Hungry for a grocery store in downtown Tampa
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 20, 2015

A grocery store in Tampa's urban core has been rumored for years, an oft-referenced desire of Mayor Bob Buckhorn and now, a focus for Tampa Bay Lightning Owner Jeff Vinik's real estate team.

It would be a basic service and convenience, of course, but a grocery store would also be a ringing endorsement of the neighborhood that would likely draw more residents and other retailers. Grocers have very specific parameters that determine where they'll locate, and smaller retailers often look to them as a bellwether of viability.

Plus, a grocer is the type of amenity that could raise residential values - and that's what needed to jump-start condominium development downtown, where prices are just shy of making new construction profitable.

"It makes a big difference in terms of downtown as a desirable living area," said David Conn, executive vice president and Southeast director of retail services for CBRE Group Inc. in Tampa. "And certainly it legitimizes it as a market."

The long-rumored location for a downtown grocery- specifically, Publix Super Markets Inc. - is the ground floor of Martin at Meridian, a residential tower planned on Meridian Avenue between Twiggs and Madison streets in the Channel district. Vinik's real estate team, Strategic Property Partners, is also "looking hard at a grocery store" for its billion-dollar mixed-use district, Chief Operating Officer Jim Shimberg told the Tampa Bay Real Estate Investment Council Inc. on Wednesday.

"I think, over the long run, that the vision of downtown Tampa correlates along the lines of bringing in something - if it's not a Publix, is it a Whole Foods? A Fresh Market?" said Andy Carlson, a vice president with JLL in Tampa.

There's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg dynamic to bringing a grocery store downtown. While it could draw more people, most grocers "want to see the bodies before they open the store," Conn said, though he points out that Publix has been to known to pioneer in some areas, if only to keep out potential competitors.

"Publix historically has been willing to open a store in a somewhat green area to lock down the location and secure market share," Conn said. "It doesn't appear they've been willing to do that in downtown Tampa yet."

New-to-market specialty grocers are looking for sites in Tampa Bay, including Earth Fare and Sprouts Farmers Market.

Lucky's Market has said it is planning multiple Florida locations, though it hasn't specifically singled out Tampa Bay as a target. Conn said he thinks it's unlikely that any grocer would make downtown Tampa its first location in the Bay region.

"My guess is Tampa is a blank canvas and downtown would not be a priority for them," Conn said. "It's a lot tougher logistically and a lot less proven, so why go through the expense and trouble to be a pioneer?"

Tampa isn't alone in its yearning for a downtown grocer. The mayor of Buffalo has declared a grocery store a goal for his administration, and it's a priority in Nashville, too.

That scarcity of national and regional grocery chains in downtowns nationwide would make a store even more of a coup for Tampa.

"To get a full-fledge grocery in downtown Tampa early on would be pretty cool," Conn said. "A lot of downtowns don't have that kind of thing."

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.