Southlake Mall attracts high-end restaurant, stores
By Karen Caffarini Post-Tribune correspondent February 8, 2012 2:44PM
Updated: March 11, 2012 8:35AM
HOBART — A trendy winery/restaurant, a high-fashion boutique and a tea bar will mark their Northwest Indiana debuts by opening in Westfield Southlake shopping center.
Cooper’s Hawk Winery Restaurant is slated to open in the summer, while Akira boutique and Teavana tea bar will open this spring, mall spokeswoman Lia Osburn said Wednesday.
“I think the addition of these three stores will bring something different to Northwest Indiana. It will bring here what people have had to travel to get,” Osburn said. “I’m very excited about these new shops.”
She said Cooper’s Hawk will open in the area formerly occupied by Ruby Tuesday and will be accessible from inside and outside the mall. She said the mall is in the process of moving other stores around to accommodate the restaurant, which will require more space than the previous eatery.
Cooper’s Hawk will include a restaurant serving contemporary American cuisine, a wine-tasting room and retail shop.
Cooper’s Hawk main production facility is in Countryside, Ill., where it makes more than 125,000 cases of wine each year for resale and use in its tasting rooms and restaurants.
The restaurant will bring an estimated 125 new jobs, with opportunities for employees to advance through a training and development program that includes several levels of wine education.
Walter Fisher, vice president of CH Construction, a construction arm of Cooper’s Hawk, said this will be the first of its restaurants inside a mall. Three of its other nine eateries are located on mall out lots.
The restaurant will occupy 9,100 square feet on the main floor, with another 3,000 square feet on the lower level for storage.
He said plans are for a July opening, with hiring to begin at the end of May.
Osburn said Akira will open within the next month. She said the boutique, which opened its first store in Chicago’s Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood, will open a store with the same concept, featuring high-fashion apparel and accessories from around the globe in its own label and some private-designer labels. She said the products will come in a variety of price points.
The store will be located on the upper level, between New York & Co. and The Limited.
Osburn said Teavana, which offers a tea bar featuring high-quality teas and tea-related gift items, will open soon after Akira. Started in Atlanta, the store has more than 150 locations in the United States and Mexico.
“Teavana will be a very pleasant surprise for people who are health conscious or simply love tea,” Osburn said.
She did not know how many employees the two stores would hire.
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