Conestoga Mall opens up new businesses

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - The Conestoga Mall in Grand Island has a few openings for businesses and it seems they’re filling up quite nicely.

Guy Skodmin, owner at KO Toys & Arcade, was at the mall with a discount store before he opened up his toy shop. He mentioned that he was looking for other places to start rather than the mall but the price just couldn’t be beat in lease for a small business owner. He signed long-term so him and his toy shop will be there for years to come.

“Business has been very good.. it’s taken off really well. A lot of people coming in excited to see a toy store again because there are no more toy stores. You know, you have hobby stores and some stores that have toy sections and stuff like that but not dedicated toy stores,” said Skodmin.

Foot traffic has been increasing and it continues to get higher.

Skodmin has an arcade in the back as well as video game set-ups for plain old fun. He’s also looking forward to putting on tournaments not just for young kids but for adults that are still kids at heart.

As for Skodmin’s plans to expand, he said that he’d like to venture onto other opportunities such as opening a stand-alone arcade, he said he just wants to open fun things around the Grand Island area because Grand Island isn’t getting any smaller and he 100% believes he’d have the communities support.

“Even here in the mall, there’s big enough spaces - you can put in a put put place or a fun center or something like that .. it just has to be the right business person,” Skodmin mentioned.

The district general manager of Trade Home, Brian Danner, said that business is actually booming. Last year, he was 17% over in profits compared to the all-time high, which was experienced back in 2009. It seems that people just want to get out and about, especially after the pandemic.

Jose Rendon, also just opened a shop in the mall called Underground Café. He decided to choose the mall for his location because he wants to see the mall thrive. He has many different plans for the mall, including adding a Fun Center and a Gelato Shop.

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