Construction Begins on New Outlet Mall

Tampa Bay area bargain shoppers won’t have to wait much longer for a new outlet mall to open in Pasco County.

A groundbreaking ceremony for Tampa Premium Outlets was held Friday at the mall’s location on State Road 56 near Interstate 75. The new mall is being constructed by the Simon Property Group and will feature more than 110 retailers and an estimated 1.1 million square feet of retail space once open, Pasco County reported on its Facebook page.

“It’s going to be designed with a Key West feel in a village style, with our typical racetrack design,” Simon spokeswoman Danielle DeVita was quoted by The Tampa Tribune as saying. “It will be full of light and bright colors to reflect the sun.”

Simon Property Group also owns Manatee County’s Ellenton Premium Outlets. Stores that have expressed an interested in the Pasco location include Saks Off Fifth and Super Target.

See Also:

• Outlet Mall Developer Gets Greenlight to Build

A Costco membership store is also planned for the Cypress Creek Town Center site near the outlet mall, The Tribune reported.

The 140-acre site, which is owned by the Richard E. Jacobs Group, had stood at the center of an environmental controversy since its owners received permitting to build the Cypress Creek Town Center in 2007. Those permits were challenged by the Sierra Club in 2008 and development work on the site has been at a virtual standstill ever since. The developers won the legal challenge, but Simon Property Group still needed to have its plans approved by Pasco, which happened in October.

Image via Shutterstock