Buckland Business Brief: July 2024

 Evergreen Walk Openings: 
-J Crew Factory plans to open a new location at The Shops at Evergreen Walk! The store would be a lower-priced version of the clothing store, opening in the old Coldwater Creek space. The space has been vacant since Coldwater Creek closed in 2014, except for a seasonal residency of Go Calendar.The store would occupy 5,960 square feet; completely renovating the space for the new retailer. J Crew previosuly had a store at the outdoor mall; the space was two doors down from their proposed location. Their old location is now home to Higher Ground Core.

-Little Bird Clay Company is now open at The Shops at Evergreen Walk! The make-your-own pottery shop is open next to Kung Fu Tea near LL Bean. Check out their website here: www.littlebirdclayco.com/

-MySalonSuite is now open at The Shops at Evergreen Walk! The salon suite facility is located next to Carhartt at the outdoor mall. The facility is filled with many small businesses including hair salons, lash studios, and more. 

-La-Z-Boy is coming soon to The Shops at Evergreen Walk! The store will occupy the former Pier 1 Imports store that closed in 2020. La-Z-Boy will relocate from their location at 233 Buckland Hills Drive in Manchester. The new store will be 11,684 square feet, about 8,000 square feet smaller than their current 19,750 +/- square foot store.

-Stretchlab is coming soon to The Shops at Evergreen Walk! The stretching studio will occupy 1,542 square feet of space next door to Emerald City Smoothie. No timeline has been announced for the studio's opening. 

-A new national tenant is planned for The Shops at Evergreen Walk! We are waiting for comments from Evergreen Walk and the store's PR contact before we post the name. Trust us, it'll be amazing!

-Work is still progressing on the new development in front of Costco! The development will be home to Chipotle, Starbucks, Sally's Apizza, and an available space. Look for Chipotle to open this fall, Starbucks sometime this winter, and Sally's TBD. 


The Shoppes at Buckland Hills Openings:
-Spirit Halloween is coming back to the former Sears at The Shoppes at Buckland Hills! The seasonal Halloween store will open on the lower level of Sears at 190 Buckland Hills Drive, according to permits filed with the building department. Customers will enter through the entrance next to the old auto center. The store is expected to open in early fall, possibly as early as next month. They will stay open through the Halloween season and close shortly after the holiday.

-Amyah's Nail Bar is coming soon to The Shoppes at Buckland Hills! The nail salon will open next door to the Funny Bone on the first level, filling the long vacant 90's Nail Spa. 

-King Jewelers is coming soon to The Shoppes at Buckland Hills! The jewelry store will open in the former Soft Petalz space on the first level near Gong Cha. This will be King Jewelers second location, their other location is at The Holyoke Mall in Holyoke; the store previously operated a location at Westfarms Mall.  

-Soft Petalz has relocated their cosmetic store at The Shoppes at Buckland Hills! The store has relocated from the first level in the center court to the former Sunglass Hut space near the food court! Make sure you check them out!

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Other Buckland Hills Openings:
-Raising Cane's is close to finalizing a deal to open a Manchester location! The site of the restaurant will be on Buckland Street; though we were not given an exact addres  for the new building. This would be the fifth Raising Cane's in Connecticut behind Enfied, Simsbury (opening in September), Milford (coming soon), and Wethersfield (coming soon.) 

-Hobby Lobby plans to relocate their Manchester store to the former Christmas Tree Shop location at 120 Hale Road! The retailer has signed a lease for the old Christmas Tree Shop, a roughly 57,000 square foot space. The new store will be about 15,000 square feet larger than their current location near Home Depot. No word yet on what might open in their old location once they vacate. The store opened its doors in Manchester in 2014; replacing a former Sports Authority store at 241 Buckland Street. The store is aiming to open in the new location in Spring 2025.
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-Teriyaki Madness is now open at 172 Deming Street in Manchester! The new fast-casual restaurant sells Asian-fusion cuisine including chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, orange chicken, chicken katsu, tofu, noodles. Their sides include edamame, rice, crab rangoon, potstickers, and eggrolls. This is the third Connecticut location for the chain. They recently opened locations in Hamden and Enfield; with new locations coming soon in Avon and West Hartford.

​-Tint World is coming soon to 29 Pavilions Drive in Manchester! The shop specializes in customizing cars with window tints, car wraps, detailing, stereos, performance parts, and much more. The shop will open in the vacant Sleepy's/Mattress Firm building near Edge Fitness. The space will be renovated and the service bays added into the existing building. No timeline has been announced for their opening.

-Crazy Hot Deals and Liquidation Outlet are NOW OPEN in their new location at 169 Hale Road! The new stores share the former Babies R Us / Dick’s Warehouse Sale Store space on Hale Road. Crazy Hot Deals is a discount bin store; while Liquidation Outlet sells appliances, furniture, and more! Check them out! Crazy Hot Deals moved from a smaller space in the same plaza.

-Developers are planning a new development on the Krawski property at 120-150 Buckland Road, located next to Aldi. Citadel Property Advisors gave a presentation in front of the Economic Development Commission on June 26th. The group plans a new development featuring a new 120-room Marriott hotel, drive up & walk up coffee chain, a senior living facility, possibly a bank, and an additional 3,600-3,800 square feet of additional retail space.
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-Playa Bowls has signed on to open a new location in The Fresh Monkee’s space at The Plaza at Buckland Hills! No timeline has been announced for their opening. The shop serves açaí bowls, smoothies, and juices.

-Pokémoto Hawaiian Poke Bowls is coming soon to the old Sport Clips space at The Plaza at Buckland Hills! The restaurant serves poke bowls, similar to sushi but served in a bowl instead of a roll.

-Aroma Massage has started their build-out of their new Massage center. They will be located near Crumbl Cookies.

-Bank’s Oreck is now Vacuums & More. The shop now sells a variety of brands, instead of being exclusively Oreck vacuums. Check them out near Crumbl.


Closings:
-The Fresh Monkee, LLC has closed their Manchester location. The shake shop has relocated to 425 Talcottville Road in Vernon, the plaza with Planet Fitness and Great Harvest Bread Company. The shake shop has been located at The Plaza at Buckland Hills (1540 Pleasant Valley Road) since October of 2018.

-Big Lots at The Plaza at Buckland Hills is closing their doors! Store closing signs now drape the front of the store! No timeline has been announced for the closing sale duration. This location will close with their Milford and Waterford locations. All other 13 are safe from closure in this wave.

-Sport Clips Haircuts has left The Plaza at Buckland Hills. They were located between Five Guys and Noodles and Co. Stylists have relocated to other locations.

-Bob's Store is closing their store at The Shoppes at Buckland Hills! The clothing store opened in the former Dick's Sporting Good space in the holiday season of 2022. The store was under going an extensive remodel when the closing was announced. The retailer planned to add an EMS store, those plans now appear dead. 

-Hooters has closed their Manchester location after 2 decades of business. The restaurant was located at 1483 Pleasant Valley Road near Chick-Fil-A. 

-Waffle Cabin at The Shops at Evergreen Walk has closed their doors after just 6 months of business. The business was just a pop-up to my knowledge, similar to Dude's Donuts before them. The waffle and coffee shop was located in Evergreen Walk’s ‘The Green’, an outdoor recreation area. The shop opened to fanfare in early December, replacing Dude’s Donuts.​

-KBarb's has closed their boutique inside The Shoppes at Buckland Hills. The store was located next door to Charlotte Russe.