Saturday, April 22, 2006
Big-name books, bread at Valley View
Jenny Kincaid Boone
Jenny reports on the latest news on the Roanoke Valley retail industry.
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A new open-air shopping center at Valley View Mall is getting a Barnes & Noble bookstore and a Panera Bread restaurant, according to plans unveiled Friday by CBL & Associates Properties, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company that owns the shopping center.
CBL sent a representative to Roanoke to give details on the new retail center that, as previously reported, will go up beside the mall and be named the District at Valley View.
As reported, Carrabba's Italian Grill and Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy are also slated to be part of the development, as are eight other businesses that haven't yet been identified.
The expansion will measure 76,000 square feet of new and redeveloped space in a northeast area of the mall's parking lot, stretching from one J.C. Penney entrance to Sears. Construction, which has already started, should be complete by the end of this year, said a CBL senior project manager, Marc Munago.
Munago said leases have not yet been finalized for the other outlets. He would not hint at which retailers are coming, but he said, "We are exploring tenants that are not in Roanoke."
He added, "We're targeting tenants in typical lifestyle centers, but we are pursuing all sorts of tenants."
Chico's, Coldwater Creek, Liz Claiborne Shoes and Ann Taylor Loft are a handful of the retailers located at some of CBL's lifestyle centers in other parts of the country.
Spokesmen for both Chico's and Coldwater Creek, both women's apparel chains, have said in previous interviews that they are eyeing the Roanoke Valley or are attracted to the area for future store locations.
Munago said some tenants that already are inside the mall could relocate to the new lifestyle center.
Barnes & Noble, the center's anchor, will land in the former location of a mall movie theater. The theater will be demolished, and the new bookstore will measure 27,175 square feet. Barnes & Noble already has one Roanoke Valley location, beside Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke County.
Abuelo's will go up in an 8,400-square-foot, free-standing building on the far end of the new center, at one edge of Sears' parking lot.
Carrabba's is slated for a 5,976-square-foot, stand-alone building to be built at one edge of Ring Road, which surrounds the mall.
Panera Bread will take a 4,800-square-foot slot in a larger building that will be subdivided and built beside Carrabba's, Munago said. This area is along Ring Road and across from NTB, a tire store, according to site plans.
The same franchise group that's opening Panera Bread at Valley View also plans another in Roanoke County, on Electric Road near Tanglewood Mall.
As reported, Blue Ridge Bread is renovating the former location of Mac & Maggie's restaurant for the Roanoke County Panera, slated to open by the end of July.
Kelly Jackson, a spokeswoman for the franchise group, said the Roanoke County Panera will open before the Panera at Valley View. She said she does not yet know the construction schedule for the Valley View location.
Her franchise group chose Valley View for a second local Panera because "it's far enough away from our first site," she said. "We feel that Roanoke will be able to handle two Paneras."
Blue Ridge Bread owns Panera franchises throughout Virginia.
At the District at Valley View, shops will be connected by walkways, and the center will have features such as a fountain, lights and benches. Munago described the center's design as having a Tudor look.
CBL is planning other renovation work at Valley View. It will redesign all four of the mall's main entrances with a new burgundy and gold logo.
One entrance at the food court will have a towerlike structure built in front of it. Windows that overlook the new open-air center will be added to the mall's second floor, Munago said.
Some Roanoke city leaders were on hand Friday to pump up the mall's new addition.
Bev Fitzpatrick, vice mayor of Roanoke, said the new center will create at least $500,000 in additional income for the city. Valley View generates more than $160 million annually in retail sales, stated a mall news release.
CBL bought the 787,000-square-foot mall in 2003. Valley View's anchors include Hecht's, Belk, J.C.Penney and Sears.
Meanwhile, in a parking area just around the corner from the District at Valley View, a previously reported Red Robin Gourmet Burgers restaurant is being constructed across from Grand Home Furnishings.
The 6,353-square-foot restaurant will open this summer, according to a spokeswoman with the hamburger chain based in Greenwood Village, Colo.
