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New signs are popping up and busy construction crews are working in and around the Foothills Mall.
Mall owner Feldman Equities of Arizona has high hopes and big plans for the 480,000-square-foot property it bought for $54 million in April 2002.
The large, colorful signs going in at entrances surrounding the mall are just the beginning.
- The 15-screen Loews Cineplex movie theater at the mall's west end will undergo major renovation around the first of the year, said Regina Harmon, operations, marketing and specialty leasing manager for the mall. Seven of the screens will get stadium seating and new sound systems, while the other eight that already have stadium seating will receive face-lifts. Moviegoers will no longer enter the theater directly from outside but will go into the mall first. The theater will remain open during construction.
- A new 16,300-square-foot strip center will be built next to Linens 'n Things on the north side of the mall with room for up to 15 tenants, said Scott Jensen, a Feldman Equities partner. So far Payless ShoeSource, Electronics Boutique, Wild Noodles restaurant, Keva Juice and Sprint have signed on to open stores in what will be called the North Side Shops, he said. The new shops will open by June of next year, he said.
- Two new restaurants will open on the mall's southwest side this year, Harmon said. Metro Restaurants is replacing Keaton's with Old Pueblo Grille Foothills Mall, which will open in November. The Melting Pot - a Florida-based fondue restaurant with two locations in the Phoenix area - will open next door this month, Harmon said.
- The mall's south end, which Jensen said has always had lagging foot traffic, is getting the big treatment including an all-new entrance matching the others with a large rotunda. Famous Footwear is moving from inside the mall to a new 10,000-square-foot space at the new entrance. The new store opened Wednesday.
- GameWorks, which is closed, will get a remodeled home and will reopen in early November.
"We hope to turn it into an 'A' mall," Jensen said.
Class A malls, according to Retail Traffic magazine, are dominant in major metro markets, have the top anchor stores and gross at least $400 per square foot in retail sales.
Right now, Foothills Mall, which opened in 1982, is more of a Class B mall, with sales less than $400 per square foot, Jensen said.
"What we're doing is improving the identity and enhancing the entertainment theme," he said.
Casey Crowe, 20, a student at the University of Arizona and a Midtown resident, was at the mall Tuesday and said he liked the improvements and the plans for more.
"I like all of those ideas," he said. "They're just advancing this mall, I think, to compete with the other malls."
He especially liked the planned upgrades to the theater complex.
Denna Apt, 63, agreed. She is also looking forward to the Old Pueblo Grille.
"As many things as they can bring in, we need it in this area," said the Rancho Vistoso resident.
Max Rothpletz, 23, said he is often at the mall and predicts the changes "will attract more attention and bring more business."
Feldman is plowing more than $4.5 million into renovating and upgrading the mall.
Jensen said the mall has only a few vacancies. There is also one vacant commercial parcel on mall property just north of the office building at the northwest corner of North La Cholla Boulevard and West Ina Road.
The mall's new additions and renovations are coming in time for what is expected to be a profitable holiday season in the retail world.
The National Retail Federation is predicting holiday sales to increase by 5.7 percent from last year. Holiday sales have lagged the last three years, said Marshall Vest, director of economic and business research at the UA Eller College of Business and Public Administration.
Properties surrounding the mall that aren't owned by Feldman are also jumping with activity.
On the east end, fronting La Cholla, a new building that houses Starbucks, One Hour Martinizing, Subway, Baskin-Robbins, T-Mobile and a Chipotle Mexican Grill was completed last month. All the stores except T-Mobile, Subway and Chipotle are open, said Greg Furrier, a partner in Picor's retail properties division. Those stores are expected to open in the next several weeks.
A Compass Bank office is set for a parcel just north of the Fox and Hound Smokehouse and Tavern.
On the south end of the mall, the Thomasville Home Furnishings store just opened and an Arizona Central Credit Union office is under construction and expected to open by Christmas.
Across Ina, a Romano's Macaroni Grill restaurant is under construction and is also expected to open by Christmas, Furrier said. A new Walgreens and a new Commerce Bank of Arizona just opened. There is also a retail space and an assisted living business planned at this corner.
* Reporter Nicole R. Grubbs contributed to this report.
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