Category Archives: Business

Nordstrom announces two new stores; one’s at The Galleria

Nordstrom logoThe hopes and dreams of area fashionistas were granted last week as Seattle-based Nordstrom announced that they had signed a letter of intent to open their first store in Alabama at The Riverchase Galleria. The announcement was one of two from the high-end department store on the day. They also announced plans to open a second Nordstrom in Minneapolis, MN; the company also operates a Nordstrom and a Nordstrom Rack at the Mall of America.

The folks at General Growth Properties must be extremely excited, as both of the new locations are in shopping centers owned by the publicly traded, Chicago-based company. The lucky cities may have to wait for a while before they can enjoy their new shopping destinations: the 143,000 square foot store at The Galleria is scheduled to open by Spring 2012; the folks in Minneapolis don’t have to wait quite as long for their new 172,000 square foot store at Ridgedale Center (Fall 2011). In both cases, the stores may open earlier.

Mountain High grand opening, Cahaba Village Plaza

The newest edition to the Mountain High family of stores is in Cahaba Village (the new shop/live development on Highway 280). They’ll celebrate their formal grand opening with giveaways and raffles from vendors like The North Face, Patagonia, Lole, Icebreaker and Simple shoes. There will also be in-store specials and a book signing by Russell Helms, author of 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Birmingham, from 1 – 2 p.m. The folks from Alabama Small Boats (temporarily moved from their their retail location in Helena) will have special pricing on select items as well.

Sounds like a plan to us!

Location:
Mountain High Outfitters
2800 Cahaba Village Plaza, Suite 250

Performa moves to finance BJCC entertainment district

BJCC complex aerial shot

An aerial view of the current BJCC complex. Photo credit: Bob Farley/f8photo

Performa Entertainment chief John Elkington said his company has enough interested tenants for the proposed BJCC Entertainment District for developers to move forward with financing the $50+ million project.

Elkington called the proposed district “a financially sound” project, now that at least 60 percent of the retail and restaurant spaces will be taken by the end of November. “We’re now switching letters of intent into leases,” Elkington said. “No one we have talked to has turned us down and said they don’t want to be here. That’s a good sign.”

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Birmingham Startup creates a CrossConneXion

CrossConnexion screenshot

Screen capture of CrossConneXion.com

The result of two weekends worth of hard work and gallons of coffee is up on the World Wide Web this morning. CrossConneXion is the product resulting from the first ever Birmingham Startup session. The blog tells a great story about the highs and lows associated with this type of event, including just what some others are thinking about it.

The Birmingham Business Journal posted a great wrap-up of the activities surrounding the creation of the site, the brain child of Jim Sutton, youth pastor at First Church Worship Center in Tarrant.

Travelogue: Birmingham Bombshells hits the road

I got an email earlier this morning about local photographer Angela Karen being featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The story focuses on Angela’s first trip outside of metro Birmingham with her Birmingham Bombshells business, which started about the time that Valentine’s Day hit last year.

She’s a graduate of that same art school in Savannah that I went to and is originally from the Magic City. It’s safe to say that some would see her work as serving a need not just for the servicemen overseas, but for the wives and families that have been left behind.

Everyone needs to check out the video that associated with the story, or at least check out Angela’s MySpace profile for the business and her other photographic work.

A little bit of everything on 2nd Avenue North

Urban Standard facade under construction

Photo credit: André Natta

Birmingham will soon have it’s own modern day mercantile as a recent string of downtown business openings continue. The sign covering the windows of 2320 2nd Avenue North seem to say it all. The business promises sandwiches, antiques, baked goods and home goods among other things (including one more location for free wifi access).

The one sign you can’t read is the one in the door saying that we all need to stop by come mid-November to see what Urban Standard will be like.

Lasers Edge announces it’s closing

I’ve been at the Birmingham Diversity Summit for most of the morning, so imagine my surprise when I learned that the Lasers Edge has announced that it’s closing its doors by the end of the year. The Birmingham News breaking news blog has more information about this shock to our local business community.

While we’d normally encourage you to visit their website for more information, but I’m going to lean towards insisting that you go down to the store in downtown Homewood and thank them for what they’ve meant to the local music scene.

According to the News’ post, the store will remain open until 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays but will begin opening at 11 a.m. instead of 10 a.m.