Westdale Mall nearing completion of first buildings of renovation, moving on to infrastructure

As the first new buildings at Westdale near completion, the $90 million redevelopment project is focusing on infrastructure for future tenants.

Chick-fil-A, 2610 Edgewood Rd. SW, will open on Aug. 12, according to Amgad Zaghloul, the restaurant's owner-operator. Crews have been working holidays, nights and weekends to complete the construction work on the Edgewood Road SW perimeter of the 72-acre site development.

'Chick-fil-A is ahead of schedule,” said Lisa Rowe, vice president of Frew Development Group and Westdale general manager. 'We are working to get the sidewalks poured. They will need to be ready for the restaurant's occupancy permit.”

U.S. Bank has notified customers that its new Westdale office at 2510 Edgewood Rd. SW will open at 9 a.m., Sept. 14. The building will replace the financial institution's existing branch at 2350 Edgewood Rd. SW.

Dawn Foster, U.S. Bank branch manager, said the entire vault of safe deposit boxes will be moved on Sept. 11. If a safe-deposit box contains anything fragile, customers have been advised to remove it before the move.

Rowe said the traffic lights at the southern entrance to Westdale next to Chick-fil-A have been installed and should be operating in the next couple weeks. She said sidewalks along Edgewood leading to the crosswalks should be ready by the time the signals are operating.

Rowe said construction has begun on the remodeled entrance to J.C. Penney that faces Williams Boulevard SW. The project is part of a $3.5 million interior and exterior remodeling of the store.

A new entrance and facade for J.C. Penney will be constructed facing Edgewood. After that entrance and parking lot opens, Rowe said work will shift to demolition of the former J.C. Penney tire and battery addition.

A new portion of the Westdale interior ring road has been constructed to the Williams Boulevard SW entrance, which will open by the end of July. The entrance has been extended to the new ring road to provide additional space for perimeter lots along Williams.

'The pad sites between the Williams Boulevard entrance and Edgewood Station have been graded and are ready for development,” Rowe said. 'The pad sites west of the Williams Boulevard entrance toward Wiley Boulevard SW will be finished this fall.

'The 29th Avenue SW entrance and the ring road up to Younkers should be poured and open by the middle of August. We're also hoping to get some of the interior roads done this year.”

Construction could begin yet this year on several buildings near a planned park area in the project, she noted.

'Hopefully we can get some foundations in yet this fall and start construction as soon as possible next year,” she said. 'We would like to see some of the buildings occupied by mid-2016.”

Edgewood Partners, the developer of a 12,500-square-foot retail center on the Edgewood perimeter of Westdale has signed two tenants - Wingstop, a Dallas-based restaurant chain focused on chicken wings, and Salt Lake City-based AT&T/Spring Mobile, a subsidiary of retailer GameStop that sells AT&T phones and mobile service.

Dave Drown of developers Edgewood Partners said four additional tenants should be announced in coming weeks. He said design and preleasing activity has begun on a second building nearby.