Timberland to open Calhoun Square store

Timberland has signed a multiyear lease at the nearly renovated Calhoun Square in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood.

The outdoor clothing and accessories retailer, based in Stratham, N.H., will occupy 2,000 square feet on the first floor facing Hennepin Avenue. The store is set to open Nov. 1.

Calhoun Square will host the only stand-alone Timberland store in Minnesota and "will have a unique store design seen in very few locations nationally," mall General Manager Ken Seifert said.

In a phone interview, Seifert said the store will resemble Timberland stores in Chicago, which incorporate environmentally friendly building materials into the stores' design and construction.

"We think Timberland is complimentary to not just Calhoun Square but also Uptown," Seifert said.

The store faces competition from nearby Columbia Sportswear and the North Face, which is owned by VF Corp. In June, the retailer, based in Greensboro, N.C., agreed to buy Timberland for $2 billion.

Timberland generated nearly $1.5 billion in sales last year, most of it through its wholesale businesses. Revenue from the company's 228 stand-alone stores jumped 10.3 percent to $404.8 million. In addition to Timberland products, the Uptown store also is expected to carry VF brands like Eastpak, JanSport and Eagle Creek.

"Traffic is starting to return to what it used to be," Seifert said. "We're happy with how the mall turned out. We're happy with the progress we have made, given the state of the economy."

In the past year, Calhoun Square has become the home of a busy LA Fitness center as well as the Uptown Cafeteria and Support Group, a restaurant with a popular rooftop patio owned by Parasole Restaurant Holdings, which also owns another restaurant in the mall, Il Gatto. The mall is now 80 percent occupied.

The mall also recently signed CB2, a younger, hipper version of Crate & Barrel that has broken ground for a 14,000-square-foot store immediately adjacent to the main building. The fledgling chain has just nine stores now in five states and Washington, D.C. Seifert said he doesn't know when CB2 will open, though construction has started.

Euphoric Ambiance, a massage and bodywork clinic on the mall's second floor, will host its grand opening in early September.