WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. Special to WPCNR  December 1, 2004, Updated DECEMBER 2, 2004: 10:00 A.M. E.S.T. : Monday evening, The Mills Corporation, owners of The Galleria,  introduced a plan for Common Council consideration to turn its Main Street frontage from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Sears into a string of four restaurants with entrances opening onto Main Street.

THE GALLERIA TODAY: ENERGIZING WEST MAIN STREET: A string of four restaurants is planned for the Main Street Galleria Mall frontage. The popular Florida restaurant, Bonefish Grill is likely to be the anchor eatery. Construction on the facade will take about eight months. The exterior will also features logos of various retailers on the inside. In right foreground is the Sears store. Photo

by WPCNR News.

THE GALLERIA TOMORROW: 21ST CENTURY GALLERIA LOOK:  Architect's rendering of the new Main Street facade of The Galleria, as presented Monday evening. In speaking with the architect, Wednesday, WPCNR learned from Kyle Tornow that there is a rental option which a prospective restauranteur could choose of having a two-story restaurant opening onto Main Street. Tournow added that in the future, Mills Corporation is planning a complete interior redesign of the Galleria, all three floors.  Rendering, Courtesy, PCA (Architects), Cambridge, MA.

The plan was presented by Galleria Manager Winnette Peltz and Jeremy Meredith, Associate Development Director of The Mills Corporation.  If the Common Council approves, they expect to complete the new look to Main Street a year from now. Construction is expected to begin in the spring.

Peltz said the opening of new apartments and condominiums and the expected new residents in White Plains was behind the concentration on new eateries. The Galleria currently features Todai, the Japanese seafood restaurant, accessible from Main. Todai would be joined by up to four new establishments.

The Bonefish Grill a chain known for large bars and seating capacity, is the leading candidate and anchor in the four-restaurant lineup to date. Emmigrant Savings Bank is expected to move its present Main Street location to within the mall.

Mills analysis of the current White Plains market lead them away from an original plan for a series of movie theaters and seven restaurants in the mall, citing the competition of the City Center Cinema De Lux.

The Galleria was last remodeled in 1993. The remodeling will introduce a new personality to "The G" in its twenty-fifth anniversary year.

The Bonefish Grill gives you a look between Legal Sea Food and Coughlins with lots of cherrywood decor. Cincinnati Magazine reviewer Dawn Simonds describes The Queen City Hyde Park Bonefish Grill as "one-third bar, tall communal tables, all masculine with burnished wood...a bank of booths." In the main dining area, Simonds describes it as a place where the busboys are in chef's whites who contribute to the atmosphere.

Should The Mills Corporation succeed in luring Bonefish to "The G,"  the restaurant should attract a more upscale crowd especially evenings to The Galleria, upgrading its interior attractiveness to retailers. For years The G has been known as the teen mall, catering to swarms of young people from 10 to their early twenties who frequented the economical Food Court fast food places,  the low end fashion boutiques, the costume jewelry stores, shoe stores and pop culture and sports gear establishments and bookstores that have done very well there.

Bonefish would give "The G" the possibility of bringing in quality clothiers and fashion boutiques a cut above the stores now occupying the premises to lure the expected influx of $2,000-and-up-a-month tenants and $1.5 Million-and-up Condo buyers filling up Trump Tower at City Center, and at the Cappelli-HotelCondoplex a block away, now beginning construction. 

The atmosphere of the mall has been traditionally lower middle class, but neat, functional and customer friendly. It certainly has the best parking in White Plains. Now with the Bonefish, should Mills net them, they will have a popular, proven successful restaurant for the first time to bring in $25-a-plate spenders.

The Bonefish is a big fish on the Mills Corporation line, and they need to land them.

BONEFISH GRILL features long tables, convivial atmosphere and is known as an unscale singles rendezvous. Photo Capture from the Bonefish Grill website by WPCNR WebCam.

Bonefish originated in Tampa Florida where it was so successful that Outback Steakhouse purchased it and has since opened 12 Bonefishes in Florida. The decor features Florida scenes and romances the seafood fare which is described as being flown in daily. For a preview of Bonefish, go to www.bonefishgrill.com.