Omaha Forums

MadMartin8 wrote:

Greg S wrote:I go there periodically for lunch. I'll be curious on prices. I really don't want to spend 10 bucks or more to eat in a food court. Even a nicer one. Once you get in that price range or higher might as well go to a sit down restaurant.

Greg

Agreed.

Indeed

I stopped in the other night for dinner. I had the ramen noodles and they were good. Overall the food court looks nice. It's much bigger than I thought. Many groups of people were hanging out, many with beer and wine. Blatt has a decent sized patio outside that will be nice in the summer. When I left at 9:30pm, people were still there (mall closes at 9pm).

I've also seen a few friends post on Facebook that they received $5 off coupons in the mail. No idea if it was a targeted mailing to certain zip codes or what.

I went there the other day over lunch with a friend and we both really liked it. It's a nice concept.

Yeah, I got one of those $5 off cards. I live near UNO.

We ate there tonight. It was really busy for a late Sunday afternoon, I ate at the pizza place. I liked it and didn't think it was all that pricey. My wife had some ramen, which she really enjoyed but thought was a bit pricey. I think we would be happy to eat there again in the future, and by the looks of it tonight, it has a good chance of succeeding.

I went we a crew from work on Wednesday for lunch. It was definitely busy. It was me, another guy and the rest were women. Overall, everyone liked it. One of the ladies is going back tonight with a bunch of couples to eat on their way downtown for the Jason Aldean concert.

The one that was the busiest was •Amsterdam Falafel & Kabob. One of my group tried to go there but it was really busy. Waited in line to order for 10 minutes then gave up. I went to 'Blatt. Got a cheeseburger, fries and a pop. $12. A little pricey. I do like the extra kinds of pop you can get from the refill stations. I had some sort of really good crème soda. Also like how they text you when your food is done.

A manager type of person stopped by our table to check on us. Definitely a step up in food quality, service and price from a normal food court. Will be interesting to see how this does going forward. Will also be interesting to see if one of the concepts fails, what they do? With it all being run by one company, wonder what they would do or come up with? Odds are one or more will.

Greg

For the other readers sake, please do not call soda "pop".

thanks

ThatGuy wrote:For the other readers sake, please do not call soda "pop".

thanks

No problem. I will try and remember to dumb it down next time.

New York & Company, Things Remembered, Flying Worm Vintage Clothing & Zone 502 have all closed in the past week. The Cox Solutions store closed near the end of December. The old food court is all walled off except for a small area near the 3 remaining restaurants & the south entrance into the area is closed as well.

Heard a rumor Crate & Barrel and/or Container Store might be going into the old food court space. FWIW.

According to people in the know (excellent source) the new tenant for the former food court is going to be new to the market "non-apparel" and demo/construction should begin in 3 months. I think the hold up is the construction of the new locations of the remaining restaurants. Everyone is speculating Crate & Barrel which would be awesome.

I have it on very good authority that it will be The Container Store.

plaidguy wrote:I have it on very good authority that it will be The Container Store.

I am now warming up to this news!

Thanks plaidguy!

GetUrban wrote:Heard a rumor Crate & Barrel and/or Container Store might be going into the old food court space. FWIW.

I have seen them side by side, I think they are that way in Dallas

plaidguy wrote:I have it on very good authority that it will be The Container Store.

Thanks for the intel. Still hoping its both.

Does Crate and Barrell and the Container Store have the same parent company?

Greg

Greg S wrote:Does Crate and Barrell and the Container Store have the same parent company?

Greg

Doesn't look like it. There is some mention that they have a good working relationship and think their products compliment each other so they like being close.

The construction fence around the outside of the old food court has been up for a couple weeks now, but yesterday, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company installed a large orange and white " Whiting-Turner" turner sign on the fence facing Dodge Street.

Whiting-Turner Website:
http://www.whiting-turner.com/

Looks like they have quite the portfolio.

With General Growth Properties owning the Westroads and being the company that made the statement from one of there Top dogs about Brick and Morter Amazon book stores it got me wounding, Think there is any plans to put an Amazon book store in the Westroads? The statement said that Amazon was going to open in the neighborhood of 300 B&M bookstores but I did not see any mention of a time line.
There was some back off of the statement by the GMP person a day or two later but it was not shut down

Lot or irony in Amazon being the reason many book stores closed and now they are looking at opening their own physical stores.

It is too bad they tore out the heliport deck to put in Von Maur. Amazon could have used that to launch delivery drones

Brad wrote:

GetUrban wrote:Heard a rumor Crate & Barrel and/or Container Store might be going into the old food court space. FWIW.

I have seen them side by side, I think they are that way in Dallas

plaidguy wrote:I have it on very good authority that it will be The Container Store.

Thanks for the intel. Still hoping its both.

You might be on to something there...

Was there today. Dairy Queen had a sign saying that they were going to move around 2/7/16.

At one time there was mention of Borsheims moving. Is that still in the air or more of a dead rumor?

That may be dead. All I know is it's non apparel, whatever that means. Jewelry could be classified as clothing. They (GGP) will be making announcement soon, once the deal is inked. Can't say any more. Mainly because I don't know!

The Container Store is moving into the old food court space.

michaelsjewel wrote:The Container Store is moving into the old food court space.

That thrills me so much I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. Not!

GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:

michaelsjewel wrote:The Container Store is moving into the old food court space.

That thrills me so much I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. Not!

Oh, I agree with you there. It should be that new Amazon store IMO.

Official! Container Store!

Westroads Mall wrote:Drum roll please.... ..... .. ....

