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Britton Plaza's New Look

Tribune photo by JAMIE PILARCZYK

Opened in 1956, Britton Plaza has seen a lot of change.

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

FAIR OAKS - When Willie Perry lived in Hyde Park, he visited Britton Plaza weekly.

He would hit Hardee's for breakfast, Albertsons for groceries, sometimes catch a movie and wander through the rest of the shops to make an afternoon of it.

Perry, 64, moved to Ybor City a year ago and last week marked his first visit to his old haunts in six months.

He was a little disappointed.

Two of the plaza's anchors, Albertsons and Zota Theatres, closed recently and haven't been replaced.

"I'm surprised," said Perry, a retiree who works part time at Lowry Park Zoo. "I just don't understand it."

In June, Publix Supermarkets announced the acquisition of 49 Albertsons, including the store that opened in Britton Plaza about 1990, in a $500 million deal expected to close this week. The deal includes one other Tampa store at 8701 W. Hillsborough Ave.

Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said the company plans to reopen the store as a Publix, although details won't be available until the deal is finalized.

Publix was one of the original tenants when the plaza opened on South Dale Mabry Highway in 1956 but not in the same storefront as Albertsons, Brous said.

Publix closed that store in 1987.The company has two grocery stores - at Dale Mabry and Neptune Street and at Gandy Boulevard and Himes Avenue - within about a mile of Britton Plaza.

"It's not uncommon for us to open a store in close proximity to another," Brous said. "It helps us better serve our customers and relieve congestion."

Zota, which had been at the plaza since July 2004, screened its last movies Aug. 28.

"The performance of the theater has been moderate to below-moderate," operations manager Tony Koudouna said. "It's very difficult for an eight-screen theater to compete with 14- and 16-screen cinemas."

Leasing agent Lenore Reynolds said several chains have expressed interest in operating the theater, but no contract has been signed. She said plaza owner Charles Bickimer would consider offers from non-theater tenants, although that would require considerable renovations to level the sloped floors.

"The most practical thing is to find a replacement theater," Reynolds said.

Zota was the latest in a line of companies to operate the theater. Koudouna, who worked at the theater as a Robinson High School senior in 1967, said a non-traditional format, such as a cinema grill, would be good for the area.

Reynolds said six of the plaza's 53 spaces are vacant; that's 27,000 square feet of the 522,689-square-foot plaza.

Bob Tommasini, whose Britton Plaza Cleaners sits in a nook next to the empty Albertsons, has felt the loss of his neighbor.

"This hurts a lot," said Tommasini, a 15-year tenant. "Most of my customers come to me and to the grocery store. If they put a Publix in, that'd be great."

But for Candace Blackburn, a partner of The Missing Piece consignment furniture store a few doors away, business hasn't been better.

"We haven't really felt it," said Blackburn, who has been at the plaza for six years.

Losing the theater won't affect her sales, but the possibility of a Publix opening is good news.

"In the last six years, I have only heard maybe five times that someone was just stopping in to kill time before their movie started," Blackburn said. "We're really excited about Publix. They are a little more upscale, and at the plaza we are slowly working toward that."

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

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