"Shoppes at Aurora" update
Here's a first look at the new "Shoppes at Aurora" strip mall currently being built on the south side of Grand Forks. The 20,410 square foot mall will be located directly north of the Aurora Medical Park complex and will face South Washington Street.
As far as potential tenants, I've heard that there will likely be some sort of restaurant in the mall. One chain that I have heard mentioned is called Souplantation (Wikipedia article). Anything special you would like to see in this strip mall? Any other rumored tenants that you know of?
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I'll bet you ten bucks it's not that one Italian chain everyone keeps talking about...umm, what was the name of it? The Olive Depot?
I would be kind of suprised if it ended up being Souplantation, as it appears their closest location would be several states away. It would be an interesting concept, though. I am excited to see that land develop in the long term, especially after the hospital is completed and more people are headed down to that area.
Souplantation would be great, they are more focused on salad and soups than the buffet style selection of various foods that you find at Golden Corral.
I had also heard that there was going to be an Olive Garden which would be O.K., I guess... Olive Garden is basically cheap Italian Food, low in quality, taste and price. Their focus is selling vino, which makes up the majority of their profits. And yes, the Wine is just as cheap in quality as the cardboard tasting breadsticks.
In any event, I think that its great that these type of restaurants are starting to come into Grand Forks! They will not only bring economic stimulation but more variety. I love to see Grand Forks growing at the rate it is!
I would love to see more then anything to see a Dave & Buster's!!! I could eat, drink and play all day!! That way no one would ever be able to say "Gee golly, there is nothing to do, whaaaa!" I despise that comment, there are so many things to do people are just to lazy to look. Dave & Buster's!! Dave & Buster's!! Ya!!!
Souplantation would be a welcome addition -- a nice healthy alternative, that also has some good sweets from the bakery. At least, that was the case at the one in Los Angeles. I, too, would be a little surprised to see one here, but it would make me happy.
This town does not need more buildings. Plenty of vacant buildings all over the place.
Sure would be nice to revitalize Washington & Demers...
anonymous said...
Olive Garden is a GREAT restaurant!! The food is fantastic and the people are very nice. Evidently you have never been to one. I would love it if Olive Garden vame to GF.
They should stick a Dunkin' Donuts in that strip mall...
We are too small of a town yet for an Olive Garden, look at the website. I already email. Sorry everyone.It would be nice though.
~ Blondie~
Even if GF was getting an Olive Garden, it wouldn't be located that far off the intersate. We should be hoping for a better place than Olive Garden, though. Ever had Carino's? or Doolittles?
O.K. people please answer this for me: How can we not have a Bagel Shop in Grand Forks? Or a Jamba Juice? This is a college town, what the heck!
O.K. people please answer this for me: How can we not have a Bagel Shop in Grand Forks? Or a Jamba Juice? This is a college town, what the heck!
there is a Juice joint coming to grand forks... I think i read about it on grand forks life... its going to be in the strip mall up by the ralph just east of suite 49
Aren't there enough empty retail outlets already?
This rush to build build build is so stupid. The strip mall by Kohl's is not even fully rented out - why? I guess there are FINALLY enough cell phone places in town!
The north end of town is dying and the south end is exploding with imaginary necessity. In five years all the strip malls will be vacant and won't we regret building them then.
An Oriental Massage Parlour would be nice.
All it'll take is for Wal-Mart or Target to build on Gateway Drive betw. N. Washington and the airport to get things moving north.
I dont know where your hearing this at GFG, I know first hand that they are trying to attract tertiary clinic/medical tennants.
I have heard that a medical supply company is already a go. They are also pursuing, dental, optometry, chiropractic.
Just what i heard.
"An Oriental Massage Parlour would be nice."
There's one on Washington near EIDE (at least I think that's where I saw the sign)
The community needs to step up and demand the city to promote growth community-wide. It would be nice to shake the norm of almost every city in this country that practices urban sprawl at the cost of the original areas.
My dream strip mall would be based on The Avenues in the Atlanta area. I was at the one in Peachtree City during spring break, and it was FABULOUS! Of course, it was a lot of chain stores like any strip mall, but there was a really good mix of upper end stuff like Banana Republic and more regular stores like American Eagle and Books-a-Million.
Didn't we have two Orange Julius' in Columbia Mall at one point? I loved not having to walk all the way across it to get my fix!
Grand Forks also used to have a bagel shop, New York, New York downtown right next to the Empire. I don't know exactly why it closed down, but the bagels were wonderful.
It seems to me that chains do much better here than locally owned business. Take New York, New York for example- it was open for quite a while, the people of Grand Forks didn't make it worth the business owner's while to keep doors open, then the people of Grand Forks complain that there is no bagel place in GF.
Thoughts on that, anyone?
In regards to the rumor of a juice shop(BEYOND JUICE)opening in town, I can say with certainty that there will be one opening within 1-2 months at the latest. JUST A QUICK COMPARISON for the ones who like Jamba Juice and know what it is. It is like Jamba Juice, only their smoothies are USDA approved to be everything you need for a one meal serving. Give it a chance - I'm sure you'll like something that they have to offer. With that in mind, it WILL be in the new strip mall by Suite 49. It WILL have a drive thru. There WILL be more than just smoothy's "meal in a cup" to choose from (fresh sandwiches, soups, waffles, pure juices and some deserts). For more info on what BEYOND JUICE is really about, please check out www.beyondjuice.com and look at the menu and why/how Beyond Juice came to be, OR if you are out at this weekends Home and Garden Show at the Alerus stop by their booth that will be set up.
