MAJOR TENANT HAPPENINGS Woodlawn, Md. - Burlington Coat Factory plans to open a 68,000 sq. ft. store at Security Square Mall in Woodlawn. When the store opens next month, it will be the sixth anchor at the 1.2 million sq. ft. center. Other anchors include JCPenney Outlet Store, Hecht's, Wards, Sears and Old Navy, which also is opening this fall. Chevy Chase, Md.-based Capitol Real Estate Services owns the mall.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS Chicago - Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck and Co. opened several stores this summer throughout the country and has plans to open one more this month. Locations already open include a 101,000 sq. ft. store at Eastridge Mall in Gastonia, N.C.; a 75,000 sq. ft. unit at Hanford Mall in Hanford, Calif.; a 92,000 sq. ft. location at Lakeshore Mall in Sebring, Fla.; a 140,000 sq. ft. store at Military Circle Mall in Norfolk, Va.; a 121,000 sq. ft. unit at Bellevue Center in Nashville; and a 146,000 sq. ft. location at Rivertown Crossing in Grandville, Mich. This month, the company is opening a 144,000 sq. ft. store at Exton Square in Exton, Pa.
In addition to the new locations, Sears held grand reopenings in August for six remodeled and expanded stores: a 120,000 sq. ft. unit at Galleria Mall at Crystal Run in Middletown, N.Y.; a 120,000 sq. ft. location at Southridge Mall in Des Moines, Iowa; a 177,000 sq. ft. unit at Valley Hills Mall in Hickory, N.C.; a 182,500 sq. ft. store at Northgate Mall in Cincinnati; a 104,000 sq. ft. location at Cherryland Center in Traverse City, Mich; and a 221,000 sq. ft. unit at West Town Mall in Knoxville, Tenn. All of the new and remodeled Sears stores were designed by New York-based FRCH Design Worldwide.
EXPANSIONS Lexington Park, Md. - Ground has been broken for Phase I of First Colony Center, a 500,000 sq. ft. power center in Lexington Park. Expected to open in spring 2000, the first phase will feature Lowe's, Target, Giant Food, Staples and six outparcels. The project, a development of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., is part of a 228-acre planned unit development that will include over 400 residential units and 435,000 sq. ft. of office and R&D space.
REDEVELOPMENTS Denver - Miller Weingarten Realty LLC, a joint venture between Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors and Denver-based Miller Development, is developing three projects in the Denver area. The Crossing at Stonegate, a 163,000 sq. ft. center in Parker, a southeastern suburb of the city, is expected to begin this month. Anchored by King Soopers Supermarket, a division of Kroger, the center will feature 48,000 sq. ft. of shop space and five outparcels when completed in spring 2000.
In Arapahoe County, the company is developing Bridges at Smoky Hills, which will feature 50,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Approximately 12,000 sq. ft. in Phase I is expected to be completed by year's end, with Phase II to be completed in mid-2000.
CENTER OPENINGS In Elizabeth, 30 miles southeast of Denver, Phase I of The Gold Creek Shopping Center has already opened. The 26,000 sq. ft. project is being done in two phases, with the second expected to be completed by early 2000. The center is adjacent to a 43,000 sq. ft. Safeway Supermarket that opened in late 1998.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Construction continues on the $375 million, 2.5 million sq. ft. expansion and renovation of Al Ghurair Centre in Dubai. Plans are to transform the enclosed shopping center into an urban district, doubling the center's size to over 600,000 sq. ft., and to add 150,000 sq. ft. of Class A office space and 350 apartments. The project is a development of locally based Al Ghurair Centres LLC and is slated for a phased completion beginning in June 2000.
RENOVATIONS Plans for the retail portion, which was designed by the Baltimore office of RTKL International Ltd., encompass exterior and interior renovation of the existing two-level center; the creation of six new anchor store locations that will clarify visitor circulation patterns; and a new retail and entertainment component, including a 10-screen cinema complex and new food court bridge. The new shopping center will feature several large gathering places, the most significant of which will be The Park. Specifically designed to showcase children's merchandise, this space is a four-story atrium that is part fantasyland and part selling floor. Dubai-based NORR Group Consultants International Ltd. serves as the local architect.