Since the $300 million redevelopment turned Bayshore Mall into Bayshore Town Center 10 years ago, developers have been hoping to land an upscale department store.
Bayshore missed out on Nordstrom, which chose to build its first Wisconsin store at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa and Von Maur, which will open at The Corners in Brookfield.
But the Glendale mall has landed Nordstrom Rack, according to several commercial real estate sources, who say the off-price retail store of Nordstrom Inc. will open its second Wisconsin location at Bayshore as part of a larger redevelopment of the north end of the center, formerly occupied by a Sears store.
Total Wine & More, a Bethesda, Md.,-based big-box chain that sells wine, beer and spirits will open its second Wisconsin store at the former Bayshore Sears site too, according to sources.
Total Wine announced earlier this year it was leasing 27,495 square feet at Calhoun Crossing, a retail redevelopment project in Brookfield. Nordstrom Rack opened a 36,000-square-foot store in the Mayfair Collection in 2014.
Sears closed its 117,000-square-foot store and Sears Auto Center at Bayshore, which is owned by New York-based Olshan Properties, in December 2014. At the time, area real estate brokers said it was what Bayshore Town Center developers had been waiting for, so they could find an anchor that fit their vision to attract North Shore shoppers.
In May 2015, Olshan announced plans to develop 300,000 square feet of additional mixed-use property on the north end of Bayshore, which has not been as successful as the south end of the mall.
Olshan representatives would not comment.
Glendale City Administrator Richard Maslowski said the mall management has set up a meeting with city officials on May 24.
“They have not told us anything yet, but this would be great news,” Maslowski said.
Mandel Group, which developed the original multi-family residential units at Bayshore Town Center, is not currently involved in any new multi-family project at the former Sears site, said Robert Monnat, Mandel’s chief operating officer.
“I think they are proposing to scrape at least a portion of the Sears box,” a commercial real estate source said, adding that Sports Authority’s anticipated closing could result in yet another new significant tenant for Bayshore.
Sports Authority originally planned to keep its Milwaukee stores open, but notified a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware this month, that it would close all of its stores.
“I’m not sure how the Sports Authority closing could affect the Sears space,” a source said. “But now there is room for another junior anchor.”
