Southgate Mall's Williams-Sonoma sets closing date for UTC move

CHARLES SCHELLE/Bradenton Herald

Another store at the Westfield Southgate Mall in Sarasota has set its closing date in preparation for a move to the Mall at University Town Center.

Williams-Sonoma has a sign at its store front telling customers it will close Oct. 1 so it can open its new store inside of the Mall at UTC on Oct. 16. 

The cooking specialty store joins Saks Fifth Avenue, announcing a firm closing date at Southgate. Saks told the Bradenton Herald earlier this month that it will close at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 and transfer all remaining merchandise to the new store.

Expect more of these types of announcements as Tuesday will mark 30 days until the new mall opens. It would appear that Dillard's is a good candidate to make such an announcement. 

After Labor Day, the Bradenton Herald also reported how the Southgate Dillard's hasn't received a shipment of new inventory in months and many racks had sales of 65 percent off. Many of those racks remain well after Labor Day, but the biggest difference is that the racks and shelves are noticeably empty and thin. The store could either close or become a clearance center, but no official announcement has been made.

The Mall at UTC Dillard's will be the Little Rock, Ark., company's first new store opening in the U.S. since 2010.

Mall at University Town Center launches Facebook fan page

Mall at UTC advertising its grand opening on Facebook.
Photo provided

The Mall at University Town Center is updating its official Facebook fan page as the shopping center has less than two months to go before its opening.

The page, Facebook.com/MallatUTC, was created in April, but started posting updates this past week. The biggest of course, is a Facebook event invite for the grand opening party. The mall is expected to open Oct. 16, but the festivities are advertised to last through the weekend until Oct. 19.

The invite advertises live entertainment and special activities during the grand opening weekend, but no additional details yet. The mall is hosting a media preview night Oct. 15 where people who bought tickets to the event from non-profits will be able to shop that night as well and on Oct. 16, there might be a small opening ceremony, but don't expect it to last long as the doors will fling open quickly at 10 a.m.

Taubman Centers used to have celebrities show up and make a grand spectacle for its mall openings, but a former spokesperson for the company said the mall operator realized that enough people come out simply for the stores.

Crate & Barrel will stack store inside Mall at UTC

This Crate & Barrel in Annapolis, Md., is built into a Westfield
mall, but the Sarasota location will be entirely inside the Mall
at University Town Center on two levels. Photo Provided

When Crate & Barrel opens inside the Mall at University Town Center, its presence will be noticeable but not as much as some of the chain's other mall locations.

The upscale furniture store's building plans shows that the store will consume two levels of the mall. Plans also call for an elevator, escalator and stairs within the 25,800-square-foot store. Total construction cost is listed as $1.3 million, according to the application.

While the mall's mini-anchor will take out a sizable chunk of the mall, the design will  be on the smaller end of the Chicago retailer's full-line stores.

The Mall at UTC location will not have its own exterior entrance and will be fully contained within the mall, according to documents filed with Sarasota County. Having the store self-contained shaves the space down about 3,000 to 10,000 square feet off a full-line store.

The Tampa location at International Plaza features 35,000 square feet on two levels with a separate entrance when opened in 2009 while another two-level Crate & Barrel with its own entrance at Westfield Annapolis in Maryland is about 28,000 square feet. These types of Crate & Barrel stores are considered the "home store" version, offering a full line of furniture and accessories.

The mall's mock-up plans showed that the only retailers with their own entrances would the be the six  main restaurants plus the department stores--Dillard's, Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Still, the Crate & Barrel represents a few surprises in the design the mall is incorporating. After subtracting the department stores, the mall has 460,000 square feet of space to lease. As leasing is confirmed and added, the square footage totals are confirmed and allows mall management to shift spaces and locations, which is one reason why you're not hearing an exact number of stores coming to the mall, mall general manager Octavio Ortiz said during previous presentations. That number ought to be well nailed down by now because the mall is more than 90-percent leased.

