On March 14, 1979, Highland Plaza opened on U.S. 19 with a Publix at its center. The shops around it were the everyday errands of that time: a photo lab, a travel agency, a hardware store, a beauty parlor, a florist and a bank.
Forty-seven years later the center is called Highland Lakes Plaza, and the Tampa Bay Times describes it as one of the busiest strip malls in North Pinellas County. A grocer is back at the center of it. The tenants around that grocer were picked by a different rule than the one that filled the plaza in 1979, and that rule explains both what you'll find there on your next Trader Joe's run and what you won't.
A plaza that runs on its grocer
The plaza's history comes down to one store. Publix anchored it until spring 1992, then moved next door to the Coral Landing shopping center. Stein Mart took the anchor space, and over the years Palm Harbor Bookstore, Michaels, Orangetheory Fitness, Famous Footwear and Hallmark joined it.
Stein Mart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, and with the anchor gone, the rest of the center slipped. One Palm Harbor resident told the Times it was "a ghost town." The big box sat empty for four years.
Vicky Anthony, vice president of leasing for Kimco Realty's southern portfolio, summed up the lesson in one line to the Times:
"There will always be a grocer. A grocer is needed no matter what."
Kimco, a New York-based real estate investment trust that specializes in grocery-anchored, open-air shopping centers, bought the plaza in January 2024. It went after Trader Joe's first. The Times reported that the grocer liked the site partly because it was far from other Trader Joe's stores. The store opened in December 2024 as the northernmost Trader Joe's in Tampa Bay. Kimco also spent millions on new lighting, landscaping and new pylon signs facing U.S. 19.
Getting the anchor back was the first step. Choosing the tenants around it took a separate decision.
The rent rule
With Trader Joe's open, Kimco's next goal was to fill the remaining space with strong national chains rather than local stores. Anthony explained the reasoning plainly:
"While the local mom-and-pops are obviously ideal, the blend of locals and nationals demands a higher rent, because their sales are stronger."
Kimco had roughly 21,000 square feet left to lease, asked who would be "a great complement to Trader Joe's," and landed on Barnes & Noble. Every other vacancy was filled the same way, one space at a time:
| Space | Previous tenant | Tenant now or next |
|---|---|---|
| Former anchor box | Stein Mart, empty about four years | Trader Joe's, opened December 2024 |
| Remaining space, about 21,000 sq ft available | Vacant | Barnes & Noble, opened Oct. 29, 2025 |
| Restaurant space | Marathon Grille, vacant | Perspire Sauna Studio |
| Retail space | Allied Healthcare, a medical device retailer | Code Ninjas |
| Retail space | Hallmark | J.Crew Factory |
| Restaurant pad, 33505 U.S. 19 N. | Pizza Hut | Costa Vida, listed as opening December 2026 |
Barnes & Noble's Palm Harbor store is at 33591 U.S. 19 N. The Tampa Bay Business Journal reported J.Crew Factory's opening in May 2026, and Kimco's Highland Lakes Plaza property page lists it with Code Ninjas and Costa Vida beside Trader Joe's and Barnes & Noble. Michaels, Orangetheory and Famous Footwear stayed through the changeover.
The new tenants cover groceries, books, a sauna studio, a coding program for kids, outlet clothing and soon a new Mexican restaurant concept. Each one gives shoppers a reason to pull in off U.S. 19. Few of them give shoppers a reason to stay.
"Come, stay, walk, shop and have coffee"
Anthony described the goal in words that set a high bar: "You want to create a great tenant mix, where people are going to come, stay, walk, shop and have coffee."
The same Times story quoted a resident who shops there twice a week, at Trader Joe's and with her daughter at Barnes & Noble. The paper reported that she'd like to see local juiceries and coffee shops because there's currently nowhere to hang out in the plaza, and smaller boutiques like the mom-and-pop shops in Dunedin. Another longtime shopper told the paper she thinks Trader Joe's has been good for the center but doesn't see much difference from before, and she misses Hallmark.
Both views are accurate, and the rent rule connects them. A local juice bar is the kind of tenant the resident is asking for, and by Anthony's own account it's also the kind of tenant that has a harder time paying the rent a national chain can pay. A plaza leased on sales strength fills with errand stops.
For now, the coffee part of Anthony's list happens inside a national tenant. Barnes & Noble's Palm Harbor store page lists an in-store café, and the company's opening announcement called it a B&N Café. If you want a place to sit at Highland Lakes Plaza today, that's the one built for it.
Off the plaza, the closest match to what the resident described on this stretch of highway is Kahwa Coffee's Palm Harbor café at 32700 U.S. 19 N. It lists indoor and outdoor seating and order-ahead, and it serves coffee roasted in St. Petersburg. Kahwa has 21 locations, so it's a regional brand rather than a single neighborhood shop. Its roasting still happens in Pinellas County.
What the next openings tell you
Everything announced for the plaza's next phase follows the same rule. Costa Vida's location page lists the Palm Harbor restaurant at 33505 U.S. 19 N. as opening in December 2026, in the former Pizza Hut. Kimco told the Times it expects to announce three more leases with large national companies, opening through 2027. Those tenants haven't been named.
The same pattern shows up beyond the plaza. In September the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported that Shake Shack plans a drive-thru at a Palm Harbor shopping center, one of two restaurants marking the burger chain's entrance into Pinellas County. Patch has covered the other planned Pinellas location at 6994 U.S. 19 N. in Pinellas Park. A national brand with a drive-thru lane is the U.S. 19 formula in its simplest form.
Between 2020 and late 2024 the center's biggest storefront sat empty. Today it has a grocer that Tampa Bay residents petitioned for online, a full bookstore with a café, and three more national leases expected. The tradeoff is how it was filled. Kimco brought the plaza back by choosing tenants that can pay higher rents, so it now serves the quick U.S. 19 errand very well. The places to slow down, browse a local shop or meet a friend for an hour are mostly somewhere else, or inside Barnes & Noble.
When Costa Vida opens in December, the old Pizza Hut pad will be filled again by another national brand. The next three announcements will show whether Kimco's tenant mix ever makes room for a local juice bar.
Curious how the tenants moving into the U.S. 19 corridor are changing everyday life in your part of Palm Harbor? Jenny follows these openings block by block and is always happy to talk them through. Jenny Sells The Block Tampa is here when you're ready. Let's chat. We can find homes or help you sell with confidence.
