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Tampa’s Best Repurposed Shopping Malls





Every shopping mall has 4 stages of life:

  1. The New Mall!
  2. The mall
  3. Oh shit, is that place still open?
  4. Nope

And then, if it’s lucky, it turns into something else. Developers in Tampa have proven to be masters of the conversion from retail-shopping-and-ersatz-town-square to some other kind of facility. It hasn’t happened yet to International Mall (currently residing comfortably in stage 2) but it will. It’s inevitable.

Here are the Top 5 shopping mall reclamations in Tampa…

Floriland, now Floriland Office Center (Busch and Florida) –  

IT HAD: Montgomery Ward, Zayre and coin-operated kid-sized carnival rides

IT HAS: Florida’s Center for Child Welfare, a medical academy and an unemployment office

East Lake, now NetPark (Hillsborough and N 56th Street) – 

IT HAD: Maas Brothers, Montgomery Ward, Service Merchandise and a fountain. 

IT HAS: Nobody who doesn’t work there has any idea. There’s probably a laboratory with some “Stranger Things” shenanigans happening

University Mall, still there but shrinking rapidly (Fowler Avenue) –

IT HAD: Dillards, a movie theatre, Mr. Dunderbak’s and benches

IT HAS: Not much

Westshore Mall, still there but slated to be torn down and replaced with condos (Westshore and Kennedy) –

IT HAD: Sears, Penny’s, Chik-fil-A and planters (that’s not a store; it’s large buckets with plants in them)

IT HAS: a movie theatre and those planters, probably

Tampa Bay Center, now One Buccaneer Place (MLK and Himes) –

IT HAD: Sears, Penny’s, a movie theater, a top-notch food court and several racist merchants

IT HAS: The training and practice facility for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and probably no racists

Clark Brooks

About Clark Brooks

Senior Supreme Executive Premium Content Editor for Tampa News Force. Comedian, writer and ordained minister. ClarkBrooks.com. Bluesky: @ClarkBrooks | Instagram:@ClarkBrooks54