This game of leasing Tetris will be in turbo mode 90 to 120 days out from opening when most smaller stores are ready to build. So come mid June, it'll be a race to Oct. 16.

He also said during a Manatee Association of Realtors meeting on March that "some" of the stores will be on two levels, hinting that Crate & Barrel might not be the only one to take up both floors, aside from the department stores.

It doesn't sound like there would be a food court, per se, but permits for fast-food joints are popping up for the mall including Mandarin Express and Cold Stone Creamery. Smoothie King representatives said early on they would commit to the mall and an area below an escalator shows a space perfect for a Starbucks kiosk.

The biggest flexibility Taubman and Benderson have is for expansion. A fourth anchor store, which likely could be Nordstrom, could be built adjacent to Saks Fifth Avenue, said the mall's general manager, Octavio Ortiz, during a luncheon in March.

Still, I don't think there's room for a water park as one reader suggested.

Flurry of activity at Mall at University Town Center

The Mall at University Town Center is six months away
from opening . CHARLES SCHELLE/Bradenton Herald

The Mall at University Town Center is six months, four days away from opening, and in the past month building permit applications and commitments seem to happen on a daily occurrence.

At this point, I know it's hard to keep up with all the stores that are starting to build and those that have been officially announced.

To help, here is a round-up of stores and restaurants that are coming to the Mall at University Town Center so far. This list will be updated.

Updated May 30

Stores

• American Eagle Outfitters
• Ann Taylor
• Anthropologie
• Apple Store
• The Art of Shaving
• Bebe
• Boston Proper
• Brighton
• Calypso St. Barth
• Champs Sports
• Crate & Barrel
• Dillard's
• Edward Benier
• Everything But Water
• Express
• FootLocker
• Forever 21
• Gap
• Gymboree
• H&M
• J. Crew
• J.Jill
• Journeys
• Kay Jewelers
• LensCrafters
• Lilly Pulitzer
• LOFT by Ann Taylor
• Lululemon Athletica
• Macy's
• Michael Kors
• Oil & Vinegar
• Omega
• Organic Nail Bar
• Pottery Barn
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Sephora
• Solstice Sunglasses
• Soma
• Swarovski
• Teavana
• Things Remembered
• Tommy Bahama
• Tumi
• Vera Bradley
• Victoria's Secret
• Williams-Sonoma
• The Walking Company
• Yankee Candle
• Z Gallerie
• Zales Jewelers

Restaurants/Food

• BRIO Tuscan Grille
• The Capital Grille
• The Cheesecake Factory
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Godiva
• Kona Grill
• Mandarin Express
• Seasons 52
• Smoothie King
• Sophie's (inside Saks Fifth Avenue)
• Starbucks
• Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar

Remember that the 880,000-square-foot mall is expected to open Oct. 16, with an exclusive preview night Oct. 15. It will feature 100 stores, half of them expected to be new to the Sarasota-Bradenton market. So we're about a quarter of the way through with the list of stores that are confirmed. Some of the store lease signings and commitments could come in the final 90 days before the mall opens.

When open at Cattlemen Road and University Parkway, the Mall at UTC will be the first truly enclosed mall opened in America since 2006. (Sorry, Salt Lake City and your retractable roof mall. You don't count.)

Bradenton's Champs nears construction of Mall at UTC store

Champs Sports will open a concept store with this layout
at the new Mall at University Town Center. (Provided Photo)

Bradenton-based Champs Sports is getting closer to starting construction for its concept store at the Mall at University Town Center.

Champs applied for building permits Friday with Sarasota County Planning & Development Services and are still being reviewed.

