Galleria announces more tenants as expansion nears completion

The Galleria, nearing the end of its latest expansion, on Tuesday announced three new stores, including two from Minnesota, and the relocation of Starbucks into the new space.

The Edina shopping center said that Soft Surroundings, a St. Louis retailer, Roe Wolfe, a Minnesota-based contemporary women's apparel store, and Big Island Swim & Surf Co., a local swimwear store, will move into the expanded space on its northeast corner.

Starbucks, which already had a location in the center, will take a larger and more prominent space that features a patio and a fireplace. All will be open by the end of the year.

"We really wanted a nice balance of local and national brands," Jennifer Smith, leasing director of the Galleria, said in an interview. "There is a perception out there that we are replacing local tenants with national tenants but that is so far from our plan."

Smith said the new additions give the Galleria the only Soft Surroundings in Minnesota and the lone Roe Wolfe in the Twin Cities.

"What makes the Galleria so unique is the fact that 50 percent of our tenants have single stores on the market," Smith said.

They are going into a 20,000-square-foot expansion in an area that previously housed a Barnes & Noble store, which moved last year to a smaller location in the mall. Eight of the 10 spaces in the expansion area have commitments, but only six have been announced. Smith said the last two spaces are still in negotiations and likely won't open until 2018.

"This expansion project continues to enable the Galleria to add even more of the unique, upscale local and national stores Twin Cities shoppers have come to rely on us for," Wendy Eisenberg, who was named the shopping center's new general manager in June, said in a statement.

In recent years, the Galleria has lost numerous local tenants, but about 45 percent of its tenants are local firms.

The Galleria will add the home furnishings store Design Within Reach this fall, but it expects to lose Restoration Hardware when that store's lease expires in 2019. Restoration Hardware has announced plans to build a four-story, 50,000-square-foot store in the southwest corner of the Southdale Center parking lot, just across a street from the Galleria.

"We really feel fortunate to have such strong interest from tenants at a time when a lot of tenants are closing stores," Smith said.

Patrick Thomas • 612-673-7740