If you've tried to make the drive up to WestShore Plaza this year, you already know the short answer: it's easier not to. The frontage roads that used to make the mall a quick stop on the way home now dead end into orange barrels, and the detour signs point you somewhere else entirely.
That's not a story about a mall closing. WestShore Plaza is still standing, still partly open, still years from any confirmed demolition date. It's a story about geography. The mall sits up in the Westshore business district near the airport, right where the interstate work is heaviest, while South Westshore's own waterfront strip, the Marina District at Gandy and Westshore Boulevards, sits well south of the interchange and completely outside the work zone. The routine didn't move because the old spot died. It moved because the new spot was already open, already running full restaurants and a monthly market, while the drive to the old one got harder for reasons that have nothing to do with retail.
The Interchange Work Sits Right At The Mall's Front Door
WestShore Plaza itself isn't part of South Westshore. It sits a few miles north, in the Westshore business district near Tampa International Airport. But it's the mall most South Westshore residents actually use, and the Tampa Westshore Interchange, where I-275, State Road 60, and the Veterans Expressway all come together, connects drivers to the Howard Frankland Bridge and to Kennedy Boulevard right by the mall itself. That's exactly why the construction there is not background noise for anyone still making the drive north to shop or grab dinner.
Work on the $653.3 million first phase, known as Priority 1A, started in January 2026, part of a rebuild that Florida's Department of Transportation has priced at roughly $1 billion in a 2021 estimate. The interchange carries more than 400,000 vehicles a day, which is the reason FDOT is rebuilding it in the first place and also the reason any lane closure there ripples for miles.
The closures that matter most for anyone trying to reach the mall corridor are specific and dated. FDOT's own project page lists a 24 hour lane closure on the frontage road between Cypress Street and Cypress Center Drive running through late 2026, and a continuous closure of the frontage road between Cypress Street and Lemon Street through January 2027.
Ask a commuter what that feels like day to day and you get less diplomatic language than FDOT uses. One driver told a Tampa Bay reporter it's "a super cluster," describing the lane changes and confusion around the interchange, especially at night or in the rain.
This isn't a short seasonal detour. FDOT's own construction manager has said this phase alone runs through 2030, and the agency's work program already has a right of way phase funded for 2030 and a following phase in 2032 for the next segment east. The mall's immediate neighborhood is going to be a construction zone for years, not months.
What The Mall's Sale Actually Locks In, And What It Doesn't
The other half of the story is the mall itself. Tampa's City Council approved a mixed-use redevelopment plan for the WestShore Plaza site, put at 52 acres in the city's own coverage and 54 acres in reporting on the recent sale, back in 2024. The plan includes office space, a medical center, roughly a million square feet of retail and dining, a hotel, and 1,700 residential units.
What changed more recently is ownership. Longtime owner Washington Prime Group had the property listed for sale earlier this year, and by this summer it had sold, for roughly $135 million, to Tampa-based Third Lake Partners, which is now moving the site toward that larger mixed-use future.
Here's the part that matters if you live nearby and are wondering what to expect this fall: there is still no official timeline for demolition or new construction, and the fate of individual businesses inside the mall hasn't been announced. Several restaurants in standalone buildings around the mall's perimeter, including Seasons 52, Besito, Maggiano's Little Italy, and P.F. Chang's, are positioned to survive the transition better than anything inside the enclosed structure, simply because they sit apart from it.
So the honest read on WestShore Plaza right now is neither "dying" nor "transforming." It's paused, with an approved future and a new owner but no start date.
What's confirmed:
- A 2024 City Council approval for office, medical, ~1M sq ft of retail and dining, a hotel, and 1,700 residential units on the 52 to 54-acre site
- A 2026 ownership change, from Washington Prime Group to Third Lake Partners, at roughly $135 million
- Several perimeter restaurants likely to remain through any transition
What's still unresolved:
- Any demolition or construction start date
- Which interior mall tenants stay, relocate, or close
- How construction sequencing will interact with the ongoing interchange work next door
South Westshore's Own Waterfront Strip Never Missed A Step
While all of that sits in limbo up at the mall, the Westshore Marina District, a 52-acre waterfront destination along a mile and a half of shoreline at the intersection of Gandy Boulevard and Westshore Boulevard, has been running on its own schedule the entire time. This is South Westshore's own commercial core, several miles south of the interchange, and none of the closures on Cypress or Lemon touch it.
The dining lineup there covers a wider range than most single retail strips in South Tampa: the upscale Mediterranean and Italian menu at Vela, the Pacific Rim and Floribbean flavors at Hula Bay Club, the open-air seafood at Salt Shack on the Bay, casual comfort food at Chuck Lager Tavern, and the deli standard at Mickey's Deli. Marina Landings, the district's retail spine, adds Cru Cellars and Duckweed Urban Grocery to the everyday errand list, the kind of stops that used to mean a trip toward the mall.
Picnic Island Park sits nearby too, with a beach, a pier, a kayak launch, and a dog beach, giving the waterfront side of the neighborhood a genuine outdoor complement to the dining.
| WestShore Plaza (Westshore business district) | Westshore Marina District (South Westshore) | |
|---|---|---|
| Location relative to the interchange | Adjacent, along Kennedy Boulevard and the SR 60 frontage roads | Several miles south, at Gandy and Westshore Boulevards, outside the work zone |
| Access through this construction cycle | Frontage road closed Cypress to Lemon through January 2027; lane closure Cypress to Cypress Center Drive through late 2026 | Unaffected by interchange construction |
| Confirmed status | Sold for ~$135M to Third Lake Partners; 2024 mixed-use plan approved; no demolition date set | Fully operational restaurants, retail, and monthly market |
The One Date On The Calendar That Isn't Moving
Amid two projects with no fixed end dates, the district's Sunday Market gives the neighborhood something the mall corridor currently can't: a fixed point. It runs the fourth Sunday of every month, a mix of local makers, food trucks, vendors, and live music that turns Marina Landings into a gathering spot rather than just a place to grab groceries. It's family and pet friendly, which matters in a neighborhood where the dog beach at Picnic Island Park already gets regular use.
When one side of your neighborhood is a construction zone with a 2030 finish line and the other side has a market that shows up like clockwork every month, it's not hard to guess which one becomes the default plan.
What This Adds Up To Through The Rest Of This Construction Cycle
None of this means WestShore Plaza is finished. A $135 million sale and a City Council approved plan for 1,700 residential units and a hotel is a real commitment, not a rumor. But committed and built are different things, and right now the timeline between them is unknown while the interchange work next door runs at least through 2030, with more funded phases stacked up for 2032.
For anyone already living in South Westshore, that math is simple. The water side of the neighborhood already has the restaurants, the market, and the open access. The mall side has an approved plan and a construction zone in front of it. Until one of those things changes, the loop most people are already running, from Salt Shack to Marina Landings to the fourth Sunday market, is likely to stay the default for a while yet.
Bianca Lopez tracks changes like these across South Tampa's waterfront neighborhoods as they happen, not after they show up in a headline. If you want the next update on the WestShore Plaza redevelopment or the interchange timeline before it's common knowledge, reach out to Bianca Lopez directly.
