• Construction crews begin work on Cheesecake Factory at Tacoma Mall
• Dick’s Sporting Goods to take over former Forever 21 space
• Central Co-op closes, seeks new Tacoma home

By David Guest

Tacoma Daily Index editor

Construction crews have begun to transform the former Coldwater Creek and Sleep Number spaces at the Tacoma Mall into the Cheesecake Factory’s newest Puget Sound-area restaurant. The 8,900-square-foot restaurant – which will be able to serve 225 guests, with additional seating on an outdoor patio – is scheduled to open this winter.

“We are thrilled to have The Cheesecake Factory joining Tacoma Mall,” said Sarah Bonds, Director of Marketing and Business Development for Tacoma Mall. “The Cheesecake Factory is a compelling restaurant brand our shoppers and community will enthusiastically embrace, and they are a wonderful complement to our mall’s existing retailer selection.”

The Cheesecake Factory opened its first restaurant in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 1978 and has expanded to  nearly 200 restaurants in locations around the world, including Bellevue, Seattle and Tukwila.

Coldwater Creek closed four stores in the region in 2014 as part of a bankruptcy filing. The store emerged from bankruptcy as an online-only retailer. Sleep Number moved to another location in the Tacoma Mall which was previously occupied by Bose, which left the mall.

Dick’s Sporting Goods to open Tacoma Mall store next year

The recent closing of Forever 21 left 84,000 square feet of empty retail space at Tacoma Mall. It will remain vacant until fall 2017 when Pennsylvania-based sporting goods retailer, Dick’s Sporting Goods, takes over the major anchor space.

The store will be Dick’s sixth in Washington State, joining Puyallup, Renton, Issaquah, Marysville and Federal Way.

Forever 21, which has been attempting to downsize many of its large footprint stores nationally over the past two years, has publicly stated that it plans to reopen in a smaller space, but has not announced specific plans to do so in Tacoma.

Central Co-op closes, seeks new Tacoma home

The Central Co-op natural foods grocery store at 6th Ave. closed on July 18 after the board of trustees failed to reach agreement on lease terms with their landlord. The Tacoma store originally opened in 2011 as Tacoma Food Co-op which then merged with Central Co-op of Seattle in 2015.  The dozen or so employees at the Tacoma store were laid off.

“We remain committed to our South-Sound membership,” the co-op board said in a statement on their website. “Our co-op’s staff and trustees are focused on finding a new location for our Tacoma operations. Throughout this process we will continue to serve our South-Sound community with events, community partnerships, and regular co-op news updates.”