Store closings at big Bradenton intersection leave shoppers asking: What comes next?
This week, workers took down the big letter “K” from the exterior of Manatee County’s last Kmart, now an empty shell except for fixtures awaiting pickup.
The closure of the Kmart at 7350 Manatee Ave. W., and the news that the long anticipated Lucky’s Market across the street won’t be built leave vacant two prime retail spots on 75th Street West.
And it raises questions about what might come next for the retail locations facing north and south of Manatee Avenue.
Trader Joe’s is frequently mentioned as a candidate for the location that Lucky’s Market walked away from after announcing it was closing many of its stores and filing for bankruptcy.
“People have called me and said that ‘we want Trader Joe’s,’” Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston said. “I would love to have Trader Joe’s.”
Also planned for the Albertson’s-Lucky’s corner is a WaWa store, which won city approval in 2018, but has yet to pull a building permit.
“I just hope that something similar to Lucky’s, something nice, comes in here,” said Wally Stern IV, broker for Edward D. Jones, who has an office in the same shopping center where Albertson’s was located. “This whole corner opens up new possibilities.”
Janet Robinson, commercial director for Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, says the big retail spaces at the intersection of Manatee Avenue and 75th Street offer a snapshot of what is happening nationally.
“What is happening with the big boxes is that they are being repurposed with smaller tenants. Some are becoming fitness facilities, others are becoming entertainment venues, and some are becoming mixed use,” she said. “Some are being turned into storage facilities.
“If the building has structural obsolescence, it makes sense to tear it down,” she said, but added that if the building is in good shape and up-to-date, it could very well see new life with a new business or collection of businesses.
In a nutshell, that is the path that the owners of DeSoto Square appear to have set for themselves. The owners, who face a foreclosure sale later this year if they are unable to pay off a more than $29 million debt, have submitted plans to demolish most of the mall property, and redevelop it as mixed-use retail and residential space. Most of the mall property would be redeveloped with the exception of the the Hungry Howie’s, and the former Sears space, which is being repurposed as storage space.
As far as what might be going into the former Kmart space in the Beachway Plaza, it may be a little too early to tell.
Beachway Plaza is also home to several other large anchor-size businesses, including Publix, Bealls Outlet and Staples, as well as Pet Supermarket, and a collection of restaurants in its food court.
“We don’t have any control over that,” Poston said of the Kmart space.
In a quirk of zoning, the shopping center north of Manatee Avenue is split between the city and the county. The Kmart space is in the county, while the remainder of the mall with Bealls Outlet, Publix and Staples is in the city, Poston said.
All of the shopping center south of Manatee Avenue is located within the city limits.
Kmart has fallen on hard times in recent years. At its height, it had more than 2,000 stores, but reportedly now has only about 70 nationwide. Lucky’s Market, seeking to cater to high-end shoppers wanting organic and locally grown products, saw the bottom fall out after supermarket giant Kroger withdrew its investment stake.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
