Mall at University Town Center will see many firsts for stores
The Mall at University Town Center will be filled with retailers making their statewide and regional debuts.
Several stores offer something that can't be found for hundreds of miles, if not across an ocean. These retailers will serve as a destination driver, giving reason for someone to come from Fort Myers or Tampa. Eight stores will open their first Florida locations, with three of those retailers having their only U.S. locations here.
Soap Stories carries handmade soaps and lotions at a small site in suburban Toronto. They're a quiet operation with only a smattering of information available online about stores in Holland and Canada. Sarasota County will be the stateside debut for the shop, selling soaps for $12 each.
You can't get sushi on a conveyor belt other than from Yo! Sushi London. The mall will boast the only Yo! Sushi in the United States after two failed experiments in the nation's capital.
J.S. Trunk & Co. is a new name created by Hong Kong's Samsonite to showcase its top-end lines from American Tourister, High Sierra and Samsonite. This will be the first store in the U.S.
Milan's Moleskine, known for its minimalist notebooks and stationery used by Ernest Hemingway, saw the Mall at UTC as the best place to open its first store in the Southeast U.S.
Domestically, Diventi Bella is a fragrance and cosmetics store that is bringing its first Florida store to the Mall at UTC. Peter Elliot Blue is branching out of New York City with his first men's and boys shop outside of the city that never sleeps.
Even closer to home, Tina Goldfield of Odessa has seen her fashionable clothes in magazines and on celebrities, but her mission is for every woman to wear her clothes. She's opening her first Florida TINA Stephens boutique after opening in South Carolina this year.
For diners, Rise Pies will bring its first East Coast restaurant to the mall, and second in the U.S. It's a new pizza concept out of Boardman, Ohio, featuring flatbread pizzas baked in three minutes.
Sophie's at Saks will be the first Sophie's on the East Coast and features an outdoor terrace. The first one launched at the Chicago Saks last year. The swanky setting will be the place to toast the new jobs, visitors and new residents the Mall at University Town Center is bringing.
Someone asked me how I'll celebrate the mall opening, having covered it extensively for the last year-plus. Maybe I can make this my first time having sushi by hitting up Kona Grill or Yo! Sushi -- or the first time I can walk into the Apple Store without buying something.
Now that's something worth toasting.
Charles Schelle, business reporter, is at 941-745-7095.
This story was originally published October 12, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Mall at University Town Center will see many firsts for stores."