Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – Ashley Rogers’ face lit up as she watched a young girl, maybe 10 years old, fawn over a pair of vintage ladies gloves she was selling at an indie craft fair in St. Petersburg. Rogers, the owner of Canned Ham Vintage in Sarasota’s Rosemary District, used to be that little […]
Sarasota
Griffin: Sarasota’s UTC mall a Tampa-Orlando mashup
Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – I knew when I strolled down the aisleway at the Mall at University Town Center for the first time earlier this month — looking past the empty, half-completed storefronts and the plywood panels on the floor — that the mall looked and felt familiar.
So I traveled to Orlando and Tampa to get a feel for Taubman Centers’ other properties in Florida, the ones that have had the greatest influence on the look, feel and tenant mix on Southwest Florida’s newest retail hub.
Bass Pro surprises with Sarasota plan
Justine Griffin / Herald Tribune – Bass Pro Shops’ entry into the Sarasota-Bradenton market came with a surprise: The megastore outdoor retailer bypassed the site of the much balleyhooed Mall at University Town Center for a rural development just one highway exit south at Fruitville Road.
Bass Pro Shops will open an 80,000-square-foot Outpost store and anchor a new 260,000-square-foot retail center called the Fruitville Commons off Interstate 75.
Bass Pro Shops poised to build store in Sarasota
Justine Griffin & Josh Salman / Herald Tribune – Bass Pro Shops plans to begin construction on a 140,000-square-foot store here sooner rather than later, local building contractors say.
The megastore outdoor chain, which sells fishing, camping, hunting, boating and other gear, is inviting construction companies nationwide to bid on the project at a Benderson Development-owned plot in Sarasota County, near the under-construction Mall at University Town Center.