They have active locations in Bemidji, Minneapolis, & Park Rapids (MN). Locations comings soon besides GF, will be Fargo, ND; Alexandria, MN; Brainard, MN; Detroit Lakes, MN; and Duluth, MN.
Thanks for letting me fill your head with my small bits of knowledge......
"It seems to me that chains do much better here than locally owned business"
I was thinking that just the other day too, which is a little sad.
At times, I'm still surprised (and absolutely glad though) that Dakota Harvest is still around. It's quickly become my favorite place to eat here.
I'm guessing the success of chains tends to revolve around their (or the franchisees') ability to buy the best land and take advantage of already proven business models.
Chain success just comes down to expectations. A person knows that if they go to a major chain...ok, if I have to, lets say Olive Garden, they are going to get a decent tasting meal for a decent price while both of those things aren't necessarily certain when you go to a local place with no name recognition.
Expect to see an Orange Julius on S. Washington in the Dairy Queen building.
I rarely go to that part of Grand Forks. There are so many empty spaces in the other strip malls all over town. I personally don't like having to drive to each location to shop so other than going to the cell phone store (again, rarely) I avoid them. I would guess in another 5 years we'll be building malls again when people in climates like ND realize how dumb strip malls actually are.
Yep, no juice place needed, or a books store that is open intill 11 like the other Barnes N Nobles in the wrold, i can't belive that book store is made JUSt for the the collage students books. Just another Subway i guess, or empty building. =-P
Has any local bagel shops ever served homemade NY style bagels, i.e., boiling them before baking them so the inside is light and fluffy while the outside is crusty? It's not a complicated process, I just doubt that anyone around here went to the trouble of finding out.
That is correct, Dale. The other problem was that NY NY was probably ahead of their time. If you put that same restaurant in that same location now that downtown has many more residents and shops, it may do much better for the long-term.
The biggest reason NYNY closed was an untenable situation with their landlord.
That building wasn't the best, either. If they had a spot similar to what porpoura or dakota harvest has right now, they'd probably be thriving.
So your saying DQ on S. Washington is going to incorporate an Orange Julious in there already tiny DQ building..... Two franchises together in one lil building? Please clarify better. Got me interested when I thought ice cream and fresh orange juice.... that would be a killer float....YUM.
So what does Grand Forks have that Fargo doesn't?
NYNY had great bagels and the proprieters were good people. We would go for lunch there on a Saturday and more often than not we would leave with a bag of fresh bagels, gratis. I was pissed when that place closed down.
I'm still bummed that Shangrila and Krispy Creames are no longer around!!! Especially Shngrila, I still crave thier food. Is there any place in town thatis someawhat like it in taste?
go to wal-mart and buy some alpo...that should be close to shangri-la
Didn't NYNY resnt from some attorney?
(99% of attorneys give the rest a bad name.)
The NYNY location was a joke from the get-go. The property owners wanted some of the post flood grant money. So, they pursued the restaurant space facade. If I recall correctly, a law office was eligible for 50K in grant funds, and a foodservice operation was eligible for 250K. So, what they ended up with was a relatively small commercial building with law offices in back, restaurant seating for about 8-12 up front, and a MASSIVE kitchen in the middle. I’m exaggerating about massive kitchen. It was a kitchen capable of servicing a restaurant of about 200 seats. Which is fine if you factor in the fact that they’re catering off premises, which they weren’t. There were several ridiculous post flood Gov decisions; the downtown grant zone was one of the worst and most divisive of all. A bigass commercial kitchen in a law office, give me a break.
Yup, must have been attorney's then. :-)
anon @ 4:10... You're so right. I could never understand how Howe and Seaworth got all that money to build a coffee shop in their law office. If those figures are correct, now it makes "bad" sense. I thought funds were to help rebuild businesses, not support development. I think they ran a coffee shop themselves at first, then leased to the bagel shop. I also heard that they wanted more of cut in the bagel shop. Someone should have been clipped upside the head for letting them steal money from flood grants. I know of other cases where developers from Fargo got a lot of money to build for "fake tenants" who never did move in. I realize things were chaotic in those days but some greedy folks really got away with a lot.
I thought New York New York was going to reopen in EGF but since the mall over here was full of paying tenants...
How does a person find out who got paid what after the flood?
I heard a certain city employee that got paid a bunch of money to negotiate buyouts. Or I should say his company got paid while he was employed by the city
Dairy Queen and Orange Julius are owned by the same company. Dairy Queen is trying to require all DQ's to go to the DQ restaurant model or the DQ/Orange Julius chill model. Some DQ owners are trying to sue the parent company due to the amount of money that is required to be invested. Go to small town MN/ND, etc. and you'll see that some Dairy Queens have changed names to be local instead of the franchise name.
anon@8:54
I've been eating at the china garden on 32nd some lately, and they have very comparable consomme soup as the old shangri-la. I was sad when I saw they weren't around anymore too :(
China garden's food is pretty good, but it's not the same.
I would advise this town and businesses to revitalize and remodel existing vacant structures in town or tear them down and build over. We also need a gigantic dome over this city to sheild us from the long and bitter winters here. It's too fricking cold here in the winter and for too damn long.
I totally second the fact about winter in this area & still ponder why I put up with it!
Rumour has it that Panera Bread will be opening in Fargo very soon. And no, I'm not joking.
Half Price Books? That would be a nice addition.
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