Here's what will take Whole Foods' old space on North Dale Mabry
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 28, 2021

A discount clothing retailer will backfill Whole Foods Market Inc.'s old store in Tampa.

Burlington Stores Inc. — once known as Burlington Coat Factory — has filed plans with the city to renovate Whole Foods' former location in Walter's Crossing shopping center at 1548 N. Dale Mabry Highway. Whole Foods vacated the space earlier this year to move down the street to Midtown Tampa, where it is an anchor of the mixed-use development.

The new Burlington (NYSE: BURL) will be 34,760 square feet, according to documents filed with the city. Construction costs are pegged at $2 million.

Burlington joins fellow off-price retailers HomeGoods and Nordstrom Rack at Walter's Crossing. Nordstrom Rack recently shrunk its footprint in the shopping center, as a portion of its real estate was renovated to make way for the first Ulta Beauty within Tampa proper.

New Jersey-based Burlington dropped "Coat Factory" from its name in 2014. The retailer has been steadily decreasing the average size of its stores since 2017; before that, its average store was over 50,000 square feet. As of 2020, most new stores are less than 40,000 square feet, according to the company.

Burlington plans to add 100 stores in 2021, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal, a sister news organization. The company ended 2020 with 761 stores and plans to add another 1,000 in the long term.

Beyond its new smaller stores, Burlington also sees an opportunity in the closure of other retailers and department stores, according to PBJ.