WESLEY CHAPEL - Target Corp. has sold its interest in the struggling Cypress Creek Town Center project.

Pasco County property records show the Minnesota-based retailer last month sold property it owns within the mall complex on the south side of State Road 56. The buyer, for $4.5 million, was Cypress TP Holdings LLC, a company set up by the mall developers.

Target took a $750,000 loss on the property, which it bought from mall developers in November 2007, property records show.

Cypress TP Holdings LLC was formed Sept. 15, about three weeks before it bought the Target land.
Cypress Creek Town Center spokesman Bill Fullington said mall developers bought back the Target property as part of their plan to restructure the development. They're also seeking a 10-year extension on their 2011 construction deadline.

Target was to have been part of a 1 million-square-foot regional mall. The project also includes hundreds of thousands of square feet in other retail, office and hotel space.

The loss of Target is the latest blow to a mall project that has been in limbo since shortly after Pasco County commissioners approved it in 2004.

Federal regulators suspended work on the 510-acre site last year after heavy rains caused muddy water to pollute Cypress Creek.

Kevin Wiatrowski