Tag Archives: Sarasota Herald-Tribune

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DeSoto Square Mall going up for sale again

BRADENTON – After just a year and a half of ownership, DeSoto Square Mall’s owner is taking a shot at selling the dilapidated retail center at auction.

The 680,271-square-foot mall in Bradenton, anchored by Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Sears, is listed on websites like auction. com with a starting bid of $9 million for the entire 73.5-acre parcel.

In February, Hudson’s Furniture took over the former Dillard’s two-story, 110,000-square-foot space.

The auction advertisement from Great Neck, New York-based Mason Asset Management claims that DeSoto Square Mall is 30 miles south of downtown Tampa and “services a dense and mature trade area in excess of 500,000 residents who possess above average income levels.”

The auction is scheduled to begin in about a month.

“The word ‘auction’ denotes a certain amount of desperation,” said Barry Seidel, the president of American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. “It means they weren’t able to sell the center in a traditional method, so this is the alternative.”

Read more here.

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Additional Desoto Square Mall coverage:

Desoto Square’s future in flux, Aug. 1, 2014

The future of DeSoto Square Mall was up in the air, a day after an online auction closed and Macy’s, the property’s premier tenant, announced an exit plan.

Highest bid for Desoto Square Mall: $33.75 million, July 31, 2014

An auction to sell off Bradenton’s DeSoto Square Mall closed Thursday with the highest bid at $33.75 million — on the same day the retail center’s premier anchor, Macy’s, announced it would be vacating for good.

$10 million bid for Desoto Square Mall, July 30, 2014

DeSoto Square Mall may have attracted a potential buyer two days into its three-day online auction. The Bradenton mall had a current bid of $10 million at the end of the second day of the auction period, which began on Tuesday.

Hudson Furniture moving into Desoto Square, Feb. 15, 2014

A Florida-based furniture chain will take over the former Dillard’s department store anchor space at DeSoto Square Mall in April.

Hudson’s Furniture, an Ormond Beach-based furniture-and-home-furnishings retailer with stores in the Tampa Bay, Orlando and Ormond Beach markets, will open a two-story, 110,000-square-foot store in DeSoto Square Mall.

Desoto Square changes little after sale, Nov. 12, 2013

It’s been nearly a year since Simon Property Group sold the ailing DeSoto Square Mall in Bradenton.

And in a year’s time, new owners Mason Asset Management hasn’t done a whole lot to update the mall and its perception in the community, despite a successful track record of taking older properties similar to DeSoto Square and giving them a facelift.

 

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Jim Romenesko feature: Mall story front page print design

My story about a new mall in development in Sarasota was featured on Jim Romenesko because of its unique design in print.

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The Herald-Tribune ran the story horizontally with a panoramic shot of the mall down the rail.

Here’s a link to the story: Four months early, University Town Center looks ready for shoppers

 

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COLUMN: Will Publix-Whole Foods merger stay just a rumor?

By Justine Griffin for the Herald-Tribune

A peculiar rumor about Florida’s No. 1 grocer, Publix Supermarkets, and upscale organic retailer Whole Foods Market grew legs and took off over the weekend.

The viral story about Publix buying Whole Foods spread quickly, appearing in newspapers across Florida and around the Internet. Whether or not you like the idea — and no one knows for sure where this rumor started, or why — it seems unlikely to be true.

The buzz began last week, when Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods’ stock jumped 6.6 percent on Wall Street in two days, and options activity spiked. Whole Foods’ profile also was raised when it was ranked on the 2014 Fortune 500 list announced last week.

Publix, too, has seen substantial growth so far this year. The Lakeland-based retailer posted $7.8 billion in sales in the first quarter, up about 4 percent compared with the same period last year.

But their growth is no reason the companies might merge, analysts say.

Read more here.

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Is Sprouts Farmers Market coming to Florida?

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By Justine Griffin for the Herald-Tribune

Southwest Florida, already flush with new arrivals, is poised to welcome even more new grocery brands as companies in the West continue to expand into the Southeast.

Retail analysts buzzed about Sprouts Farmers Market last month at the International Council of Shopping Centers RECON convention in Las Vegas.

The boutique-like grocery chain concept out of Arizona competes with Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s, and is now one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country; it has more than 170 stores in nine states.

Sprouts now has its eye on the Southeast, with four stores set to open in Georgia this summer. Analysts believe Sprouts will start opening stores in Florida within the year.

“Sprouts is hot and heavy this year, and definitely marching in the direction of Florida,” said Jeff Green, retail analyst with Phoenix-based Jeff Green Partners. “They fill a cool niche and have amazing produce turnover.”

The Sarasota-Bradenton market is no newcomer when it comes to drawing new and emerging brands: The Fresh Market opened its first store in Southwest Florida in a Kohl’s-anchored plaza on University Parkway in 2009.

A second store opened in Bradenton in 2012, and the company is considering opening a third in southern Sarasota County.

In 2012, Trader Joe’s opened its second store in Florida on Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, and Costco Wholesale arrived at the Sarasota Square mall.

Gordon Food Service, a grocery chain that caters mostly to the restaurant supply business, is building its second Southwest Florida store in the former Sound Advice building, near Stickney Point Road.

The company is rumored to be opening a third in Port Charlotte later this year.

Then there’s Wawa, a Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain known for its sandwiches and grocery options. It has filed building permits to open its first Sarasota County store by next year on top of three sites in Manatee County and another targeting Venice.

Despite all those big chains coming into the market — and the ones already here, locally owned smaller retailers like Richard’s Foodporium and Morton’s Gourmet Market — analysts are confident there’s room enough for Sprouts to thrive here, too.

Read more here.

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The Cost of Life: Excerpts for additional publications

The Cost of Life ran excerpts in the following publications:

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The Cost of Life: My experience as a first-time egg donor ran an as an excerpt on the Huffington Post Women page on June 5, 2014.

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An original excerpt published in The Riverter Magazine on April 18, 2014.

Editor and founder of The Riveter, Kaylen Ralph, published a Q&A with Justine Griffin the week prior to the excerpt.

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We Are Egg Donors, an egg donor activist and resources group, published a Q&A with Justine Griffin on May 21, 2014.

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The Gainesville Sun and the Ocala Star-Banner, both Halifax Media Group-owned newspapers, published 900-word excerpts of The Cost of Life on Sunday, May 25.

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longreadsLongreads featured The Cost of Life on its website in June.

Slate.com’s Double X Podcast mentioned The Cost of Life and linked to the story in a July 10 episode.

The Washington Post pulled quotes and reporting from The Cost of Life in a July 21 Storyline piece.

Medium featured The Cost of Life in this June 5 piece about the fertility industry and again in this Jan. 17 piece about the pursuit of pregnancy.

Wired Magazine mentioned The Cost of Life in this Oct. 24 piece about egg freezing.

Paste Magazine included The Cost of Life on a list of the best short read pieces in January.

The Crow’s Nest (USF student publication) wrote about The Cost of Life on Nov. 15, 2015.

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Photo by Elaine Litherland