Rebecca Susmarski The Register-Mail

GALESBURG A hair salon, a Mexican restaurant and a jewelry store are only three of the businesses expected to move into the strip mall on North Seminary Street after its construction.

Hair Cuttery, Kay Jewelers, Mi Casa Mexican Cuisine, AT&T and Hibbett Sports all plan to move into the property, said Joe Rayfield, director of leasing and property management for the strip malls developer, Horne Properties. The strip mall will have room for a sixth business that has not yet been selected, and Rayfield said many restaurants have expressed an interest due to the drive-through capability at the site.

The city of Galesburg could only confirm that Kay Jewelers will be moving in, since it has not yet received building plans from any of the other stores, but Rayfield said the tenants should probably be opening in mid- to late-May.

At the end of March or first of April, all of [the stores] should be starting to submit for permitting, Rayfield said.

The city issued a building permit for the strip mall on Nov. 7 of last year, and construction work began shortly after that, said Matthew Carlson, building inspector for the City of Galesburg. The winter weather delayed the installment of the buildings footings, but Rayfield said things have been going well with construction since then.

The buildings foundations have been installed and its exterior walls are currently being erected. Carlson didnt have a timeline for the constructions completion nor when the strip malls stores will open, since interior work could be extensive or minimal depending on what the stores request, he said.

A mixture of veteran Galesburg businesses and new ones are expected to find homes in the strip mall. Jeff Gray, vice president of real estate for Hibbett Sporting Goods Inc., confirmed that Hibbett plans to move from its current location in Sandburg Mall to the strip mall by July.

The Galesburg Hibbett location, which opened in 2001, had been considering a location change within the city even before the mall announced its closing plans.

Were always looking at options to see if we can better position our stores, and the mall had struggled for the past couple of years in keeping tenants, Gray said. It just made sense to find an alternative location.

Mi Casa Mexican Cuisine will be a new addition to Galesburg and serve as a sister business to the original restaurant in Aledo. Owner RaeAnne Hernandez, who grew up in Aledo and started the business with her husband seven years ago, said the original restaurant was doing so well that she wanted to expand.

Hernandez has not yet signed a lease for the second location, but the strip malls position on North Seminary Street proved to be a considerable plus when she looked for a new place to settle.

That area of Galesburg is really growing and we wanted to be a part of that, Hernandez said.

The final strip mall will be slightly more than 17,000 square feet in length and formed in an L shape. The south end cap of the strip mall is the portion still available, Rayfield said.

He also plans to start another phase of development on that land in late 2017 or early 2018. Horne Properties has already developed the Wal-Mart and Menards on that land, and sold the land that Kohls, Pet Supplies Plus and Shoe Carnival have developed.

It depends on the interest were able to accumulate, but probably [it will be] another similar sized building of what were doing now, Rayfield said of the future development.

Rebecca Susmarski: (309) 343-7181, ext. 261; rsusmarski@register-mail.com; @RSusmarski

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Seminary Square strip mall a work in progress - Galesburg Register-Mail