In Brooklyn Center, Shingle Creek Crossing will be adding to its ranks

Shoppers can look forward to spring openings of several stores at Brooklyn Center's Shingle Creek Crossing after construction that has begun this fall is complete, a city official said.

Work at the former Brookdale Mall site is progressing on what will be a 110,000-square-foot building that will house a T.J. Maxx clothing store and a Michaels craft store, said Gary Eitel, business and development director for Brooklyn Center.

The building, adjacent to Sears, occupies the site of the old food court, which was demolished last spring rather than renovated as initially planned, Eitel said. Footings for eight building sites, totaling 92,000 square feet, are under construction, with two additional sites consisting of 19,000 square feet to be built next year.

Other tenants in the building are expected to include a women's clothing store, an office supply store, a pet care store and a shoe store, Eitel said. Concrete panels are expected to rise there by the end of the month with steel work to follow soon after. "So the tenant stores should be ready for occupancy in early 2015," Eitel said. "As opposed to fall openings, we'll have spring openings, but they're moving along."

That's behind the fall completion once projected for the building, Eitel said. He attributed the later date to now-resolved challenges the developer faced with construction financing and construction delays resulting from a long winter that lingered into early May. The developer, Gatlin Development Co., did not respond to requests for comment.

In all, some 116,000 square feet of retail construction is underway on the site this fall, Eitel said. "That will bring the building development up to approximately 78 percent completion," he said.

The $100 million redevelopment project, on 65 acres in the city's central commercial corridor at Hwy. 100 and Bass Lake Road, kicked off two years ago this month with the opening of a 186,000-square-foot Wal-Mart near where Macy's, Mervyn's and J.C. Penney once stood. While Sears remains from the Brookdale days, the Shingle Creek project suffered a setback in March when Kohl's department store unexpectedly closed. That leaves a 75,000-square-foot building vacant and added finding another department store or other tenant or tenants to the projects to-do list, Eitel said.

Still, a number of new tenants have taken space in new buildings near Wal-Mart and an LA Fitness that opened last September. They include Schlotzsky's Deli, Sprint, Foot Locker, T-Mobile, Qdoba Mexican Grill and AT & T. Aspen Dental will anchor a smaller building now under construction, while Discount Tire has won site-plan approval for a location next to an existing Applebee's.

"LA Fitness was a very positive addition," Eitel said. "We just need to expand the amount of trade activity that's going on to revitalize the energy for these other smaller tenants."

The center hopes to attract additional sit-down restaurants, and the developer is working with a couple of candidates, Eitel said. Available sites include two spots with patio space near Shingle Creek, which flowed under the Brookdale parking lot but has been partially "daylighted" into an open channel.

Restaurant development and the arrival of "mom and pop" shops and service businesses appear to be slower because of the economy, but Eitel said he believed the business climate largely is "moving in a positive direction."

"We have to have the right customer base to infill these stores," he said, referring to vacancies in the center. "I think that will take a bit longer because of the economy. But success breeds success. We need to continue to focus on success."

"It's about time they develop this area," Draghine said. "It's a hidden gem. It's opening up opportunities for people to improve the economic climate around here. This area is super diverse and has a lot of good people. We've been waiting for this to happen."

Ashley Perkins, Draghine's co-worker at the Sprint store, said business has picked up with the presence of Wal-Mart and the openings of Schlotzsky's next-door and Foot Locker and Qdoba Mexican Grill nearby. She also noted the number of vacancies, including those in the building where she works.

"They're building the buildings pretty fast," Perkins said. "What they're going to put in the buildings is the question."

LA Fitness member Kathy Whiteford said she began going to the Shingle Creek Crossing location after it opened last September. It's several miles closer to her home in Crystal than the one where she had been working out.

"It's a clean start, from scratch," Whiteford said of the new construction. "It's been a year and it's still OK. During the day, it's pretty calm."