Colonie

Colonie Center is launching a multimillion-dollar renovation project with updated furniture, a new fountain and a family lounge with chairs for nursing mothers, a microwave and large TV screen showing children's movies.

The mall already has completed a remodeling of its main bathrooms and mall management office area on the first floor. Gone is the long, tunnel-like atmosphere that made shoppers feel as if they were wandering through the bowels of the mall.

The passageway is now brightly lit, the restrooms are modern and roomy and the family room is bright and gives restless kids room to move.

A couch in the family area faces a large-screen, high-definition television showing children's movies. A bathroom meant for families has regular-size and smaller toilets.

Two smaller rooms contain comfortable chairs for mothers to nurse their children and a microwave for warming up bottles or food.

The mall also is remodeling its food court. A large section is now curtained off with plastic. Pillars are being replaced with stone and marble, the drop ceiling is being replaced, and there will be all new furniture. A section will include iPad stations for guests to use and charging stations for people to refresh their cellphones.

The new look for the food court should make it more attractive, said General Manager Connie Stankivicz.

"It makes it look bigger," she said. "It's going to make it look brighter."

The work is being done at night after the mall closes so shoppers aren't listening to the construction, she said.

A new Nordstrom Rack store will open in the mall this fall, and work already is under way on a new external entrance for the store.

While Nordstrom will be mostly on the second floor, it will have a separate entrance on the first floor with escalators and an elevator to get upstairs.

"We are doing a new entrance for them," Stankivicz said.

The mall also will remove the fountain by its glass elevator and replace it with a new one.

On its website, Colonie Center says the mall generates more than $300 million in sales a year.

More than 634,000 people live within a 15-mile radius, with an average household income of $76,663. Mall officials could not say how much they are spending on the work, though the mall's website calls it a "multimillion-dollar renovation."

The mall also is redoing its seating areas, with soft furniture replacing the existing seating.

It's the second time in less than a decade the mall has undergone extensive renovation.

In 2007, the mall spent $110 million on remodeling. Afterward, it attracted national tenants including L.L. Bean, P.F. Chang's and Cheesecake Factory. Its 13-screen Regal Cinema opened in 2008.

Last year, Whole Foods arrived, taking a corner of what had been part of Sears.

The Capital Region's first enclosed mall when it opened in 1966, Colonie Center was purchased in 2013 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., with KKR and Colonie Pacific, a partnership between Pacific Retail Capital Partners, Collarmele Partners and Peter Fair (Continuum Partners) agreeing to invest in the property.

Gary Karl, executive vice president of Pacific Retail Capital Partners, explained the reasoning behind the newest renovations in a statement emailed to the Times Union.

"We are updating elements of the common area to improve the customer experience, maintain our excellent position (in) the marketplace, and to demonstrate to the retail community our continued commitment to Colonie Center," Karl said.

tobrien@timesunion.com • 518-454-5092 • @timobrientu