New Tampa Bay mall concepts diversify beyond retail
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Citrus Park Town Center when it was still a Westfield mall in 2017. Photo: John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images
Going to the mall used to mean browsing stores, getting a soft pretzel, and maybe seeing a movie. Now, it could mean going to work or school, playing pickleball, or — in Tampa — go-karting.
Driving the news: Massive arcade and entertainment center Elev8 Fun Tampa opened last week in the Citrus Park Town Center, taking over the spot Sears left in 2018.
- Days later, the mall's Regal Cinemas abruptly closed as its parent company looks to exit bankruptcy.
Why it matters: Citrus Park's new tenant could give new life to one of the two Tampa Bay mega-malls that foreclosed during the pandemic.
The big picture: Traditional malls across the country are facing "extinction-level decline," University of South Florida economics professor Chris Jones, who's studied malls, tells Axios.
- Jones blames an overdevelopment of shopping centers that started with a push toward suburban expansion in the 1950s and '60s and picked up with the popularity of outlets and strip malls in the 2000s.
- The excess of options outpacing demand, combined with the emergence of online retail in the 2010s, fueled the downturn, he said.
- Then came the coronavirus pandemic, when people who formerly used malls to gather traded shopping centers for spots outside.
As customers returned post-lockdown, the malls that survived did so by diversifying outside retail, adding more food and entertainment options — like Elev8 Fun.
Zoom in: Elev8 wants to use massive mall vacancies like Citrus Park's to its advantage, installing adventure arcades that include go-kart tracks, bowling alleys, mini-golf, ropes courses, and laser tag. Think Dave & Busters on steroids.
- Tampa is its second location. The company that started in Sanford plans to expand to more shopping malls in Florida, and eventually nationwide, with a mission to bring families back to traditional malls.
- Coming soon: Martin County's Jensen Beach. Elev8 is slated to open in a mall there this winter.
Between the lines: Citrus Park isn't the only re-imagined mall concept in Tampa Bay. Since 2020, University Mall has been slowly transforming into an urban mixed-use community and tech hub called RITHM@Uptown — an effort that tech innovators hope will drive Tampa to become the next Silicon Valley.
- Companies reimagining concepts like warfare technology and video production have already moved in.
Meanwhile, Sarasota Square will be demolished and turned into a mixed-use community much like Water Street Tampa, the developer who bought the mall recently announced.
What they're saying: Shifting to the live, work, play model may save malls, Jones said, but it's not a guarantee. Some, like Sarasota Square, will have to come down completely.
- "That old model we grew up with, while it still exists in some capacity, it is dying out," Jones said.
- "We've got to find something to do with all these hundred-acre and million-square-foot places to convert them to something that's functional and makes sense so it's not just a concrete desert for our community."