BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse and the Panda Express are eyeing retail space at the Cypress Creek Town Center.
The proposed mall is located off State Road 56 at the Interstate 75 exchange. Adjacent to the site, the shops at Tampa Premier Outlets are taking form and shape for an anticipated October opening.
Representatives for BJ’s and Panda Express both had scheduled sit-downs with Pasco County planners within the past week to discuss their applications, according to county records.
Conceptual plans also are filed for both restaurants.
The restaurants join a growing list of retailers that have filed plans with Pasco County as part of the town center including Kohl’s, Chick-fil-A, Costco’s, Cheddar’s Casual Café and Culver’s.
BJ’s is planned as a 7,500-square-foot restaurant with a menu that offers the eatery’s signature deep-dish pizza, as well as salads, pastas, steaks, baby back ribs and a kid’s menu.
The California-based restaurant was founded in 1978, and added its own handcrafted line of beers in the mid-1990s, according to its website.
Plans on file with the county show Panda Express as a 2,600-square-foot restaurant, located within Cypress Creek Town Center at Grand Cypress Drive and Sun Vista Drive.
The family-owned restaurant also got its start in California in 1973, first under the name Panda Inn. Nearly a decade later, the Cherng family changed the name to Panda Express and now have more than 1,700 restaurants in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to the restaurant’s website.
Company representatives for Panda Express and BJ’s were not available for comment.
Published June 24, 2015
