March 30, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman WASILLA - Minneapolis-based Target Corporation has Wasilla in it sights.

And the site Target has chosen for its first Alaska store is the soon-to-be-vacant Cottonwood Creek Mall, a prime location at the crook of the Palmer-Wasilla and Glenn highways.

The mall's current proprietor, Browman Development Company of Oakland, Calif., has asked businesses to be out by April 20. Shortly after, Target plans to demolish the 20-year-old mall.

In place of the mall, Target will build a retail store as an anchor to a new outdoor mall complex. Target plans to open its Wasilla store late next year, according to Wasilla Planning Commissioner Alvah Clark Buswell.

The announcement that Target is coming to town came as a sidenote at Tuesday's planning commission meeting during discussion of the redevelopment of the Cottonwood Creek Mall, Buswell said.

“The developers said ‘Oh, by the way, our main tenant is Target,'” he said. “They said they were just able to publicly release that.”

Buswell said the project comes as a whole unit development including satellite

buildings.

Jason Hamlin, president of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce, said Target and the structures to be built nearby “are going to bring a great presence to the area. They will revive that corner, such an important intersection of downtown Wasilla.”

“I think it's pretty exciting,” Hamlin said. “It shows Wasilla is doing a lot of things right.”

The new Target will attract other businesses and, through competition, will strengthen Wasilla's current offerings, Hamlin said.

“Along with new jobs, taxes from the new Target will add to the city's coffers,” Hamlin said.

Wasilla residents and reporters have rumored Target's arrival since before Browman purchased Cottonwood Creek last year.

Spokespersons for Target Corporation were unavailable for comment.

Target started in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Co. The first of the contemporary Target stores was opened in 1962 in Roseville, Minn. Its revenue is sixth largest among retailers. Target retail stores are now owned by Target Corporation with the stock ticker symbol TGT.

Wasilla's lack of open retail space has caused difficulties for some of Cottonwood Creek's displaced tenants as they try to find a new place to hang their open signs.

Casey Reynolds, Wasilla's economic development director, said he talked to a couple of tenants about trying to retain them in the area. They expressed their fear they would be unable to find a suitable location, Reynolds said.

“In general, we have a pretty tight commercial market for that kind of space,” he said.

Buswell said the big box store bodes well for Wasilla's place in the state.

“We beat Fairbanks, we beat Anchorage, we beat them all,” Buswell said. “We got the first Target.”

Also coming to Wasilla are Sportsman's Warehouse and Applebee's Restaurant. Meritage Development and Teton Investment Group are bringing the franchises to the Valley.

Contact Russell Stigall at

352-2267 or russell.stigall@ frontiersman.com