Site work has begun on the Cypress Creek Town Center site near the intersection of State Road 56 and Wesley Chapel Boulevard. It’s just not for the proposed outlet mall in that area.
Instead, dirt has begun to move across the street from the planned 482,000-square-foot mall, where some outparcel retail stores will eventually be built, said Dawn Sutton with Pasco County’s Planning and Development department.
(Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)
“There are no site plans for that part of the property just yet,” Sutton said. “Right now, it looks like they are just trying to make it site-ready. It’s not a pad, but more of a central system to get ready for some eventual work there.”
The outlet mall itself, tentatively called Cypress Creek Town Center Premium Outlets Mall, is still going through site plan review, Sutton said. One of the developers involved with Simon Property Group submitted paperwork to the county Sept. 4, all part of the standard back-and-forth between a developer and the county.
If both sides can square away any lingering issues, Simon could start moving its own dirt on the site in 30 days. That means actual construction, once building permits are issued, could get underway before the end of the year.
The mall will almost certainly not hit its originally announced completion date of the end of 2014. In fact, whether the outlet mall will hit the Summer 2015 timeframe county administrator Michele Baker suggested earlier this year is still yet to be seen. Simon did not return an email last week seeking comment.
The entire process for Simon is a little déjà vu, Sutton said.
“The 50 acres that is being planned for the mall sits differently than it did before,” she said. “They have a different layout, and the location is adjusted.”
Simon had originally planned a 1.2 million-square-foot project with 600,000 square feet of retail, and 120,000 square feet of office by 2011. Expanded plans included 350 hotel rooms, 230 apartments, and a 2,582-seat movie theater.
Yet, the east indigo snake and the economy got in the way. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers delayed final environmental approval for years, with one herpetologist telling officials that the land is necessary to help the snake avoid major roadways.
The Army Corps cleared the way for the mall last November.
“We are very excited to be moving forward on this project, and are commencing meetings with the county to determine approvals and a schedule,” Danielle DeVita, senior vice president for development and acquisition at Simon, said in a statement last year.
Simon still needs to finalize its site layout, which would require approval by Pasco County commissioners. However, Sutton doesn’t anticipate their being any additional controversy with the site.
Some of the land work on the mall site had already been done back in 2007, said Carol Clarke, assistant planning and development administrator for the county.
“There was earth working done there, which was part of what they were initially going to do,” Clarke said. “They have this new plan, but it looks like they are endeavoring to use as much of the existing infrastructure there as they can.”
Simon is joined on the project by JG Cypress Creek LLC and Tampa Premium Outlets LLC, and is expected to be built in seven phases, according to plans submitted last April. The overall project will consist of nine buildings, and nearly 2,400 parking spaces. The complete project is expected to offer 1.1 million square feet of commercial space.
Published September 10, 2014
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