MANKATO — A PetSmart store is coming to the eastern edge of the River Hills Mall property.
The 18,000-square-foot store will be on land along Highway 22, between Olive Garden and the Sear's Auto center building. The property is owned by the mall's parent company, General Growth Properties.
"It's pretty exciting," said River Hills Manager Andy Wilke. "We get to develop a couple of lots that have have been undeveloped since the mall was built in 1991. It'll have great visibility on (Highway) 22 and in front of Target."
The store will join the nearby Pet Expo and a PetCo store in the strip mall near Kohl's.
The new store is slated to be open mid summer.
The nearest PetSmart stores are in Faribault and Shakopee.
PetSmart, the largest pet retailer in the nation, followed by PetCo, last month opened its 1,500th store in Sheridan, Colorado. The company opened 80 new stores this year.
The stores offer a full line of pet food and pet supplies as well as grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp day care services and pet adoption services in-store.
PetSmart says its groomers receive extensive training, with the latest grooming graduates completing 800 hours of hands-on instruction, including grooming 200 dogs under supervision.
Plans for the new store are going through the city review process.
General Growth is one of the largest mall operators in the country. Wilke said several other General Growth properties also have PetSmart stores.
With more than half of all households in the country owning pets, the pet business has been booming.
According to the American Pet Products Association, revenue in the pet industry is expected to be nearly $63 billion this year, an increase of more than 4 percent over 2015. The average annual growth rate since 2002 is 5.4 percent and revenue has been growing steadily for well over 20 years.
Food is the largest spending segment, followed by veterinary care.
Besides pet stores, most big-box retailers have steadily increased the amount of shelf space they dedicate to pet food and supplies.
New Nissan dealership
A new Nissan dealership on the east edge of town is also moving through the city permitting process.
Mankato Nissan is to be built next summer on the corner of Madison Avenue and Haefner Drive, next to Snell Motors.
A drawing of the nearly 23,000-square-foot building shows a mostly glass exterior.
Mankato Motors carries the Nissan line and is building the stand-alone dealership for Nissan, which has been gaining a growing share of the U.S. vehicle market.
Work is also underway on a new Hyundai dealership between Raintree Road and the Highway 14 entrance ramp, on a piece of property just east of Kwik Trip and across Raintree from Heintz Toyota.
The 10,000-square-foot building will feature a service center and a relatively small indoor showroom, with room outside for vehicles.
It appears the dealership will be a new design South Korea-based Hyundai is rolling out worldwide. The company wants to unify its dealerships around the globe. Most U.S. dealerships feature silver exteriors wrapped in blue accents. The new design features an open, airy showroom with high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass topped by a bronze-colored roof structure.
The company said last year it planned to roll out the new design in the U.S. at some test locations. The architect plans accompanying the Hyundai plans for Mankato show an open showroom and bronze-colored roof and sign toppings.
With the addition of Hyundai, Mankato soon will have dealerships for most major vehicle brands. A new Kia dealership opened last year along North Victory and Highway 14.
