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An enormous sign in front of Harrisburg Mall asks passers-by to "excuse our mess. Work on new, improved mall continues."
As if they needed to be told.
The mall off Paxton Street in Swatara Twp. is in the midst of adding a $13 million streetscape and addition in the front and an $18.5 million, 14-screen movie theater in the back. Construction equipment dots the property.
"This is a thrilling operation to watch," said Mark Nobile, general manager of the mall. "Everyone is getting excited about it."
The streetscape is reshaping the front exterior, adding a Panera Bread store, a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a Starbucks cafe inside, a Sports Grille by Sega and a main entrance plaza designed to give a "town square" look with benches, upscale shops and dining. The streetscape enables businesses to have entrances from the exterior as well as inside the mall.
"We're very excited about this project at the Harrisburg Mall," said Larry Feldman, chairman and CEO of New York-based Feldman Mall Properties Inc., which owns the mall. "We hope to be under roof by winter and expect to be completed by the middle of next year."
About 60,000 square feet in front of the mall is fenced off around the construction area from the main entrance to the entrance near Macy's. Within that area, workers are relocating gas, electric, phone, water and sewer lines, Nobile said.
"That must be done before we build the new streetscape," he said.
Nobile said demolition and preparation work is under way inside the mall. Panera Bread will be located where a doctor's office and a machine room had been. Barnes & Noble, expected to be more than 30,000 square feet, will be built where a CVS drugstore, Gordon's, M&T Bank and Snowden's Hallmark had been located.
The Sports Grille will be built on the exterior.
Nobile estimates the total cost of the third phase of improvements at the mall to be $25 million to $30 million, including the stores, restaurants, bar and upgraded entrances.
Meanwhile, on the Route 441 side of the mall, construction continues on the Great Escape 14-screen movie theater complex, which is expected to open this fall.
Theaters in complex, which will accommodate 2,500 moviegoers, will have stadium seating and rocking, high-back seats with armrests, wall-to-wall screens and digital projection systems with surround sound.
"We have a lot going on here," Nobile said. "Even so, there are thousands of parking spaces available. We expect to have a lot of the exterior structure work done and have the parking lot situation settle down in time for Christmas shopping."
Feldman predicted that the completed streetscape will become "a night and weekend entertainment zone."
"We'll have several restaurants and the best theater within 100 miles," he said. "We'll keep our shops lit until midnight and hope some shop owners extend their hours a bit, too. "
"By doing this," he added, "we estimate that within a year we'll have 2 million people come to the mall, including a lot who might not have come otherwise."
Copyright 2007 The Patriot-News
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