Wiregrass opens with butterflies, confetti

WESLEY CHAPEL -- The Shops at Wiregrass, central Pasco's first "lifestyle center" mall, opened this morning as curiosity seekers and shoppers turned out to sample the fare.

By early afternoon, cars were routed into dirt lots set up for overflow crowds on the mall's south side, although the parking garage on the north side was nowhere near full. The place seemed to have more strollers than cars as parents maneuvered along the brick paved sidewalks lined with mature trees brought in to make the place look as if it had been there longer than a few days.

Shoppers interviewed came mainly from the immediate area, with a good many traveling north from New Tampa.

"It's hard to come to a new mall and not shop," said Corrine Revoldt, 30, as her two young daughters played in the miniature livery that was part of the children's area. The playground is meant to be a small replica of the old Wiregrass Ranch. A small train starts its route there and runs around the mall.

The grand opening began with speeches extolling the virtue of Pasco County, the developers, politicians and even the laborers who applied stucco and put up signs. The hoopla culminated in a release of hundreds of monarch butterflies, meant to symbolize the area's metamorphosis into a shopping destination.

Lisa Buie, Times Staff Writer

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