Lloyd Center to begin $50 million renovation project, largest since its enclosure (original) (raw)
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The Lloyd Center mall is set to begin an 18-month, $50 million renovation, its largest since the mall was enclosed in a project that began in 1989.
Cypress Equities, an investment and management company that bought the mall in 2013 for $148 million, on Thursday unveiled its plans to revamp the mall's entrances and interior.
Earlier: Before and after photos from the proposed renovation
The redesign will add more exterior storefronts and pedestrian-focused entrances. It will also reconfigure the mall's center court as a grander entrance with a spiral staircase and a slightly smaller, oval ice rink shifted slightly from where the mall's rink currently sits.
The overarching effort, said Cypress Chief Investment Officer Todd Minnis, is to better integrate the mall with the changing Lloyd District.
"Today you go into the mall," Minnis said. "Tomorrow, want you to go outside the mall and still feel like you're part of the mall."
Cypress has also helped fund the Holladay Park Partnership, a nonprofit created to hold events and programs at the park. The nonprofit has retained a firm run by Dan Biederman, an urban park consultant who co-founded a similar venture for Bryant Park in New York City.
On Thursday, a park attendant was talking to visitors and had arranged tables, chairs and games around the park's central fountain.
In addition to the aesthetic changes, the mall will spend $15 million replacing its heating and cooling system, which is expected to reduce its energy use by 25 to 30 percent..
The mall is expected to stay open during construction, said general manager Wanda Rosenbarger. (The mall only closed for two days in the 2-1/2 year enclosure project, when a roof was added to the previously open-air mall.)
Minnis also said the mall would soon be weighing its options over what to do with the space Nordstrom will vacate in January, or the Regal theater site across the street.
He said Cypress would announce plans for the Nordstrom store in the next three or four months, and a plan for the theater "superblock" -- a large site uninterrupted by public roads -- in the next 24 months.
Nearby, American Assets Trust is building a mixed-use development on a similar superblock that will bring 660 new apartments to the Lloyd District.
-- Elliot Njus
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