Total Wine opens in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG

Total Wine & More will hold its grand opening Monday, opening its third Tampa Bay-area store and the largest in the region, said Jeff Bartlett, the chain's vice president of advertising and marketing. At 21,000 square feet, the store is larger than the 17,000-square-foot stores in Tampa and Clearwater, which opened three and 1 1/2 years ago, respectively.

The new store, at 4880 Park St. N, will offer more than 8,000 varieties of wine from nearly every wine-growing region of the world, along with more than 2,000 kinds of liquor and more than 1,000 beers. The opening of its 12th store in Florida of 52 nationally for the family-owned Maryland company, will include co-owner David Trone presenting a $10,000 check for the St. Petersburg Museum of History to Mayor Rick Baker. Total Wine makes such contributions for all its new stores, Bartlett said.

The store sits in a new shopping area built by Sembler Cos. A Kohls is already open at the center, as is Ross and Famous Footwear. A FedEx/Kinko's will open later this summer, as well as a Verizon store and Starbucks. For more information, call 544-6018 or check out the Total Wine's Web site at totalwine.com.

Paul Swider, Times Staff Writer