Coral Ridge Mall lands new businesses

By Pat Shaver

CORALVILLE—Several new businesses are moving into Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville.

Sephora, Discount Tires and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels will open at the mall this summer and fall. Additional changes to the center include the relocation of The Children’s Place and Sleep Number.

Sephora, owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), is set to open its second Iowa location in late summer and will be located next to Banana Republic. Sephora is a beauty-retail store founded in 1970 in France. Its open-sell environment features brands across a range of product categories including skincare, color, fragrance, body and hair care, in addition to the brand’s own private label.

Discount Tires, America’s largest tire and wheel retailer, will open this fall in the former Sears Auto space.

Pretzel retailer Auntie Anne’s will open in August, moving into the old Sleep Number space, next to Scheels. Auntie Anne’s was founded 25 years ago and has since grown to include 1,330 locations in 46 states and more than 25 countries. There is currently also a Pretzel Maker at the mall.

The Children’s Place moved to a new space across from Old Navy, near the UI Children’s Hospital Play Area. Sleep Number has moved into a larger space across from Scheel’s.

Last month, the city of Coralville approved a measure to allow the mall to reduce the required parking ratio from five spots to 4.5 spaces per thousand. The ratio is based on gross leasable area, as opposed to gross square footage of the mall. The skating arena, the Children’s Museum, food court seating area and all other common areas of the mall are not figured into the gross leasable area.

Monica Nadeau, Coral Ridge Mall’s general manager, said the mall doesn’t plan to make any announcements in the near future on the tenant that will go in the Sears space.

John Bergstrom, senior vice president of General Growth Properties (GGP), the company that manages Coral Ridge Mall said during a recent Coralville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that a company interested in the former Sears location was looking for more space.

The approved parking change will allow a future client to demolish the existing structure and construct a two-story building on the previous Sears site. The company is requesting 200,000 square feet of space. The project would likely be completed in 2017.

Chicago-based GGP’s portfolio is comprised of 125 regional malls comprising 124 million square feet of gross leasable area.