Shopping Center Business

DEC 2017

Shopping Center Business is the leading monthly business magazine for the retail real estate industry.

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CELEBRATION POINTE 64 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • December 2017 G ainesville, Florida, is seeing a new day for retail. With job growth in tech, biotech and manufacturing along with continued job growth in edu- cation and medicine at the University of Florida, the city is seeing its population demand the better things in life, such as fine dining and brands they would nor- mally have to travel to Orlando, Jackson- ville or Atlanta to obtain. Enter Celebration Pointe, a 1 million- square-foot mixed-use development locat- ed in the center of Gainesville retail criti- cal mass at Interstate 75 and Archer Road. The project is poised to serve as the hub for the entertainment, dining and retail needs of a growing Gainesville market. Celebration Pointe is the idea of local developer Svein Dyrkolbotn, principal of Gainesville-based Viking Compa- nies. Dyrkolbotn (pronounced Deer-kil- botan), a former high school exchange student from Norway, never returned home. Rather, he was recruited to play basketball at the University of Florida. Later, after several years with a major Southeast residential developer — his original host family — he founded Viking Companies to develop, manage and own student housing primarily in Gainesville. After he expanded into market-rate multi- family housing, he identified the 160-acre site where Celebration Pointe is now be- ing developed. At the time, the early 2000s, Dyrkolbot- on felt the property would make an ideal residential community. However Alachua County had other ideas for the property, so after several years of working with the county, the vision for Celebration Pointe was born. MORE THAN A COLLEGE TOWN Since the early 2000s, Celebration Pointe and Gainesville have changed. Many students want to stay in the market after graduation, and many companies want to locate in the area. The city, while often viewed as simply a college town, has a much broader reach than most might think. The University of Florida, founded in 1853, has been ranked one of the best colleges in the nation by U.S. News & Celebrating Growth Celebration Pointe will bring retail, hotels, restaurants, entertainment and gathering space to a population spurred by thriving education and job growth. Randall Shearin The Promenade at City Walk will be Celebration Pointe's primary retail street, featuring outlet and brand-focused retailers, as well as entertainment and restaurants.

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