International Plaza and Bay Street is the dominant shopping mall and dining destination on the west coast of Florida, located adjacent to the

Tampa International Airport Tampa International Airport is an international airport west of Downtown Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The airport is publicly owned by Hillsborough County Aviation Authority (HCAA)., effective December 30, 2021. T ...

. International Plaza is a traditional enclosed shopping mall anchored by

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...

, and LifeTime Athletic. Bay Street, a more modern open-air shopping center, is anchored by

Restoration Hardware RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) is an upscale American home-furnishings company headquartered in Corte Madera, California. The company sells its merchandise through its retail stores, catalog, and online. As of August 2018, the company operate ...

, and primarily features restaurants including

The Capital Grille The Capital Grille is an American restaurant chain of upscale steakhouses owned by Darden Restaurants. The brand has locations in twenty-five states, the District of Columbia, and Mexico City. History The original Capital Grille was founded ...

The Cheesecake Factory The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux ...

, and

Bar Louie Bar Louie is an American bar and restaurant chain founded in 1990. Bar Louie serves food, beer, and cocktails, from locations predominantly located in urban and suburban markets. there are approximately 69 locations. Bar Louie is headquartered ...

among others. A

Renaissance Hotel Renaissance Hotels is a luxury hotel brand of Marriott International. It was founded in 1981 as Ramada Renaissance, an upscale brand of Ramada Inns. In 1989 the brand was relaunched as Renaissance Hotels. It was bought by Marriott in 1997. As ...

, with 293 rooms and 12,500 square feet (1,160 m²) of meeting space, connects directly to Bay Street.

History

Plans for International Plaza first began in 1986, begun by real estate developer Dick Corbett first through International Plaza Ltd, and later Concorde Cos., partnering with Taubman Cos. The mall is built on 150 acres of land southeast of Tampa International Airport, part of which was originally an 18-hole Hall of Fame golf course. In 1998,

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

and Nordstrom were publicly announced as anchors followed by Neiman Marcus shortly thereafter. Dillard's was announced as the fourth and final anchor in late 1998. A million square foot office plaza was proposed that same year. Sordoni Skanska, the US subsidiary of

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

, was awarded the contract to construct the mall in 1999. In early 2001, it was announced that the mall had signed its first 100 tenants, with 65 of them being new to the Tampa area. An 11,000 square foot (1,022 m²) Cheesecake Factory was announced in June 2001. The mall opened to little fanfare on September 14, 2001, due to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

only 3 days prior, however the mall began to succeed despite this. The mall's Lord & Taylor closed in July 2004, with plans already announced to replace it with a Robb & Stucky furniture store which opened in February 2005. The Renaissance Hotel, attached to Bay Street, opened in August 2004. Robb & Stucky closed due to bankruptcy in 2011, with upscale fitness gym LifeTime Athletic taking over the store in 2014. Fashion retailer H&M opened at the mall on November 10, 2011.

References

External links

* {{Tampa Bay Area malls Shopping malls in Florida Taubman Centers Buildings and structures in Tampa, Florida Tourist attractions in Tampa, Florida Shopping malls established in 2001 2001 establishments in Florida

History

See also

References

External links