- March 28, 2024
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The Sarasota-Bradenton region could be primed to pick up three new restaurant brands: Brio Tuscan Grille, The Cheesecake Factory and Capital Grille.
Coffee Talk hears those eateries will sign lease agreements with the University Town Center mall, an 880,000-square-foot project currently under construction in north Sarasota County. The mall, just outside the Manatee County line, west of the University Parkway exit of Interstate 75, is scheduled to open in October 2014.
Officials with both firms behind the mall, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman Centers and University Park-based Benderson Development, declined to address the possibility of those three tenants. Taubman Communications Director Karen MacDonald, in an email response to the Business Review, wrote that the first group of stores is usually not announced until a year out. “We are always talking to retailers and restaurants as a shopping center developer,” adds MacDonald, “but there is nothing to share at this time.”
Still, these restaurants would be a logical fit. All three already have locations in markets to the north and south, at the International Plaza mall in Tampa — a Taubman Centers property — and in Naples. Plus, Taubman and Benderson executives have previously stated at least half of the stores at the University Town Center will be new to the market.
Officials with all the restaurant chains didn't return calls seeking comment.