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Maureen Wallenfang
Appleton Post-Crescent
Published 7:05 PM EDT May 15, 2020
The Fox River Mall can reopen its corridors anytime now that safer-at-home restrictions have been lifted.
The mall is in Outagamie County, which on Friday canceled its safer-at-home order extension.
A mall spokeswoman, however, said the mall will fully reopen on its own timeline.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, it had not yet set its reopening date.
“We’re following the government mandates, but we’ll open when we’re ready,” said Lindsay Kahn, the Chicago-based spokeswoman for Brookfield Properties, the mall’s owner.
Kahn gave the example of Texas, where the state said malls were allowed to reopen on Friday, May 1, but the Brookfield malls waited to reopen the following Tuesday.
“Our priority is the wellbeing of the people who work in the mall and shop at the mall. We’re preparing and we have plans in place for safety, health and cleanliness measures,” she said.
That includes hand-sanitizing stations and social distancing directions. The mall won’t require shoppers to wear masks, though it will have some on hand to give out to shoppers who request them. It also won’t mandate that all stores open at the same time.
The exact opening date, along with a list of stores that will be ready at that time, will be posted on the foxrivermall.com website.
“Not all of our tenants will be open. It’s up to the tenants and if they’re ready,” she said. “The food court will depend on government orders. We’ve already removed some tables and chairs to facilitate social distancing.”
Brookfield’s internal online mall survey shows “around 70% of people are ready to come back,” she said. “But we understand that not everybody is there. Curbside pickup will still be available.”
Target and Scheels are currently open in the mall, as are freestanding restaurants on the property offering curbside pickup and delivery. Additional stores have curbside pickup and are listed on foxrivermall.com.
Contact Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.
More: Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet counties, cities of Appleton, Menasha lift safer-at-home orders
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