By MARY SHEDDEN
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The future of one of the Tampa Bay area’s most talked-about cow pastures is in the hands of an Ohio State Buckeye.

Just a year after expanding his Midwestern operations south, Steve Wathen, CEO of Equity, is poised to create one of the area’s biggest retail and office developments in years — a 133-acre project at Big Bend Road and Interstate 75 near Apollo Beach.

The still-unnamed $200 million project won’t start construction for more than a year and isn’t expected to open until 2009 or after. But it’s already a hot topic in eastern Hillsborough County, where residents rely on Brandon as their nearest major retail option.

And Wathen, who began acquiring properties while a junior at The Ohio State University, is stoking their curiosity, describing a town center that includes a movie theater, big box retailers and eating options from fast food to white-tablecloth restaurants.

Equity is the second company to take on the massive project, and it is doing so with the financial backing of Nationwide Realty Investors of Ohio. The two have teamed up before in Ohio on projects similar to their planned work in the Tampa Bay area.

The Tampa Tribune recently asked Wathen about the project and his 18-year-old company’s decision to expand the retail, office and health care development firm to West Central Florida.

You looked at Orlando, Tampa and Phoenix as places to expand operations. What were the key factors in selecting a city?

Those two areas [Central Florida and Arizona] have, for the next 15 to 20 years, the strongest probabilities for health care and retail development. It’s because of the population growth and the nature and mix of that population growth and other existing factors.

As someone who has never lived or worked in Florida, what made it stand out demographically and from a subjective level?

We have a very big functioning region in Ohio — Dayton and Columbus and surrounding cities. If you go to Phoenix, there’s Phoenix and then 400 miles of desert around it. You can’t form a region around Phoenix. Here, in an hour and a half I’m in downtown Orlando, Lakeland in 40 minutes. So we said, “That feels like Columbus.” You could form a region out of one of these markets.

Equity’s already started a marketing campaign and already has some tentative lease agreements with major tenants. What should shoppers expect at this project?

There will definitely be a department store. There will definitely be a big box value-oriented retailer. There will be components of a power center [large retailer and smaller shops] on that site. There will definitely be a town center on that site. There will be a full gamut of food choices from [fast food] all the way up to white tablecloths. There will be ample entertainment options, which will probably include a theater.

Why is the town center concept so popular right now with developers and retailers?

If you go to Target, your average visit is 20 minutes, because you go to not stroll through the aisles; you go to Target to go get something. The average town center visit is four hours, so if you go to a town center, you’re likely to eat there, shop, maybe see a movie, shop some more. The longer you keep a shopper in front of the retail stores, the more stuff you’re going to sell. It’s pretty simple.

You’ve already held several community meetings with residents living near the current site. Why are you meeting with them before you even break ground?

We want those people to be our most enthusiastic shoppers and office workers. We don’t want a pitched battle with them. We have to be sensitive to everyone’s needs and wishes. It doesn’t mean we’re going to do everything. That would never happen. Nor are we going to get everything we want. It’s a give and take.

Reporter Mary Shedden can be reached at (813)259-7365 or mshedden@tampatrib.com.

About Equity

CEO: Steve Wathen

Services: Retail and health care real-estate development, brokerage, construction and property management

Established: Columbus, Ohio, 1989; Tampa office opened in January 2006

Financial: Private company, declined to reveal details

Number of current retail projects: More than 50

Size of current projects: More than 4 million square feet

Size of proposed project at Interstate 75 and Big Bend Road: Approved for up to 1 million square feet of retail space, up to 650,000 square feet of office space and a 250-room hotel

Employees: 92, including 13 in Tampa

 

 

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