LYNNWOOD — The $50 million expansion of Alderwood Mall is moving ahead on schedule, with work on a new store beginning during the past week.
Once the new stores, restaurants and movie theater complex are finished in 2004, the expanded mall will be able to take better advantage of the way people shop these days, the project’s lead architect said Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Robert Tindall, president of Callison Architecture Inc., and Barry O’Connor, Alderwood’s general manager, spoke about the mall redevelopment project to members of the South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce.
The retail competition and shoppers’ habits have changed dramatically since the mall was built in 1979, Tindall said.
One example: At the beginning of the 1990s, the average shopping trip lasted 90 minutes; as of 2000, it was down to 65 minutes.
And retail trends show traditional department stores, still considered by many to be the biggest magnets for shoppers, don’t appeal to many young people.
“We used to think of the department stores as a place where you could find everything, where you’d do all of your shopping,” Tindall said. “That’s changing.”
Instead, many teens opt to shop in the smaller specialty stores that are aimed specifically at them. That fits into a larger trend of more segmentation of the retail market, with Baby Gap, Pottery Barn Kids and other specialized stores spreading rapidly, he said.
Those trends, combined with results from surveys of the area’s residents, helped to shape the mall’s expansion plan, O’Connor said.
The project, including a 16-screen movie theater complex, will add at least 300,000 square feet to the 1-million-square-foot mall. That includes the bigger Nordstrom store, a dining area and an open-air shopping center that includes high-end retailers.
The mall’s owner, General Growth Properties of Chicago, has declined to say how much the project will cost.
A spokeswoman for Cushman &Wakefield, a commercial property management firm, said the project will cost about $50 million.
Tenants in the mall’s new space will include Claim Jumper restaurant, California Pizza Kitchen and Borders Books. O’Connor said other tenants have committed to fill up to 80 percent of the new retail space.
“The response has been overwhelming, and we’re still getting a lot of interest,” he said.
When the expansion is done, O’Connor thinks Alderwood can draw back shoppers in South Snohomish County who may be taking their business to Bellevue Square or downtown Seattle.
O’Connor and Tindall said the open-air area, called “The Village,” and the expanded restaurant selection will encourage people to spend more time and money on each trip to the mall. That could put annual spending per square foot at Alderwood, now at $450, closer to $600, the level seen at Bellevue Square, O’Connor said.
The projected completion of the mall project could coincide with the expected recovery of the region’s economy, O’Connor added.
“We’re very optimistic that we’re timing this right,” he said, “that by 2004 we’ll be coming out of this downturn and be in an upturn.”
Alderwood is not the only Snohomish County mall looking to improve. The smaller Everett Mall has started renovating its existing space and is set to unveil expansion plans during the next year.
Eric Fetters is a reporter for the Herald in Everett.
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