Northshore Mall’s Brookstone set to reopen

PEABODY – Renovations to the Northshore Mall are moving along quickly and another store is scheduled to re-open Friday.Specialty retailer Brookstone, which underwent major reconstruction over the past month, will open with a fresh new look Friday. The New Hampshire-based store won’t be any bigger, but certainly a lot brighter, said the store’s director of communications Robert Padgett. The new concept first debuted in one of their New Jersey stores last year and received a great response from customers.”This was an old store for us,” said Padgett. “(The store) had not been remodeled for a while?It’ll be an amazing transformation.”The new store will follow a white-bright theme, with white floors and white light fixtures, a dramatic contrast to the older wood-paneled décor that most customers grew used to.”From an aesthetic point of view, it’ll be a much brighter, more inviting Brookstone than (customers) have experienced in the past,” Padgett said.Several other projects are coming to a finish at the mall, as well, such as the recent improvements to the food court. The once dated dining area now boasts a sophisticated entrance, sleek Spanish and Italian tiled floors, renovated restrooms, and a new ceiling, full of windows and trendy hanging light fixtures that give the effect of natural light.New restaurants are also in the mix with local vendor the Shrimp Market opening its doors this spring. First to arrive, however, will be Denver’s Chipotle Mexican Grill, which will open May 20. The sit-down restaurant will have its own exterior entrance adjacent to Restoration Hardware.Keeping with dining, P.F. Changs China Bistro is still in the works with a scheduled opening for late this summer, as are renovations to Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Bertucci’s, and Legal Sea Foods.The fall will bring the affordable men and women’s clothing store H&M, a two-story, 40,000 square-foot Forever 21 (a first for Massachusetts), and the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store spin-off Hollister. The largest addition this fall, however, is the opening of a 165,000 square-foot wing featuring high-end, upscale retailers such as Sephora, Zara, and Teavana. Nordstrom’s will anchor the new wing once construction is complete in April of next year.”We’re embarking on a new era here at the Northshore Mall,” said Ronda Ivy McLeod, Area Director of Mall Marketing. “The addition of retailers such as Zara and Sephora underscores our position as one of the region’s premiere shopping destinations.”The Northshore Mall has been undergoing a three-phase renovation project since Filene’s closed its doors and Macy’s took over last year. McLeod said that the final phase will improve the aesthetics of the mall while also creating a more diverse and upscale retail mix.