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.
116,000 square feet
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.
"It changes the dynamics," he said. "All of a sudden you're doing catch-up-type work as opposed to moving forward."