Westfield Southgate, Sarasota, FL

Westfield Southgate

3501 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34239

(941) 955-0900

Southgate seems to be an anno-MALL-y in and of itself.

Max and I visited this mall too, for a few minutes, on the way to looking for his childhood mall (Sarasota Square). We actually found it by accident, since the GPS took us to it instead of the other one. The funny thing is, I already knew an odd little bit of news about the mall. More on that in a minute.

Westfield Southgate, upon doing a bit of online research, also started as an open-air strip mall in the 1950's, like its "cousin" the Sarasota Square Mall.  This one did not get to debut as an enclosed mall until the late 1980's, however. For many years, it hosted some fairly run-of-the mill stores including a Publix. Then in 1996, it tried on a fancy tiara, Saks Fifth Avenue, and then decided to change into a more fabulous outfit to match. The mall was renovated to house a number of upscale stores, though its other two anchors are still Dillard's and Macy's (They can cater to a higher end or a middle class crowd, depending on the area). 

The reason I call it, to be punny, an "Anno-MALL-y", is because just like Sarasota Square, it's sitting in the midst of a middle class area, on a busy road that has more furniture and hardware stores than I've ever seen in one place, but it is strictly a tiny concentration of high end shopping. Tamiami Trail wouldn't seem like the type of area to sport a high-end mall, but this tiny little gem, shaped like an L, is home to such stores as Williams Sonoma, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor and some fine dining. Its corridors (all both of them) are bright and one seems wide because of many plate glass windows that run along the sides instead of above (like an airport terminal) and the other has high ceilings with much glass and the whole thing feels like a resort or spa because of the fancy vertical fans, shaped like banana leaves, and chandeliers. Which was probably the general idea. It was peaceful and quiet. Something odd I noticed was that there were virtually no children here at all, just some older folks and some middle aged ladies there with their friends.  

 One of the entranceways. Note the chandelier out in the main corridor.

 People just sit here at peace and relax.

This is also a first- never have I seen live orchids for sale in a shopping mall. Perhaps because it serves a more quiet, sophisticated sort of shopper, they feel comfortable having these delicate plants here. Never would you find this in a family mall where many children run and roughhouse and touch things all day.

Here is the breakdown:

Mall type: Small L-shaped one-story upscale, owned by Westfield.

Anchors: Dillard's, Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue.

Other Stores: Williams Sonoma, Anne Taylor, Express, Banana Republic, Starbucks and more

Surrounding area: Middle class families and retirees, tourists

Who it's for: An upscale, more sophisticated shopper that comes from a higher economic class and is most likely either a somewhat wealthy retiree, business man/woman or a tourist with expendable income. 

Unique Features: Many upscale stores in a middle class area, live orchids, a design that feels like you are in a resort.

What it lacks: It doesn't have a food court. It's also not like the family mall down the road so it doesn't have very many teen/children's fashions or any "bottom dollar" fashions. It does not feature any kind of food store inside.

Signs of decline: very little, though it was also very quiet in there. This may be typical of a stormy Wednesday morning. It might be busier on the weekends.

Overall rating: 9/10

Now about that "odd piece of information" I know of this mall, as mentioned earlier…

it seemed so peaceful on my visit, but according to local news archives, there was one day of terror here….followed by puzzled confusion, then a slight bit of humor but not too much because the story is rather sad.

See this news article from October 15, 2013.

A man walks into LensCrafters on a normal fall business day, and throws down a white powder. Everyone runs terrified, police come and the mall is locked down. Was it some act of terrorism? Was the powder a weapon of biochemical warfare? No. 

As it turns out, he threw ashes. They were the ashes of his deceased girlfriend, who loved the mall.

How very noble of him! Her dying wish must have been for her ashes to be scattered in her favorite place and he went and did it, fearlessly, in broad daylight.

There is a touch of  ironic comedy to it because a lot of chaos ensued over something that was actually benign. But mostly your heart just goes out to the poor guy going through the "grieving process".

Sarasota Square Mall, Sarasota, FL

Finally! After 8 long months! I had time to go to 2 new malls! :D

Sarasota Square Mall 

8201 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34238  

Sarasota Square Mall is significant to someone else this time.

