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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:47 am
by nebugeater
OWH is now reporting that Barns & Noble is closing quoting people within the store.  This is not confirmed from B&N Corp but probably as good as:





http://www.omaha.com/article/20111103/MONEY/711039957

The Barnes & Noble bookstore at the Mall of the Bluffs will be closing at the end of the year, various people within the company said this week..................................

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:41 pm
by icejammer
Sears to sell Mall of the Bluffs store
Sears Holdings Corp. plans to sell 11 stores – including stores in Council Bluffs and Coralville – to raise cash and shore up its retail business.

Sears plans to sell the 11 mall stores to Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., which owns the Mall of the Bluffs where the Council Bluffs Sears store is located. . . .

General Growth anticipates that Sears will continue to occupy the stores into 2013 until closing dates can be determined.

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:31 pm
by Bosco55David
Think we can stick a fork in this one too?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:14 am
by bargainhunter
Kaplan is leaving too.  They are closing their CB campus at the end of February.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:15 pm
by Silverspoon
I went to Sears yesterday and theyre basically down to jewelry and store fixtures...

The food court consists of Sbarro.

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:43 pm
by Bosco55David
Silverspoon wrote:I went to Sears yesterday and theyre basically down to jewelry and store fixtures...

The food court consists of Sbarro.
That's quite the shame when you think of it. I remember going to the mall to hang out with a girl in the late winter/early spring of 2002, probably mere days before we left for Florida. When I was there they had just done some moderate remodeling of the food court area, installing big screen TVs and, the food court was completely full. It was also busy and active there, even though it was about 2pm on a weekday.

Sad to think that in just a little over a decade the mall has turned into a near ghost town.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:03 am
by Omaha_Gabe
Mall of the Bluffs sold to New York group
The Mall of the Bluffs was purchased Friday by a New York company that wants to keep it as a retail center, a mall official said.
The Namdar Realty Group, based in Great Neck, N.Y., purchased the mall from General Growth Properties of Chicago, said Andrea Leinen, business manager. Igal Namdar is the owner of that realty group. The purchase price was not announced, but the goal is clear, according to Leinen.
“He wants to maintain the mall as a retail center, and we are working with local brokers who are getting a feel of the community on what they want,” Leinen said. “We plan on keeping tenants we have and adding more in the near future.”

The mall opened in 1986 as the city’s premier shopping center. Located just off Madison Avenue near the Interstate 80 junction, it offers 730,000 square feet of retail space, Leinen said.

“This is a wonderful location and I think we can come back, I really do,” she said. “And, Mr. Namdar feels like it is a good investment for him.”
Within the next two weeks, the plan calls for closing the area near the Dillards store, which is doing well, Leinen said, to the former Sears location. That wing will be empty after the Kaplan University branch office closes down next week.
“We’ll start focusing on the center of the mall and expand outward.”
http://www.southwestiowanews.com/counci ... 963f4.html


Over the last few months, several groups, including the Namdar group, visited him about the mall, Hanafan said.
“Every group I talked to was interested in the property,” he said. “These groups buy older malls and revitalize them.”

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:56 pm
by Bosco55David
Will be interesting to see what, if any effect this has.

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:23 pm
by EastCB
Was in the mall today to renew my driver's license.  Haven't been in there in a couple of years.  It was sad. I hope the new owners can turn it around but after looking at their website and their other properties, I highly doubt that they are the ones to do it. It would be nice to have a shopping option so close to my house.

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:55 pm
by S33
Nothing will revitalize that mall. The propery adjacent to the mall would need work first. Sad, but true.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:37 am
by TitosBuritoBarn
I don't see there being the retail demand in CB for the mall to come back, especially when the traditional indoor mall is a fading trend.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:02 am
by Coyote
TitosBuritoBarn wrote:I don't see there being the retail demand in CB for the mall to come back, especially when the traditional indoor mall is a fading trend.
I will start a new thread on that question...

Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:10 am
by Brad
Mall of the Bluffs sold for $8.5 million

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130328/M ... -5-million
Janice Podsada, Omaha World Herald wrote:When the Mall of the Bluffs was sold last month to Namdar Realty Group, the price tag was not disclosed. Now, we've learned the purchase price – $8.5 million, according to public records.

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:32 pm
by Omaha_Gabe
Little King added to the food court

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:38 pm
by Omaha_Gabe
New shop in Mall of the Bluffs, two others to follow

http://www.southwestiowanews.com/counci ... 18ee1.html
A well-known sandwich shop has just opened in the Mall of the Bluffs and two more retailers should do the same in near future, the mall’s manager said Wednesday.
“We will have two new tenants by Sept. 1,” said Andrea Leinen.

She didn’t name the tenants since neither has signed on the bottom line – yet – but they will move into two of the bigger areas, Leinen said.
“I will say it’s not Macy’s,” said Leinen, that despite rumors that the national chain was coming.

Im hoping it doesn't follow the trends of their other malls.... dollar general, dollar tree, big lots MIGHT be ok  but i dont see what else would go back in... Not JC penny, highly doubt younkers, and similar...  but who knows

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:18 am
by Coyote
Fitness Planet will occupy the old B&N space.