We are super excited to announce that Westroads Mall will welcome The Container Store to its retail lineup this fall.

The Container Store, the nation's originator and leading retailer of storage and organization products will open a store occupying 25,000 square feet. The store will be located on the south facing side of the property, replacing the former food court.

That's a very blagh redesign of the facade...

Garrett wrote:That's a very blagh redesign of the facade...

Yeah I thought so too...hopefully that isn't what the final design looks like. Unfortunately, it appears that a lot of them look like that. I was hoping for a design similar to this one

Hi all,

First post here.

I just wanted to quickly say, unlike most of the sentiments here, I'm glad the Container Store is going in the space. I'm moving back to Omaha later this year, and this is one of the few stores I was going to miss that's in Minneapolis (but not Omaha). This is for 2 reasons:

It's not really a cheap plastic container store like Bed, Bath and Beyond (even thought he name implies otherwise). It's more custom-looking closet/shelving/office systems. It's closer to Ikea (albeit much much smaller), than Home Depot or Bed, Bath and Beyond. If you don't want to pay thousands for California Closets or something entirely custom, The Container Store is great.

The other is their overall design. They look much better imho than the rendering shown here. Yes, they're closer to Crate & Barrel than an Apple Store, but still an improvement. Plus, their store fronts are always well designed, and the interiors are clean and uncluttered (the total opposite of BED, Bath and Beyond).

So that's my two cents.

Thanks,
Phillip

I actually like the design too, although it is a bit bland. But it has a nice, clean uncluttered look which fits with the idea behind the store, instead of some tacked-on faux historic revival look. You could argue that it doesn't really try to match any of the existing Westroads architecture, but there's nothing really great about that anyway. I'm glad this is coming to Westroads.

Also, I'm not sure why sometimes people on this board think that an officially-released, photo-realistic rendering is not what the building will really look like.

Phillip wrote:Hi all,

First post here.

I just wanted to quickly say, unlike most of the sentiments here, I'm glad the Container Store is going in the space. I'm moving back to Omaha later this year, and this is one of the few stores I was going to miss that's in Minneapolis (but not Omaha). This is for 2 reasons:

It's not really a cheap plastic container store like Bed, Bath and Beyond (even thought he name implies otherwise). It's more custom-looking closet/shelving/office systems. It's closer to Ikea (albeit much much smaller), than Home Depot or Bed, Bath and Beyond. If you don't want to pay thousands for California Closets or something entirely custom, The Container Store is great.

The other is their overall design. They look much better imho than the rendering shown here. Yes, they're closer to Crate & Barrel than an Apple Store, but still an improvement. Plus, their store fronts are always well designed, and the interiors are clean and uncluttered (the total opposite of BED, Bath and Beyond).

So that's my two cents.

Thanks,
Phillip

I agree ..

And welcome to the forum Phillip...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

GetUrban wrote:
Also, I'm not sure why sometimes people on this board think that an officially-released, photo-realistic rendering is not what the building will really look like.

A lot of times the final design changes from the initial renderings. Sometimes they are more subtle things but other times the design may completely change. It happens all the time. Usually the renderings actually look better than the finished product, but not always.

skinzfan23 wrote:

GetUrban wrote:
Also, I'm not sure why sometimes people on this board think that an officially-released, photo-realistic rendering is not what the building will really look like.

A lot of times the final design changes from the initial renderings. Sometimes they are more subtle things but other times the design may completely change. It happens all the time. Usually the renderings actually look better than the finished product, but not always.

It happens more with "conceptual" renderings and master plans, but in this case, since it will be open this fall and construction is starting soon, this is what it will look like, I would bet. Except there will be store fixtures and merchandise going inside the store. That would've helped the rendering look more lively.

skinzfan23 wrote:

GetUrban wrote:
Also, I'm not sure why sometimes people on this board think that an officially-released, photo-realistic rendering is not what the building will really look like.

A lot of times the final design changes from the initial renderings. Sometimes they are more subtle things but other times the design may completely change. It happens all the time. Usually the renderings actually look better than the finished product, but not always.

I agree. I should clarify about my comment about the rendering. Having seen some of these stores in real life, the materials used don't seem to be faithfully represented in this one.

I say this, because up until last year I did architectural renderings for freelance. And while I agree the renderings usually look better than the finished product, I was oftentimes told by designers to make them more conservative. This was so we'd get less complaints with a "safer" design. So hi-gloss finishes became brushed, colors became muted, and perspectives where changed to de-emphasize anything considered too dramatic.

Phillip

That might explain the collective tantrum this forum threw when they released the renderings for HDR's new digs.

All the Container Stores I know of have similar facades. To piggyback on Phillip's comment, expect the white blocks to be shinier and the gray dividing lines between them to be less defined.

To clarify further, my point is, the building components that make-up the design are going to be the same as the rendering. Sure, the rendering could have had more dramatic lighting, glossy finishes, and more liveliness. But basically, what you see in the rendering is what you're getting.... white gridded metal panels above an aluminum-framed glass storefront. The rendering posted for the Westroads store is kind of lack-luster. Maybe they want people to like it even more when they see it in person. A good analogy would be a good looking girl without make-up. I think if you want to critique the architecture, you have to look deeper than the surface (rendering) and decide for yourself if you like the components that make up the whole and the reasons they were chosen for the overall design and client.

Here's a photo of an actual similar store...

This will be a $2.1 M renovation project.

A container store at the Westrosds mall, that's utterly asinine. Wow I'm shocked and disappointed in this one. But that'll let crossroads get the better brands they'll need to get dirt flying.