More on Malls. . .

STORES’ May cover story (From Doom to Vroom) looks at the re-invention going on inside the traditional malls that dot the nation’s landscape. It concludes that despite doomsayers’ predictions, the shopping mall is not moving toward extinction; it’s undergoing much-needed changes that will enable survival.

It’s not just traditional malls that are in the midst of transformation. Strip malls and urban settings are also being modified to meet the needs of today’s ever-changing shopper. Here are some of the other projects worth keeping an eye on:

• The Westfield Group is negotiating with a supermarket to take over the space left by the closing of Robinsons-May in a mall in Escondido, Calif. Westfield, which has incorporated supermarkets into centers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, is also considering boosting the number of restaurants in the facility, adding theaters and a housewares store.

• Home Depot is opening at the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack, N.Y.

• Costco Wholesale clubs are anchoring malls in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Fredericksburg, Virginia.

• Xanadu, the long-delayed mall project slated for New Jersey’s Meadowlands, will reportedly feature 4.5 million sq. ft. of retail, office, hotel and entertainment space, as well as the largest Ferris wheel in North America, indoor skiing and snowboarding, skydiving jumps, indoor surfing and its own rail line.

• The Galleria Mall in Cleveland is turning dark space into a massive urban greenhouse project. Gardens Under Glass will sell the hydroponic produce it raises to a café and grocery inside the mall.

• A 23,000-sq.-ft. space in Dayton, Ohio’s Washington Park Plaza that once housed a Steve & Barry’s is now home to Bridal-N-Tux, the online company’s first bricks-and-mortar unit.

• In New York City, an historic church and former nightclub is now the Limelight Marketplace, a collection of 80 restaurants, specialty food shops and high-end stores.

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida opened a store in the shopping plaza in Pembroke Pines, Fla., to sell health insurance to a burgeoning number of retirees and small business owners.