The Herald first reported Champs' commitment to the 880,000-square-foot mall at Cattlemen Road and University Parkway in March when Scott Burton, director of marketing for Champs said the store would be 5,300 square feet and be one of the newer concept stores:

"It will allow the product to shine more so than you've probably seen at retail stores," Burton said. "This new look for our store is one that started about a year and a half ago, and we've expanded it ever since."
Both the Westfield Countryside Mall in Clearwater and WestShore Plaza in Tampa feature the new concept stores, and it will mark the first such design in the Bradenton-Sarasota market.
The layout is also larger, allowing the store to display more shirts, shorts and plenty of hats catering to high school varsity athletes. Brands will be matched up with their corresponding apparel so the Air Jordan shoes will be across from the Air Jordan shirts to make it feel like there are mini-shops inside, Burton said.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/03/04/5025647/champs-sports-to-open-concept.html#storylink=cpy

Champs is part of the FootLocker family, which is also planning a store in the mall. The mall is expected to open Oct. 16.

Goodbye Sweetbay, Hello Winn-Dixie

Sweetbay no more, the Winn-Dixe signs are up at the
5802 14th St. W store in Bradenton. Photo provided

The end of Sweetbay is near my friends, and the signs are here.

Winn-Dixie installed its sign at its 5802 14th St. W location this week to make it official. The store along with the location at 2501 Cortez Road West is due to reopen Friday as Winn-Dixie while the West Bradenton Sweetbay store at 5805 Manatee Ave W and Palmetto location at 515 Seventh St. W are scheduled to close at 1 p.m. Saturday and reopen the following Friday.

The final days of Sweetbay turned out to be a bit of a supermarket sweep. I visited the Palmetto location Tuesday with the hopes of ordering one last sub for old time's sake, but they were out of bread. The deli line was packed as deli, bakery, meat and produce are all offered at 50 percent off. A man in front of me ordered two whole blocks of cheese while others ordered roast beef, salami and other deli meat two pounds at a time.

The meat department is barren and all that was left in the produce department includes some onions and a couple odds and ends. If you're lucky, there might be a stray cake somewhere in the bakery for cheap.

Do you plan to shop at the converted Winn-Dixies? Drop a line in the comments.

Sweet deals at Sweetbay as grocery store discounts food before Winn-Dixie conversion

Sweetbay, 5802 14th St. W, will close Saturday and reopen
March 29 as Winn-Dixie. File photo by Paul Videla

Shoppers looking for a way to cut down their grocery bill will be in luck this week if they head to Sweetbay.

The first round of stores to convert to Winn-Dixie are set to close Saturday for a remodeling, and discounts on food are continuing to be offered. For stores closing Saturday, private label brands  like Hannaford, My Essentials, Taste of Inspirations are 50 percent off this week with the exception of bread, milk and eggs.

Products in the produce, deli, bakery and meat departments are now 25 percent off. Good luck finding any of the private label food left over.

During a trip to the Sarasota Midtown Plaza Sweetbay on Sunday, the 50-percent products were all but picked over. I couldn't find any of the usual private label items I buy like soup and spaghetti sauce. However, the deals in the meat, produce and deli/bakery departments are worth it. Grab some meat and an ice cream cake for cheap and stick it in the freezer for later. The Sweetbay location I went to was also thin on supply of hamburger and chicken, but there was still enough fresh items to go around. I saved more than $15 just from the discounts, so get it while it's gone.

Bradenton stores at 5802 14th St. W, and 2501 Cortez Road West, are due to close Saturday and reopen March 28 as well as Sarasota stores at 2881 Clark Road, 4230 Bee Ridge Road and 1325 S. Tamiami Trail. Stores at 5805 Manatee Avenue in Bradenton and 515 7 St. W in Palmetto are expected to close March 29.

Employees will be working to transform the store in a week’s time, keeping the layout of the stores similar to Sweetbay, and receive training on doing things the Winn-Dixie way.

“Upon reopening as a Winn-Dixie, we believe customers will be pleasantly surprised to see that we have been working hard to provide the fresh, quality products they want at prices they can afford,” said Joey Medina, Winn-Dixie’s regional vice president, in a news release. “Plus, we will offer a suite of in-store savings programs, like the “fuelperks!” rewards program, which lets customers earn incredible savings at participating Shell stations every time they shop with their Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card.”

