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Complete Forecast for  May 09 2008

By GREG JUNEK
Business Editor

Broadway Square Mall will be replete with its new look and amenities in a couple of months, mall management said Tuesday.

Brian Hanson, mall manager, spokeswoman Jennifer Sparrow and other Simon Property Group Inc. officials gave a media tour of the improvements undertaken - most of them completed - since the mall launched a $5.31 million renovation project in September 2007.

"The remodel is about 80 percent complete," Ms. Sparrow said. "It is scheduled to be complete, 100 percent, around the end of May."

Indianapolis-based Simon Properties Group Inc. owns the mall, at 4601 S. Broadway Ave. Construction began Sept. 10 on Centre Court. Because crews performed the work at night, customers were not hindered in their shopping.

The mall looks quite a bit brighter than it did late last year, with the concourse ceiling raised, and new tile installed on the floor.

"What you're seeing now is a very open, more modern feel to the mall," Hanson said, before leading the group past the center's latest tenant, Build-A-Bear Workshop, scheduled to open in May.

He said a good-looking mall will help attract nationwide retailers, and high-quality retailers will attract other high-quality retailers.

Hanson said he had received comments from customers saying they liked the floors and the carpet color.

"The floor was the single largest part of the renovation," he said.

Mall officials have, since September, touted the "soft seating" amenities, and on Tuesday they said the mall benches will be replaced with the newer, more comfortable chairs in May. All of the newly carpeted areas - in the mall concourse and larger carpeted areas in front of Sears and JCPenney - will have soft seating.

And the mall is working on agreements with some of the tenants to have a children's play area on part of the carpeted area in front of JCPenney, Hanson said.

"With Tyler being a family market, a lot of kids, it's really going to be a nice improvement," he said.

Prior to the renovation, the mall only had one set of restrooms near the mall offices, excluding restrooms in some of the stores. On Tuesday, Hanson and Ms. Sparrow led the media group to new restroom facilities down a corridor near Chick-Fil-A, in a space formerly occupied by an arcade.

The facilities include a family restroom, with a small toilet designed for children. New water fountains were installed in the concourse outside the restrooms, and a space beside the fountains is open for vending machines.

Mall officials said space for an additional tenant is available between the vending machine space and Chick-Fil-A.

The exteriors of the mall's three entrances were also revamped, with new automatic sliding doors and landscaping. Hanson said the landscaping includes more than 300 azaleas planted along South Broadway Avenue, shrubbery and flowers at the vehicle entrances and planters at all mall entrances.

The 620,000-square-foot mall, anchored by Dillard's, JCPenney and Sears, opened in April 1975. It was expanded in 2005 with the addition of a lifestyle component.