Rapid growth at Everett Mall

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 15, 2005

EVERETT – Construction workers are almost as common as shoppers at Everett Mall, where at least four big new stores are scheduled to open ahead of the busy holiday season.

Old Navy, Best Buy, Bed Bath &Beyond and Borders Book &Music plan to open their doors from late October to early November.

Eric Fetters / The Herald Workers are on track to finish two new entrances on the north side of Everett Mall before the busy holiday shopping season begins in November. Inside the mall, new Old Navy and Borders stores could open before the end of October.

Borders and Old Navy will be in spaces carved out of the main mall complex, while Best Buy and Bed Bath &Beyond will be in The Village, a new collection of stores being built on the west end of the mall property.

Two other new businesses in The Village, Sleep Country USA and Quiznos Sub, also are likely to be open before the holidays, said Linda Johannes, Everett Mall’s general manager.

She said construction work, ongoing in all corners of the shopping center, has progressed with a minimum of delays or glitches.

“For the most part, it really has,” Johannes said. “The weather’s cooperated to a great degree.”

She also said the project’s general contractor, Bellevue-based S.D. Deacon Corp., has done a good job of completing work with a minimum of inconvenience to shoppers in the rest of the mall.

Dave Martinez, one of Deacon’s supervisors for the mall project, said that’s meant some unusual hours for his crews.

“Anything really dusty or really loud, we do at night or in the early morning,” he said. That also has been the case when work at the mall required shutting down water service or other utilities.

The new stores opening over the next two months are just part of the mall’s ongoing multi-million-dollar expansion and renovation project, which began in earnest earlier this year.

Still to come in 2006 are the opening of PetsMart in The Village and a new 16-screen Regal Cineplex movie theater under construction on the south side of the mall. Sears also plans to spruce up its building.

On either side of the main entrance, workers have been building two new secondary entrances that will lead directly to the new Old Navy and Borders. But a grander main entrance for the mall will wait until next year, Johannes said.

“It takes eight weeks to build the new entrance, so it would have bumped up into the holidays,” she said.

Also next year, the mall’s owner will look to improve the mix of national, regional and local stores inside the mall. While some tenants have improved their spaces, others have left. With the new Borders bookstore coming, B. Dalton plans to close by mid-October. WaldenBooks, which is owned by Borders’ parent company, also may close in the near future.

But Kristi Keene, Everett Mall’s marketing director, said the mall should be fully leased with seasonal tenants during the holiday season.

Steadfast Cos. began improving Everett Mall shortly after buying the shopping center in mid-2004. Its total investment on expanding and renovating the mall is estimated at more than $30 million. The new stores at the mall also will add close to 800 full- and part-time jobs to the local economy, Johannes said.

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.

Everett Mall expansion

Tentative opening dates for stores being added to Everett Mall:

* Old Navy, Best Buy and Bed Bath &Beyond – late October

* Borders Books &Music – early November

* PetsMart – early 2006

* Regal Cineplex – May 2006

* Specific openings have not yet been set for a new Sleep Country USA store and Quiznos sub shop. The mall will promote its new additions at grand opening ceremonies Nov. 17.