Mesa Mall has a handful of new stores available for Christmas shopping this year

Tim Harty, The Business Times

For Mesa Mall’s new owner and a handful of tenants, 2025 marks their first holiday shopping season at the mall.

CBL Properties, which bought Mesa Mall from Washington Prime Group on July 29, enters the season optimistic based on national prognostications.

“We’re excited about our first holiday season at Mesa Mall,” CBL Properties’ Vice President of Corporate Communications Stacey Keating wrote in an email interview. “We expect results will be in line with industry projections from the National Retail Federation.”

The National Retail Federation, she added, is projecting holiday sales growth in the range of 3.7 percent to 4.2 percent over last year.

“Despite trade uncertainty and inflation, the consumer and the economy has continued to show resilience,” she wrote.

Of the Mesa Mall retailers, she added, “Overall, I think retailers are feeling cautiously optimistic about the upcoming holiday season.”

New stores this season

This is not a complete, official list, but Keating said the stores and restaurants that opened in Mesa Mall in 2025 include: Jjang Korean BBQ; Lupita’s Fashion; Miniso; Fragrance Outlet; Ko-Ni-Chi Claw; Dim Sum Bites; Pandora; Color Crew Salon; LO Nails; Scrubs Boutique and More; and Toys“R”Us.

Toys“R”Us is the most recent addition, opening Nov. 21 in the space that formerly was home to fabric and crafts retailer Joann, which closed in May.

Among the earlier arrivals in 2025 were Miniso (Feb. 8 grand opening) and Fragrance Outlet (May).

Among the most recent Mesa Mall tenants are: Jjang Korean BBQ (grand opening on weekend of Nov. 15-16); Scrubs Boutique and More (Nov. 14); Lupitas Fashion (grand opening Nov. 8); LO Nails (Oct. 10); Color Crew Salon (Oct. 1); and Ko-Ni-Chi Claw (Sept. 1).

LO Nails, Color Crew Salon and Lupitas Fashion operated stores elsewhere in Grand Junction before relocating to Mesa Mall.

Holiday-seasoned veteran

This time of year the Polarx part of Polarized & Polarx takes the reins from sunglasses-seller Polarized at the kiosk near center court.

Polarx is an old standby for many Mesa Mall shoppers who come back year after year for its personalized Christmas ornaments. Owner Zar Ognyanov didn’t recall the exact number of years Polarx has operated at Mesa Mall, but he said it’s more than 15.

Ognyanov emphasizes he doesn’t sell just plain old ornaments. He said he tried that for a year, and it doesn’t work. What works, he said, is personalization of ornaments by hand, no machines. What he and the two artists on staff do requires skills, chief among them a steady hand.

“You have to really know what you’re doing,” he said, adding if the writing doesn’t look good, the ornament gets thrown out.

Customers primarily want names put on the ornaments that they will turn around to give as gifts.

“Without personalization, no one would buy this stuff,” he said. “They want it personalized.”

And they want it from Polarx, because they know and trust Ognyanov.

“They know me. I’ve been here a very long time. They come for me,” he said in a way that wasn’t bragging, instead just telling it like it is. “They don’t come for ornaments. They know me. Every year I have new stuff. I innovate something new.”

Christmas concern

Ognyanov’s candor permeated the thoughts he shared about this year’s Christmas shopping season, what he has seen of it so far and what he anticipates going forward.

He doesn’t have hard data. Rather, he knows what past experience and his eyes tell him. Fewer people are making their way to the mall for holiday shopping. And he said that’s in line with what he has seen for most of 2025.

During his Nov. 19 interview with The Business Times, which took place mid-afternoon, he said, “Look and tell him what you see.” The answer was just a few people, and he said that’s not normal, even for a weekday afternoon.

“It’s Nov. 19 and no one’s here,” he said. “(Mall retailers) wait all year for November, December, and this November no one’s here.”

Of course, December could be much better, but he thinks his revenues will most likely be lower this year than previous years, and he doesn’t think he’ll be alone.

Fragrance Outlet Manager Carmen Muro’s observations are similar to Ognyanov’s.

“I thought it would be busy now. It’s not,” she said. “Even on weekends, it’s not a lot of people buying. … but I’m praying.”

Ognyanov, knowing he has built up loyal customers, added he’s not worrying.

“I’m calm,” he said. “I’m good.”

Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL Properties acquired Mesa Mall from Washington Prime Group on July 29 without any fanfare.

The deal flew under the radar of The Business Times, and our good friend Google didn’t show any reporting about it by other local media. So, it’s time to rectify that.

CBL Properties’ Vice President of Corporate Communications Stacey Keating addressed the acquisition in an email interview and wrote: “CBL acquired Mesa Mall as part of a four-mall transaction that included Ashland Town Center in Ashland, KY, Paddock Mall in Ocala, FL, and Southgate Mall in Missoula, MT. We closed on this transaction on July 29, 2025.”

She then included a hyperlink to News & Views on its website, invest.cblproperties.com, for more details, which revealed a price tag of $178.9 million for the four malls. It also included the following excerpt from a couple paragraphs that went deep into the weeds:

“The transaction represents significant progress in the execution of CBL’s portfolio optimization strategy – to redeploy proceeds from non-core asset sales into stable and growing assets that generate immediate accretion to CBL’s portfolio cash yield.”

Back on point, Keating answered a question about what notable changes CBL Properties has made since buying Mesa Mall, and she wrote: “CBL acquired Mesa and the other three properties because we saw immediate and long-term opportunities in each of them. While nothing has visibly changed at the property, we’ve been working behind the scenes to onboard each mall onto CBL’s systems and platforms. Our leasing and redevelopment teams have been working to identify opportunities to bring in new and exciting uses.”