What the 24-year-old Edwards, a 2009  Bridgeport High School graduate, is excited about, is the opening of ULTA Beauty at the mall. An official grand opening will be held Friday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m. According to Meadowbrook Mall Property Manager Marcello Lalama, a soft opening began Friday, which is what has Edwards and others excited.

 

The new facility, which is located across from Elder-Beerman and covers nearly 10,000 square feet, has been described by mall officials and even city officials as one of the hottest names in the retail world. Edwards doesn’t disagree with that assessment.

 

“I would call myself an amateur makeup connoisseur and it’s really exciting because they have a full service salon. They also offer products you can get at places like a drug store and professional grade make up as well,” she said. “It’s all in one location.”

 

Lalama, who has been with the mall for decades, understands where Edwards is coming from. He said he’s been pleasantly surprised with just how positive everyone has been since this announcement.

 

“It’s certainly generated as much excitement as any store that we’ve ever had opening at the mall,” said Lalama. “ … Particularly, women are very excited because they carry so many different products at so many different price points. It really has generated a lot of participation from our customers.”

 

Lalama is anticipating a big crowd for the grand opening next Friday. He said they will have giveaways that will certainly add to the crowd that is expected.

 

“That’s been their history with grand openings and it seems to work well,” said Lalama.

 

And things are continuing to work well for the Meadowbrook Mall as its now well into its third decade of operation.

 

“The Mall is just about at complete capacity and is as healthy as it’s ever been. This new story took the spot of three former stores, two of which are at new locations,” said Lalama. “The only vacancies we have in the entire structure of just very small ones.”

 

ULTA Beauty describes itself as “the largest beauty retailer that provides one-stop shopping for prestige, massage and salon products and salon services in the United States. ULTA Beauty provides affordable indulgence to its customers by combining unmatched product breadth, value and convenience with the distinctive environment and experience of a specialty retailer.  ULTA Beauty offers a unique combination of over 20,000 prestige and mass beauty products across the categories of cosmetics, fragrance, hair care, skincare, bath and body products and salon styling tools. ULTA Beauty also offers a full-service salon and a wide range of salon hair care products in all of its stores.”

 

According to the Meadowbrook Mall’s Web site, you can pick up a free VIP Pass at the Mall’s Customer Service desk that is valid today through Oct. 29. You can get information on what that pass will allow at the service desk.

 

Edwards, who said she doesn’t regularly go to the mall, said that’s about to change. She also said something’s about to change for the upcoming holiday season as well.

 

“The mall will now be a regular visit to me,” she said. “I guess I can go ahead and tell my family they’ll be getting gifts from ULTA this year.”

 

Editor's Note: The front of the new ULTA store is shown above, while Mall Property Manager Marcello Lalama is shown below.