Westgate Mall Doesn't Walk Through Anymore. Here's What Opens Around It This Fall.

A plain wall now stands across the east end of Westgate Mall. For years you could walk inside the mall from the Baxter side to the Brainerd side without going outdoors. Since this summer, that route ends at the partition. The interior doorway into Ashley Furniture is closed off as well.

The wall isn't a temporary construction screen. It marks where the mall's layout changed for good. The space behind it is being finished as a store you enter from outside. In front of the mall, a drive-thru stand with no counter to walk up to has been set on the lot. Over the past year, the indoor hallway that used to hold a book sale, a bridge game and a string of small storefronts has been given over to retail you reach from your car.

The hallway that tied two cities together

Westgate Mall sits on the Baxter-Brainerd line, and its center walkway was the one indoor path between the two. In June, the Brainerd Dispatch reported that this connection is gone. Shoppers can no longer cross the mall end to end. Professional Nails still had an outside entrance while waiting to relocate, and Tradehome Shoes and other tenants had been moved west.

The east wing was already thinning out before the wall went up. Payless Shoes, GNC and Claire's had all closed in that stretch by the time a building permit came up for review in February. The Dispatch described the plan as one tenant taking "a major section of the mall," running west from Ashley Furniture. That tenant would also take over the center hallway and walkway.

In December 2011, the Dispatch reported that Westgate Mall Realty Group had bought the mall from DDR Corp. for $6.8 million.

What fills the east end, and how you get in

The tenant behind the wall is Ollie's Bargain Outlet. The store runs from Ashley's west into part of the former JoAnn Fabrics space, and it was renovated to have an outside entrance. Its grand opening is scheduled for Oct. 28. As of early October, crews were still stocking shelves.

The permit article gave no square footage for this location. Ollie's says its new stores generally run 25,000 to 35,000 square feet. Whatever the final size, the closed east-wing storefronts and their shared corridor are becoming one store with one outside door.

Until then, the rest of the former JoAnn space has a seasonal tenant. Spirit Halloween reopened there in early September. It also ran a season in the mall last year, so this is a return and not a new arrival.

What this means for parking:

• Ollie's is reached from the exterior entrance. You can't get to it from inside the mall.
• Ashley Furniture no longer has its interior mall doorway.
• Tradehome Shoes and other relocated tenants are now on the west side of the mall.
• Spirit Halloween is in the former JoAnn space for the season.

October happens mostly outside the building

Most of this month's new retail around the mall faces the parking lot. On the Fairview Road side, a 7 Brew drive-thru beverage stand has gone in out front. The Dispatch reported in September that the building is 510 square feet, takes orders by drive-thru only, and has no walk-up window or indoor seating. Its projected opening is Oct. 19, and the Dispatch reported 75 expected area jobs.

Across Baxter, the fall openings follow the same pattern:

Panera's details are set even without a date. It will be open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Cars will come in from Elder Drive and Forthun Road, using the private drive around the edge of the Costco lot. Landscaping crews were on site Sept. 30.

The 7 Brew and Ollie's dates were reported before those days arrived. Treat them as targets until the doors open.

Where the book sale and the bridge tables went

Two community groups met in the part of the mall that is now walled off.

The Friends of the Brainerd Library held their book sales in a space across from Tradehome Shoes. In February, the Dispatch said the sale "generated considerable foot traffic for the mall." That space was inside the Ollie's footprint, and the books were packed up in hopes of finding another spot in the mall. No new spot opened up. The group called its April 15–17 sale the last one until it finds a new home. In June, the Dispatch reported that the Friends were still looking and weren't accepting book donations until they had a site. None of the reporting since then names a new location. If you've been holding a box of paperbacks for them, the latest public word is still to wait.

The Duplicate Bridge Group also met in the construction zone. It stayed in the building and moved for now to the former Dairy Queen seating area inside the mall.

Both groups used the mall as a shared indoor room. The new layout has less of that room to give.

Downtown Brainerd is picking up the browsing

While Westgate shifts toward exterior doors and drive-thru lanes, several downtown Brainerd storefronts have filled with the kind of shops people walk into and browse.

Books and Botanicals opened Aug. 8 at 816 Front St., selling books, plants and gifts. Erica Bordwell opened it.

Dal Furniture and Restoration opened Oct. 1 on South Eighth Street, in the building that used to house Fusion Jewelry Studio. On Facebook, the business said it was opening the storefront after two years of working out of a garage. It also described what it plans to sell:

"The store will feature refurbished and restored furniture, antiques, vintage pieces, home décor, rugs, unique finds, and plenty of things you might not expect to find."

The Iron Horse is set to open Oct. 17 in the historic First National Bank building on South Sixth Street, with home décor, furniture and gifts. That building was home to Design Consign, a home-furnishings store that opened in 2012 and held its final retirement sale June 12–14. The storefront will reopen about four months after that sale, selling similar goods under a new name.

Downtown has had one departure. Visit Brainerd closed its South Seventh Street gift store on Aug. 22. Visitor information and the marketing office moved to 14410 Golf Course Drive, and some of the gift lines went to other local stores.

Put together, Baxter is adding coffee, bargain retail and a bakery-café you can get through a drive-thru or a door off the lot. Downtown Brainerd is adding vintage furniture, books and décor in old storefronts. For anyone who misses wandering the Westgate corridor on a cold afternoon, Front Street and South Sixth and Eighth streets now have three new places to browse.

At Ewing Real Estate Group, Mel Emery follows changes like these because they shape everyday life in the Brainerd Lakes Area, from which businesses open on the lot side of Westgate to which old downtown buildings fill back up. If you're curious how this fall's openings in Baxter and downtown Brainerd fit with your own plans, request a complimentary market valuation and we'll go through what's happening near you.