Opry Mills mall may be gearing up to reopen.
A $400,000 rehabilitation building permit was issued Tuesday for the mall’s Off Broadway Shoes store.
While mall owner Simon Property Group has not disclosed its plans, Off Broadway “is going to reopen with the rest of the mall,” said Phil Lamantia, director of store operations for the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company. The company has no plans to reopen before other stores, as Bass Pro Shops did in September.
Simon Property Group filed suit against its insurers in September, claiming they are withholding $150 million of the $200 million coverage Simon says it is due. After filing suit, Gregg Goodman, president of Simon subsidiary The Mills, said the lawsuit would force them to miss their original grand reopening goal of August 2011.
Repair work at the mall has since stopped, prompting many to question whether Simon, which had more than $3.7 billion in revenue in 2009, has any real intention of reopening the property.
Lamantia, however, said Simon is sharing their projected time lines for reopening. He declined, however, to share those projections. Simon has been tight lipped about its reopening projections since the May flood, and did not mention the August 2011 date until it had filed suit. A call to a Simon spokesperson has not yet been returned.
Lamantia said the mall “absolutely” will reopen. “And it’ll be bigger and better than it ever was,” he said.
Work on the Off Broadway store will be handled by Management Resource Systems, Inc.
The next hearing in Simon’s insurance lawsuit is scheduled for Jan. 7.
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