neal says Target has even submitted construction plans.The movie theatre is scheduled to open again with a new entrance in mid-January. New stores are scheduled to open in October 2005.