The conversion is part of the acquisition of 30 Sweetbay stores by Bi-Lo, parent company of Winn-Dixie. The Tampa headquarters for Sweetbay will close at the end of the conversion while employees in good standing at stores that remain open will be offered to stay on with Winn-Dixie. To avoid monopoly concerns, the Federal Trade Commission ordered to have another chain acquire locations, resulting in 12 Sweetbay stores in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to be sold to Rowes IGA Supermarkets,HAC, Inc., W. Lee Flowers & Co., Inc. and Food Giant.

Fun with fake stores at new Mall at University Town Center

Mall at University Town Center's developer Taubman Centers is in the teasing business in their video renderings of the new mall.

Of course, the video animation folks had to be inventive so as not tospill all the secrets of what's coming. You will see Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard's and Macy's in their appropriate places as the videos soars underneath the glass archway ceilings.

The video was released via Taubman on YouTube in May 2013, but somehow was buried among other renderings released by animation company Max Wave Media that featured a fly-over of the mall and Nathan Benderson Park last summer. Another rendering video previously released also showed something mighty close to a Bass Pro Shop, but that is more likely to be built on one of the Benderson-developed parcels east of the mall next to Interstate 75.

We only know of a few confirmed stores now including American Eagle Outfitters, Brooks Brothers, Oil & Vinegar and Smoothie King in addition to restaurants BRIO Tuscan Grille, Capital Grille, Cheesecake Factory, Kona Grill and Seasons 52.

Sure, it's likely that the Apple Store is coming, too, but we're not 100 percent on that yet.

In the meantime, check out the fake names of stores the animators decided to put in the video to give a flavor of the type of mall to open Oct. 16. You might recognize a funny knock-off name if you shopped on a sidewalk stand in New York or Miami.

I'll write down what my best guess for the actual retailers in parenthesis

Aux Bon Gourmet (Au Bon Pain though it would make sense for a Corner Bakery Cafe)
Design Studio
Mocha Cafe (Starbucks located underneath escalators)
Channel (Chanel)
Asagio
ALBO (ALDO)
Gantier (likely a perfume store)
The Bar
CASAbalance
Cap (Gap)
Porteous
Cartier
Fashion Street (Font looks like a Charlotte Ruse)
NHN
Guchi (Gucci)
Maxim
Figment
JJ Jewelers
Islands
Omar Viducci (Gianni Versace)

Colleagues in the newsroom remarked how much the mall looked like International Plaza, another Taubman-owned mall. To me, the cafe and table area by the glass elevators resembles Countryside Mall in Clearwater, without the ice rink, and feels a bit like the Mall in Columbia (Md.) that features similar stores on two levels. That mall is managed by the Howard Hughes Corp. and General Growth Properties.

It might be easier to watch the video and pair the names with the fonts on the signs if you're trying to guess what's coming. Keep in mind there are supposed to be more than 100 stores and half of them new to the Sarasota-Bradenton market. Many of the animated storefronts lacked names and some were duplicated.

What's your best guess to the stores inside the Mall at UTC? Share your guesses below.

Bealls expands Leoma Lovegrove line

 The Leoma Lovegrove line is expanding at Bealls starting this month. Photos provided

I'm not an expert in ladies fashion, and barely passable for men's fashion, but I acknowledge that people follow Leoma Lovegrove and her Florida art.

So with that, Bealls Department Store, headquartered in Bradenton, announced that it is expanding the impressionist-expressionist painter's splashy, kitschy artwork into more products. You'll see her bright designs on Tervis tumblers, pillows, beach towels, koozies, handbags, children's apparel, luggage, and the list seems to go on.

The initial wave of merchandise will arrive in stores this month and the full line will come in January.

"Earlier this year we introduced the Leoma Lovegrove collection in our Ladies department with an assortment of fashion tops. Our customers responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, and we listened," said Lorna Nagler, president of Bealls in a in a news release.

Lovegrove lives on Matlatcha Island, a tiny piece of land between Pine Island and Cape Coral in Lee County and also likes to paint local life plus the local cat Fred, according to her clothing labels.