This is Max. We just got married! As part of our honeymoon, we traveled to Venice and Bradenton to see some places that were significant to our teenage years. These cities are about 4 hours south-west of where we live. For Max, Sarasota Square was the one mall that had a place in his history. 

My husband is not a mall guy. But in his early teenage years (around the turn of the millennium), he was involved in a church and youth group during the brief time he lived in the area with his family. The other teenagers from that church often hung out here at the mall, because at that time, it had an arcade and it still has the movie theater now.  

 This is a typical modern/retro resting spot outside a common JCPenney store front towards the back of the mall, where we entered.

 This is something new, however. Of all the malls I have shopped and featured, I never saw one that had one of the large store fronts occupied by a public library. Did they want family time to be educational AND fun?

 One of its sprawling single-story corridors.

 The widest part of the mall, which is, I think, near the center.

 The food court, which has been recently updated for a tropical and modern feel with fancy fans and lighting. Not pictured here, but to the right of the food court is the AMC theater front.

This mall again wins the award for "uniqueness". Nowhere else in Florida (or anywhere else I shopped for that matter) have I seen a mall that got a Costco attached directly to it. On the premises? sure. But not in place of a department store. It sits at the end of the corridor by the food court and if it weren't for the store greeter standing at the wide entranceway taking membership id's, it would be easy to wander in there, seeing the TV's and aisles of other merch, and think this was just another part of the mall.

So to conclude this lovely tour, here are the history and stats:

History, as researched from other websites and blogs:
This mall began as an open-air plaza in 1957, growing and adding anchor stores throughout the 1960's until it began to become enclosed in 1973. Work began on making it a full-sized enclosed mall in 1976 and concluded in fall 1977. It was around 766,000 square feet at that time. It had 3 anchors and a movie theater. Another wing was added along with a facelift began to be in the works in 1986, finally completed in 1989 with the mall now being over 975,000 square feet. Anchors changed and died over the years. The mall was bought by Westfield in 2003 and another renovation began in 2005, with a newer bigger movie theater being added by the end of 2006. In 2009, a Dillards was shuttered and demolished. This is where the Costco now sits and the mall now breaches 1,000,000 square feet.

Our added notes:  It would Make sense that Max swears that one movie theater was removed and a larger one was added in a different place. If Max was 13 in the year 2000, he would have seen the old theater and his beloved arcade would still have been where the new AMC now sits.

We visited this mall once in the past, in May 2011. We were leaving the beach to escape a thunderstorm and he brought us to the mall because he remembered it. We fled inside to escape a deluge of rain. This was just before I started taking an interest in studying malls, but I didn't remember seeing a Costco. I couldn't remember seeing anything after the food court, actually. If Dillard's was closed in 2009, it's possible that a boarded up storefront was all that greeted us that day. Now the bright, massive red "Costco" sign caught my eye and drew me over to that spot at the end of the corridor by the food court.

Mall type: A Westfield mall with a sprawling one-story layout.
Area type: predominately middle class families and retirees
Shopper types: families of different ethnicities, as well as retirees. Most of them where caucasian or hispanic.
Anchor Stores: JCPenney, Sears and Macy's cluster at the west end of the mall. AMC Theaters and Costco dominate the East end.
Other Stores: Express, Justice for Girls, Hollister, Forever XXI, Best Buy mobile, a number of jewelry stores and family-owned fashion stores to name a few.
Unusual features: Library, Costco, a food market called "Yoder's" that features some health foods and local goods and some empty store space utilized to make lounges for the customers.
Who does it accommodate?: Families and individuals of various ages of middle and possible lower economic classes. It is a one-stop all-inclusive experience for its shoppers because of not only the fashion and leisure shopping, but also the entertainment (movie theater), educational elements (library) and necessity shopping (groceries and home supplies at  Yoder's and also at Costco, if you have a membership there)
What it lacks: Since it's more of the middle class family mall, it doesn't have much higher end designer fashion, like Coach or Dior.
Signs of decline: minimal-moderate. Some stores have vacated, but this mall seems to do a lot of things to creatively utilize the space.
Over all rating: 8/10