Mall entrance beckons

By Heidi Prescott
SouthBendTribune.com

The doors are somewhat hidden amid the construction surrounding it, and the fountains are muffled by drills and saws, but as mall shoppers walk inside they stop in their tracks.

The smell hits you first, the overpowering aroma of flooring and furniture and block. Your eyes catch up a breath or two later and the sun and clouds cast shadows on your skin through towering walls of windows. The gray textured flooring curves, leading shoppers into center court.

Warm. Comfortable. Inviting. These are some of the adjectives University Park Mall shoppers Friday used to describe the entrance that formally opened that morning. The event carried no fanfare, no mall managers unveiling this part of the redevelopment project in a press conference. Every now and then a construction worker in the future Barnes & Noble peeked through a window to see if people admired their work.

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