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Primanti’s to open at Eastwood, Cafaro headquarters still under construction
By Kalea Hall
NILES
Get ready, Mahoning Valley: More sandwiches topped with coleslaw and french fries are on their way.
Pittsburgh-based Primanti Bros. will open another location in the Valley at the Eastwood Mall Complex next summer.
“It’s just an iconic place to eat,” said Joe Bell, director of corporate communications at Cafaro Co., which owns the complex at 5555 Youngstown-Warren Road in Niles. “People go there for the atmosphere, not just the sandwiches.”
The new Primanti’s will open with a full bar in a 4,836-square-foot space and 1,060-square-foot outdoor patio by July 2016, Cafaro Co. announced Friday.
The announcement comes a month after the first Ohio Primanti’s opened on South Avenue in Boardman.
Bell said this Eastwood Mall Complex location is the second Primanti’s location to go inside a Cafaro-owned mall. Last year, a Primanti’s opened in the Millcreek Mall in Erie, Pa. It was the first mall location for Primanti’s, and business has been constant at the location, Bell said.
“Whenever we are talking with restaurants, especially with multiple locations, we always include where we think they would be successful,” Bell said.
Primanti’s will be the 38th restaurant to operate at the complex where there’s both fine-dining and quick-dining options. Construction on a former restaurant space near the entrance to the food court already has started for the new Primanti’s.
Primanti Bros. could not be reached for comment Friday.
Outside of the new restaurant, Eastwood also will have a new 63,000-square-foot Gander Mountain, a sporting-goods merchant, open next year. The new store, located at 2390 Niles-Cortland Road in Howland, will replace the old Gander Mountain that opened in 1999 with 31,000 square feet. The grand opening is scheduled for March 17. Gander has a temporary location next to Kohl’s at the complex.
Construction on the new Cafaro Co. headquarters is ongoing at the complex.
The company unveiled its plan to relocate from Youngstown to Niles last fall.
The new 50,000-square-foot headquarters will provide space for 200 employees. Originally, the move was expected to take place this year, but the date of relocation is now set for next May.
An about 25,000-square-foot conference center next to the headquarters will open at a later date next year. The center will have the capacity to fit 1,000.
Together, both the headquarters and conference center come with a cost of more than $18 million.
Cafaro Co. soon will accept bids for an operator at the center to provide restaurant services.
“We are looking for a quality operator,” Bell said.