Exchange construction moves garden center to Mini Mall Published Feb. 29, 2012 By Christopher Bailey Nucleus Staff Writer KIRTLAND AFB, N.M. -- Exchange customers looking to spruce up their gardens will now have to shop at a different location. Due to the construction of a new Exchange Mall, the garden center has been relocated to the furniture store at the Mini Mall, at Frost Avenue and First Street. "We had to move the garden center because part of the main Exchange where the garden shop, toys and sporting goods were has been demolished," said AAFES general manager Robert Cooper. The toys and sporting goods sections have moved to other areas inside the Exchange. "Once the Exchange Mall is built, everything from the Mini Mall and everything from the current Exchange will be relocated there," Cooper said. At a cost of $22.4 million, the 95,000 square-foot Exchange Mall will sit between the current Exchange and the commissary buildings. Its completion is scheduled for April 2013. Cooper said the new entrance at Gibson and Pennsylvania Avenues is scheduled to open March 26. That entrance is only for the Commissary. The entrance to the Exchange will still be through Texas Street. "This will open up parking for the commissary, but our parking situation will stay pretty much as it is through most of the mall's construction," Cooper said. To make room for the garden center, AAFES officials combined the center with the furniture store. The hours of operation for both stores is Monday through Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. When the weather warms, a Sunday schedule will be added. "Since we are incorporating the furniture store and the garden store, we are calling it our Outdoor Living Center," said AAFES Sales and Merchandise Manager Marie Vigil. "Now you can get your home needs and garden needs in one place." Vigil said that to create awareness of the move, any Exchange shopper who asks about the garden center will receive a 10 percent coupon on any garden item until May 1.