The Laker-Wesley Chapel/New Tampa-November 25, 2015

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NOVEMBER 25, 2015

Cash registers jingle at outlet mall By Kathy Steele

ksteele@lakerlutznews.com

Shopping madness begins at Tampa Premium Outlets in a shop ‘til you drop holiday extravaganza. The outlet mall, which is experiencing its first holiday season, will open on Thanksgiving at 6 p.m., and will continuously operate through Black Friday, until 10 p.m. Mall hours the rest of the weekend will be from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., on Nov. 28 and from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m., on Nov. 29. While shoppers are expected to flock to the outlet mall — which had a splashy opening at the end of October — local businesses may pick up some spinoff trade. Local shops are already reporting that their cash registers are ringing up more FILE PHOTO sales. Tampa Premium Outlets is having a shop ‘til “I’ve already seen it,” said Jeremy you drop holiday extravaganza during its Quijano, manager of Kona Swim Bike Run, first holiday season.

at 27217 State Road 56. The triathlon shop is a short hop from the outlet mall, at the interchange of Interstate 75 and State Road 56. Quijano said a man came in the shop after dropping off his wife at the outlet mall. He put his focus on buying sports gear not on hours of outlet mall shopping.“I’m going to have some fun,” Quijano said the man told him. The outlet mall is one half of a retail bookend that could bring more visibility to locally owned and operated shops. Another customer told Quijano that he was driving past heading from The Shops at Wiregrass to Tampa Premium Outlets when he spotted Kona. “I never knew you were here,” the customer said. Before and during the grand opening, Hampton Inn & Suites saw a boost in reservations as the mall’s developer, Simon See OUTLETS, page13A

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Greg Lenners, general manager at The Shops at Wiregrass, said the shopping mall expects to benefit from the nearby location ofTampa Premium Outlets. The outlet center will bring more people into the area, and some will likely visit his mall, he said.

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As Black Friday approaches, shoppers will scour advertisements for deals and map out a strategy to make the most of savings. And this year, for the first time in Pasco County history, consumers will be able to shop at an outlet mall and a traditional mall within 2 miles of each other. There was a time when the prospect of having a new mall so nearby would have been a cause for concern, said Greg Lenners, general manager at The Shops at Wiregrass. But, that was when plans called for a traditional mall on the land where Tampa Premium Outlets opened on Oct. 29. The landscape of Wesley Chapel has changed dramatically in the seven years since The Shops at Wiregrass opened, Lenners said. Back then, State Road 56 ended at the mall’s entrance to Dillard’s, and Bruce B. Downs was a two-lane road. Now, the area is popping.

State Road 56 has been extended to Meadow Pointe Boulevard, with a proposal to make it four lanes all the way to Zephyrhills. Bruce B. Downs is now a sixlane road. Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel opened 3½ years ago, is undergoing a $78 million expansion, 2 ½ years ahead of schedule. Plus, Lenners noted, there’s an 85,000square-foot medical office building going up next door, Pasco-Hernando State College opened its Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch down the street, and there are about 1,000 homes under construction within a 3mile ring of the mall. “You’ve got Estancia. You’ve got The Ridge. Seven Oaks has got a lot of development. You’ve got Arbor Woods. Standard Pacific has a couple of developments on Meadow Pointe, as well, and you’ve got all that coming by the mall,” Lenners said. “All of this is happening in our backyard, everything east of (Interstate) 75,” he said. The primary customers at The Shops at Wiregrass are between the ages of 25 and 44, Lenners said. The average annual house-

Shoppers are expected to turn out in full force this holiday season at The Shops at Wiregrass.

hold income ranges from $85,000 to $90,000. And, the mall’s annual performance has improved every year since it opened, Lenners said. The general manager doesn’t view Tampa Premium Outlets as competition to be feared. Instead, he said, “it’s a perfect complement to what we have.” An outlet center typically draws customers from roughly a 50-mile radius, Lenners said, His mall draws from a 10-mile ring. The retail expert expects Tampa Premium Outlet’s longer reach to bring more people into the area, with some of See SHOPPERS, page13A

Toys for Tots returns to deliver holiday cheer By Michael Murillo

mmurillo@lakerlutznews.com

When a doctor told a mother that her son suffering from a muscular diseases needed a bicycle to keep his muscles moving, she turned to the Toys for Tots for help. She couldn’t afford a bicycle, so she went to the organization’s toy distribution event a couple of years ago. “When she got there, she was about the third to the last parent there, and we had

one bike left. We handed that bike to her, and she crumbled right there in front of us,” recalled Herb Roshell, captain of the Toys for Tots efforts in Land O’ Lakes and part of Lutz. “It’s those kinds of experiences that keep us empowered to do this,” he said. The United States Marine Corps Reserve has been doing this for more than 65 years, creating a national program that distributes toys to needy children during the holidays. In Roshell’s area alone, the program has

distributed to more than 500 children from nearly 400 families last year. Each child gets two to three toys, plus games for the family and stocking stuffers. To keep up with this year’s demand, the program is back with its familiar toy dropoff boxes in various businesses in the community. Roshell estimates that around 100 locations will sign up for the boxes, and collect See TOTS, page13A


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