Oak Park Mall welcomed 3 additions last week

Last week was a busy one for Oak Park Mall, and holiday shopping hasn’t even started.

Between Friday and Saturday, three new stores opened: Gypsy Imports and Consignment, Land of Dreams Three-Day Mattress and a glass jeweler called Piece by Piece.

“I am just absolutely ecstatic about these new stores that are opening,” said Shan Kehret, marketing director at the mall. “I think they’re going to be a really huge asset to the mall and the community.”

The new stores will offer a new variety of products.

“There are neat and unique things different from your box stores,” she said.

Gypsy Imports will be open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“She takes in used [clothing for all ages,] but she has new, decorative items as well,” Kehret said.

Land-O-Dreams Three-Day Mattress, which is based out of Rochester, will offer mattresses, sofas, chairs, end tables and other furniture. It specializes in mattresses that can be flipped and memory foam bedding.

Like the name suggests, the store will be open three days a week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Austin location will be an extension of the Rochester headquarters.

Sheila Van Osdel and Tessa Smith opened Piece by Piece on Saturday, a retail store which sells an assortment of handmade glass jewelry, decorative glassware and some brass items. Eventually, they hope to add greeting cards, bookmarks to benefit non-profits, and possibly candles and stained glass.

“We’ve both wanted to do it for a long time,” Van Osdel said in August.

On Oct. 9, the refurbished furniture store Willow Cove opened. Jill Jones, who co-owns the store with Amy Cooper, described their business as décor consignment, or taking small, unwanted pieces and transforming them.

“We’ve been doing it for so long, we decided Austin needed that,” Jones said in August. “There’s clothing consignment. Why can’t there be furniture consignment?”

Kehret said the first month of business has gone well for that store.

“They’ve been doing just really, really well,” she said.

With the new shops, the mall has 28 storefronts open, although it lost its only two restaurants — Ole Barn BBQ and J&K Restaurant — on Oct. 15. Still, the mall has added 12 shops in 2012 and only lost the two restaurants, giving it a net gain of 10 this year.

— Adam Harringa contributed to this report.

 

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly said a project to fix potholes in the mall parking lot has not yet taken place. That project has been completed. The Herald regrets this error.