A sample shirt was sent to the Herald in a press skit, showing that the shirt retails for $36, is 100 percent polyester (it feels soft), and made in China. This particular shirt features flamingos with a sign that says "You've been Flocked." Ok, then.

I had reporter Janey Tate model the sample, and we found that because of the printing process on the shirt, as soon as the material is stretched, you will see white distressed lines that split the artwork. That might not be desirable for some shoppers while others will seek out that design.

For more information, visit www.leomalovegrove.com and www.beallsflorida.com.

Hot Topic to open store at Ellenton Premium Outlets

Hot Topic, the popular rock and pop culture store for teens and young adults, is set to open a store at Ellenton Premium Outlets on Nov. 20.

The space inside the outlet center is already being transformed it into a Hot Topic. You'll find plenty of rock and alternative pop culture merchandise in Hot Topic, whether it's a Mumford & Sons tee, or 20th anniversary hoodies for the Nightmare Before Christmas.

The Ellenton Hot Topic will be only the second Hot Topic outlet store in Florida, according to the company's website. 

Hot Topic also has a location inside the DeSoto Square Mall, where Natasha Denofa is a manager. Denofa will transfer to the Ellenton location as store manager, and the DeSoto location will remain open, she said.

The outlet store will have a larger clearance section and will be in a larger space than the DeSoto store, she said, but will carry all the familiar merchandise shoppers will find at Hot Topic.

Suggestions needed for Mall at University Town Center stores

Officials and developers break ground for the University Town Center Mall development in October 2012. The upscale mall will be located in Sarasota at the southwest corner of University Parkway and I-75. PAUL VIDELA/Bradenton Herald PVIDELA@BRADENTON.COM

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/10/15/4239984/university-town-center-mall-groundbreaking.html#storylink=cpy

UNIVERSITY PARK--Talking with folks in the community about the Mall at University Town Center, there’s always excitement, and a line that goes something like this:
“I can’t wait. I really wish they would bring [insert store or restaurant name here].”
Today is your lucky day because a Taubman Centers official says she is listening.
Part of Karen MacDonald’s job as director of communications at Taubman is to track what people are saying and writing online about what stores they want to see at the Mall, set to open Oct. 16, 2014 at University Parkway and Cattleman Road, near Interstate 75.
MacDonald told the Herald that leasing agents, development people and the research team visited the area to try to get a sense of what’s here already, what works, and most importantly, the restaurants people want and the shops where they want to spend their money. Mall builders, it seems, take to heart what people write online about stores they want to see where they live.
“Oh yeah, we look at that stuff,” MacDonald said.
The mall has plenty of space to fill with 115 tenants plus an additional anchor to be named, so suggestions are welcomed. So far, Macy’s, Dillard’s, Saks Fifth Avenue are the only confirmed tenants.
The suggestions don’t necessarily have to be national chains, either.
“We always try to have some local flavor to our shopping centers as well with a handful of local retailers and food specialty stores,” MacDonald said.
Some of that research involves nearby retailers that provide data about where shoppers travel from, she added.
Sarasota area residents were recently excited about reports that an Apple store would open at the Westfield Southgate Mall when the shopping center expanded in 2011, only to feel spurned when it didn’t happen. Is that something shoppers here still want? Maybe a Google store instead, or in addition?
This mall might have had a similar moment with Bass Pro Shops, after the store apparently printed in a catalog last year that it would be coming to Sarasota, leading many in the community to speculate the store would be coming to UTC. Bass Pro told WWSB, who first reported the printing mishap, that they had nothing to announce at that time.
The first round of tenants will be announced in October, about a year before the mall opens, MacDonald said.
Now is your chance to make an impact on your local mall.
Sign in and post your suggestions to this blog below. I’ll pass them along to MacDonald so she knows that Manatee County shoppers will put their money where their mouth is.
Charles Schelle, business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7095. Follow him on Twitter @ImYourChuck.