Pinellas Park mall sells for $85 million

Bernadette Berdychowski, Tampa Bay Times
Updated ·2 min read

The Shoppes at Park Place sold for $85 million last week.

Pinellas Park development firm Belleair Development Group bought the outdoor shopping mall at the corner of highway U.S. 19 and Park Boulevard on Oct. 13, according to property records.

The 370,000-square-foot mall features national chains such as Regal Cinemas, Michaels Arts and Crafts, Target and Petco. It also includes popular restaurant chains like Panda Express, Applebee’s, Starbucks, Chipotle, Panera Bread, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse and a Chick-fil-A. Shoppes at Park Place recently opened a Conn’s Home Furnishings store in July, and sporting goods chain Academy Sports + Outdoors is set to open this year.

The mall is nearly fully occupied, with one last store in negotiations to be filled, according to a news release.

Belleair Development Group it is looking into adding multifamily housing and a hotel on the 42-acre mall site.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to invest further into a community that we care deeply about,” said Belleair Development Group president Carlos Yepes in a statement.

The Shoppes at Park Place was built in the mid-2000s, after developer Robert E. Schmidt Jr. of KB Parkside LLC transformed the two-story enclosed Pinellas Square Mall into an outdoor shopping center as indoor malls struggled to adapt to internet shopping trends. The Pinellas Park mall faced a $73 million foreclosure lawsuit in 2018 after disputing with U.S. Bank over refinancing a loan for the property. A limited liability corporation tied to the real estate financing firm Greystone took over the mall in 2020, according to property records.

Belleair Development Group, founded in 1997 by Yepes, states that its mission is to focus on developing properties to hold long-term. It has developed about 400 properties, from banks and gas stations to big box-anchored shopping centers and mixed-use housing developments across Tampa Bay and Florida.