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:21 am
by RNcyanide
Coyote wrote:Fitness Planet will occupy the old B&N space.
Fitness Planet or Planet Fitness?

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:27 am
by Coyote
My bad, dyslexia strikes again, Planet Fitness - is expected to open before the end of the year, with renovations both inside and out, 25k square feet...

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:28 am
by RNcyanide
Coyote wrote:My bad, dyslexia strikes again, Planet Fitness - is expected to open before the end of the year, with renovations both inside and out, 25k square feet...
Ha it's fine.  :D

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:12 am
by icejammer
Planet Fitness to become Mall of the Bluffs tenant
The new owners of the Mall of the Bluffs in Council Bluffs said Monday that a Planet Fitness will open in the space formerly occupied by a Barnes & Noble bookstore. . . .

“We’re working very diligently to revamp this mall,” Rafinia said. “We’re in line to make major improvements.” . . .

Planet Fitness, which offers exercise equipment and personal instruction, is expected to open before year’s end with interior and exterior renovations to the 25,000-square-foot space vacated by the bookstore in 2011. . . .

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:29 pm
by guitarguy
In NYC Planet Fitness was by and far the most popular gym since its only 10 bucks a month and is designed around what people want to do in a hurry. I never joined but nearly everyone I knew that went to the gym went to a Planet Fitness. Are there any others in the area?

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:30 pm
by Omaha_Gabe
guitarguy wrote:In NYC Planet Fitness was by and far the most popular gym since its only 10 bucks a month and is designed around what people want to do in a hurry. I never joined but nearly everyone I knew that went to the gym went to a Planet Fitness. Are there any others in the area?
There are two in Omaha

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:38 pm
by Coyote
132nd Street and West Center Road and 60th Street and Ames Avenue.

Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 8:34 am
by icejammer
Halloween City will be the newest tenant at MOTB, utilizing the JCP store.

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 12:10 pm
by icejammer
New tenants starting to arrive at Mall of the Bluffs
It may take some time, but the Mall of the Bluffs is moving forward when it comes to attracting new tenants, the property manager said.

Planet Fitness will open a fitness center in the space formerly occupied by a Barnes and Noble bookstore, Andrea Leinen with Namdar Realty Group said. . .

Several weeks ago, Leinen indicated at one least one major tenant would sign an occupancy lease by Sept. 1. Planet Fitness signed a long-term lease on Aug. 25, Leinen confirmed Monday. . . .

Planet Fitness, Leinen said, will completely renovate the 25,000-square-foot store that has been empty since Barnes and Noble left the city nearly two years ago.

There will be one tenant opening much sooner, perhaps within the next week or two, in the former J.C. Penney store, Leinen said. Halloween City, a division of the national Party City chain, has signed a lease through mid-November. . . .

There are at least three more firms looking at the mall as potential tenants, but Leinen declined to say who they are. . . .

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:31 pm
by Bosco55David
At this point, it's obvious the mall will never be what it was years before, but it might still have it's place in the current retail market.

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 6:33 pm
by S33
Bosco55David wrote:At this point, it's obvious the mall will never be what it was years before, but it might still have it's place in the current retail market.
It will be another Kaplan University, or whomever has a need for dirt-cheap office space.

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 7:44 pm
by EastCB
Don't think so. Kaplan already was there and has  moved out now.

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:10 pm
by Jason4225
They are painting the front of the old B&N for the new Planet Fitness. This may bring some traffic to the two food choices left in the mall. :lol: I understand there is new ownership, I just don't see much of a future for this property.

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:32 pm
by icejammer
Hallmark will be the latest mall tenant to leave for Metro Crossing, later this month.

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:28 pm
by Omaha_Gabe
Image

Image

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:32 pm
by Brad
I am guessing that's the Planet Fitness?

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 6:10 pm
by Omaha_Gabe
Brad wrote:I am guessing that's the Planet Fitness?

Correct

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 12:39 pm
by skinzfan23
Drove by the mall this past weekend and I can honestly say those colors look horrible on the building.  I know that its their colors for the gym, but it makes a building that looked great when Barnes and Noble moved in, look terrible.

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 2:17 pm
by S33
skinzfan23 wrote:Drove by the mall this past weekend and I can honestly say those colors look horrible on the building.  I know that its their colors for the gym, but it makes a building that looked great when Barnes and Noble moved in, look terrible.
They could definitely have been more subtle, but I don't think the property is in the position to give many guidelines.

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:08 pm
by jag42
one of my friends jokingly said "It looks like it is going to be a Minnesota Vikings apparel/souvenir store."

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 7:23 pm
by Bosco55David
My God, that is UGLY.

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:25 pm
by jessep28
jag42 wrote:one of my friends jokingly said "It looks like it is going to be a Minnesota Vikings apparel/souvenir store."
Or a Mooby's from the View Askewniverse (Jay & Silent Bob, Clerks) movies.

Image

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 6:54 pm
by RNcyanide
Ick.

Aunt Molly & Friends

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:02 am
by bargainhunter
http://www.auntmollyandfriends.com/amfpage2.htm

Aunt Molly and Friends.  
A children's TV show will be holding audtions and debuting its show on WOWT.

Auditions are being held at MOTB:  http://www.metromediaworldwide.com/aunt ... onform.htm