Downtown St. Pete's Bay Walk Up For Major Revamp

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The new Shops at St. Pete will have little in common with the old BayWalk

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/article1252638.ece

St. Pete's long troubled downtown shopping area, Bay Walk, is announcing a major redo by its new owners. Most fascinating for me is their implication they can bring in major retail to compete with Tampa's International Plaza (similar to our Mall at Millenia):

"Those restaurants will be announced in 30 to 60 days, with the names of three anchor retail tenants announced 30 to 60 days after that, he said.

"The Shops will compete with International Plaza, Jimenez said, offering apparel and home goods that St. Petersburg residents currently buy in Tampa."

If this actually happens, they will solved one of the most pressing problems current facing downtown revitalizations across the country, and especially Orlando's.

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The problem with Orlando's downtown is that there needs to be more people. When is there enough? You'll know it when you see more people walking the streets on the weekends when there are no events going on. The other problem is that it is too easy to get on the interstate right now. You have easy access to I-4, which makes it very easy to get to multiple malls. And malls means you have multiple shops in one convenient stop.