Sarasota Square Mall

H&M opened its second store in Southwest Florida at Westfield Group’s Sarasota Square Mall.

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For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Teen apparel retailer, American Eagle Outfitters, closed its store in Sarasota Square Mall.

The retailer closed last week. The chain has stores nearby in the Mall at University Town Center and the Port Charlotte Town Center. It also has an outlet store at the Ellenton Premium Outlets in Manatee County.

American Eagle closed unexpectedly, though the chain recently opened the store in the Mall at UTC late last year. H&M, another apparel chain known for its discount prices on men and women fashions, will open an 18,000-square-foot store at Sarasota Square on May 14.

A handful of stores have closed in Sarasota Square Mall recently, including Wet Seal, another clothing chain, GNC, a vitamin store, Rampage Girl, RadioShack and GameStop.

rue21 opened in Sarasota Square last week. Old Navy and F21 Red are expected to open this summer.

Photo by Diane Creamer

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

H&M, a Swedish international apparel brand known for its discount prices on trendy apparel for young men and women, will open its second store in Sarasota County inside Westfield Group’s Sarasota Square Mall on May 14.

To celebrate the grand opening, the Sarasota Square H&M store will offer the first 200 shoppers in line an H&M T-shirt and an “access to fashion pass,” valued between $10 to $300 in store credit.  The new store at Sarasota Square Mall spans over 18,000 square feet.

H&M opened its first store in the Southwest Florida market in the Mall at University Town Center.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

GNC, a vitamin and supplement retail chain, closed its store in Sarasota Square Mall.

A sign posted at the entrance of the otherwise dark storefront on Wednesday urged shoppers to visit GNC’s three other locations in the Sarasota area, which include two stores in Venice and another in University Park.

GNC is the latest in a slew of retail brands that vacated the Westfield Group mall recently.  Lunar Golf and Rampage Girl closed earlier this month. GameStop closed and RadioShack closed before that. Delia’s, a fashion apparel chain for young women, closed when the chain  liquidated all stores and files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month.  Wet Seal, another women’s fashion retailer, closed in January too.  Pita Pit, a restaurant near the mall’s food court, also shuttered.

Westfield Group did announce that Old Navy, rue21 and Burger King will open this year inside Sarasota Square Mall.  H&M, a retailer known for its  discount prices on trendy apparel for young men and women, will also open a store in Sarasota Square Mall later this year.  The additions  are the first signs of change at Sarasota Square since Costco Wholesale took over the former shell of Dillard’s in 2012.

Photo by Diane Creamer

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Radioshack is closing hundreds of stores, including several in Southwest Florida, in the wake of filing for bankruptcy protection last week.

The consumer electronics chain, which has struggled in recent years,  will close more than 1,700 stores nationwide.

Stores closing in the Southwest Florida region include: 

-5808 Bee Ridge Rd., Sarasota

– The Landings, 4850 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota

-Sarasota Square Mall, 8501 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota

– Jacaranda Crossing Plaza, 4311 S. Tamiami Trail, Venice

– Port Charlotte Town Center, 1441 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte

The Fort Worth, Texas-based chain is nearly a century old and operates around 4,000 company-owned stores and 1,000 dealer franchise stores across the country. However, sales have been declining for years.  Earlier this month, the retailer signed an asset purchase agreement with General Wireless Inc., an affiliate of Standard General L.P., to acquire between 1,500 and 2,400 of Radioshack’s stores.

 “These steps are the culmination of a thorough process intended to drive maximum value for our stakeholders,” said Joe Magnacca, RadioShack’s chief executive officer.

The Sarasota Square Mall store announced it was closing in January.

AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Old Navy, rue21 and Burger King will open this year inside Sarasota Square Mall.

Burger King is the latest restaurant chain to open in Sarasota Square Mall’s food court. The restaurant is currently under construction and is expected to open on Feb. 20.

Old Navy, a family clothing retailer which filed building permits with Sarasota County in November, will open a 13,500-square-foot store, is expected to open this fall.

Old Navy closed its Sarasota location inside the Sarasota Pavilion shopping center near Gulf Gate in 2012. The space was vacant for more than two years, where it housed a Spirit Halloween store for a few months around the holidays before Bealls Oulet took over the space in 2014.

The San Francisc0-based company is owned by Gap Inc., which operates brands like Gap and Banana Republic. Old Navy has another store at 117 N. Cattleman Rd., in the University Park area.  Old Navy used to operate a store inside Desoto Square Mall Mall, too.

rue21, which sells apparel and accessories for young women, will open a store in Sarasota Square Mall this spring.

The apparel chain, known for its affordable prices on young women’s and men’s fashion pieces, filed building permits with Sarasota County this week to open its first Sarasota County store. rue21 operates more than 1,000 stores in 47 states, including an outlet store inside the Ellenton Premium Outlets and a storefront at the Westfield Brandon Town Center.

The company opened a store at the Port Charlotte Town Center in March. rue21 plans to open 120 stores across the country  in the next year.

rue21 follows H&M, another retailer known for its  discount prices on trendy apparel for young men and women, to announce opening a store inside the Westfield Group mall.  The addition of two new retailers are the first signs of change at Sarasota Square since Costco Wholesale took over the former shell of Dillard’s in 2012.

“We strive to deliver the latest and best retail offerings for our shoppers,” said Jim Ralston, general manager of Westfield Sarasota Square. “With the addition of H&M, rue21 and Old Navy in 2015 we will continue to provide our shoppers with the latest and best options in retail.”

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Rampage Girl, a girl’s fashion chain, and Lunar Golf, a putt-putt golf attraction, are the latest tenants to close inside Westfield Group’s Sarasota Square Mall.

Rampage Girl shuttered earlier this week unexpectedly, area shoppers report. The chain sold apparel and accessories aimed for teenage girls.

Lunar Golf was an indoor mini golf course known for glowing in the dark. The course was colorfully pained and shown under black light bulbs inside the mall near the Sears wing.

The mini golf tentant and Rampage Girl join several other retailers that have closed inside the south Sarasota mall lately. GameStop closed last week and RadioShack announced it will close its store soon . Delia’s, a fashion apparel chain for young women, closed when the chain  liquidated all stores and files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month.  Wet Seal, another women’s fashion retailer, closed in January too.  Pita Pit, a restaurant near the mall’s food court, also shuttered.

The Gulf Gate Library, which temporarily operated space in the mall, closed on Jan. 3 when its brand new facility at 7112 Curtiss Ave., opened.

Last year, Westfield Group announced that H&M, another discount apparel retailer, will open a 21,000-square-foot store inside the south Sarasota County mall. It was the first announcement of many to come for Australia-based mall operator, Westfield Group, which owns Sarasota’s Southgate Mall and Sarasota Square. H&M will open in the summer.

Old Navy and rue21 are expected to open inside the mall in 2015 as well.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.