Kohl’s plans to anchor Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise

National department store Kohl’s is preparing to become an anchor tenant at Sawgrass Mills shopping center in Sunrise, according to plans filed with the city.

A roughly 64,000-square-foot Kohl’s department store is coming to the so-called “Anchor G” location at Sawgrass Mills, formerly occupied by Century 21 Department Store.

The Sunrise City Commission on Tuesday approved a proposal by the shopping center’s owner, Simon Property Group, to revise the site plan for Sawgrass Mills by creating a new entry for Kohl’s. The commission also approved a proposal to alter the property’s exterior elevation to accommodate Kohl’s.

A champagne-colored metal canopy will extend from a new stucco-framed entry façade for the new Kohl’s store. Two accessible street parking places directly in front of the store’s entry will replace three standard parking places.

The new Kohl’s store at Sawgrass Mills would be the retailer’s 12th location in tri-county South Florida, and its sixth in Broward County, according to the company’s website. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based Kohl’s has 51 stores throughout Florida, including four in Miami-Dade County and two in Palm Beach County.

Some of its department stores have in-store beauty products shops that operate under the Sephora brand. A rendering of the planned Kohl’s store at Sawgrass Mills that Simon Property Group filed with Sunrise incorporates the Sephora brand together with the Kohl’s brand in the store’s signage.

It is unclear when the store will open. Neither Kohl’s nor Simon Property Group responded to requests for comment.

Kohl’s operated 1,171 stores as of April 29, including 607 with full-size Sephora “shop-in-shops,” according to a first quarter report that publicly held Kohl’s filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kohl’s reported flat first-quarter earnings, with $14 million in net income on $3.5 billion in sales in the three months ended April 29. The financial results were almost unchanged from the same period last year, except for a 23 percent increase in net interest expenses, to $84 million from $68 million. “Net interest expense increased due to Sephora-related lease amendments as well as borrowings under our revolving credit facility,” Kohl’s said in the SEC filing.

During the quarter ended in April, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Kohl’s senior unsecured credit rating from BB+ to BB, and Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the company’s rating from Ba2 to Ba3. Both credit rating agencies also changed their outlook for Kohl’s creditworthiness to negative. As a result of the downgrades, Kohl’s reported that the interest rate on both its 3.38 percent notes due in 2031 and its 9.5 percent notes due in 2025 increased by 50 basis points in May.