With more than 130 stores and restaurants opening Nov. 2 at Bayshore Mall, students and East Side residents will no longer have to drive all the way to Mayfair Mall or Brookfield Square to shop.

Along with new businesses come new job opportunities. According to Phill Trewyn, spokesman for the developers, Steiner and Associates, the $195-million development will end up bringing in around 3,000 jobs.

By spring of next year, the total number of new stores and restaurants is estimated to be more than 180. Stores and restaurants include the following: American Eagle Outfitters, Delia’s, Barnes & Noble, Forever 21, H&M, LA Fitness, The Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Cameron’s Steakhouse, Devon Seafood Grill and many more.

“It’s going to be the biggest mall in the state,” said Lindsey Price, a UWM senior and Bayshore employee.

Bravo! Cucina Italiana will be hiring around 200 employees, said Jeff Pressley, Bravo! general manager. They start interviewing Sept. 18, Monday to Saturday for the next couple weeks at Bayshore, he said.

“We’re excited,” Pressley said. “It’s something Milwaukee hasn’t seen before.”

He estimates that restaurants alone will be hiring nearly 1,000 people to fill all open positions: servers, bartenders, managers, maintenance, kitchen help and other positions.

Each tenant is hiring its own employees and will be posting its own application, Trewyn said.

“There will be an effort to reach out to all types of workers,” he said.

Besides new stores hiring, established retailers are looking for more workers as well.

“We are already going to be hiring three times the staff. It would be a great opportunity for anyone 18 or older,” said a sales associate — whose name can’t be disclosed because of corporate policy — from one store.

It’s the same story for most stores, which said they will need more help as Nov. 2 approaches.

In addition to the mall, 200 upscale condos and apartments that will be known as Bayshore Town Center will be built in the Glendale area. Apartments will be occupied in early 2007 around the same time building of the condos will begin. Condos are predicted to be occupied by the end of 2007.

There will also be 215,000 square feet of office space when the project is completed. However, first they are concentrating on finishing the retail component of the project to “give (potential office tenants) a sense of the dynamic of the town center,” Trewyn said.

Free parking will be available in the structure and meter parking will be available on the streets going into the town center. All money collected from those meters will be donated to charity, Trewyn said

While shoppers are excited about Bayshore’s new opportunities, some are still concerned about what the future could bring.

Maritza Ortiz, an18-year-old mall employee, said she is concerned that Bayshore’s development could lead to a situation similar to the one at Mayfair Mall, where they had to establish teen curfews to prevent disturbances.

But other employees said they think the issue has been addressed by keeping the development upscale.

“A lot of people were skeptical, but now people are more excited,” Price said. “It’s going to be its own little town but inside it’s going to be a mall.”

In order to complete the project by the Nov. 2 deadline, workers have a building permit to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Trewy said. They are currently laying 100 yards of sidewalk a day.

According to Bayshore’s August 2006 progress update: “So far there have been over 1,900 workers employed on this project at one time or another. On any given day, over 350 workers are spread throughout the project site.”

The mall is still open during construction: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.

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