This from the official Southcenter mall news release.

How long did it take: Two years

How many new stores: 75 retailers including H&M Banana Republic, Forever XXI, bebe, Coach, Gilly Hicks, Lucky Brand Jeans, M.A.C., PINK, Sephora, Swarovski and White House/Black Market.

Other news: Borders Books and Music introduced a new concept stores, featuring a digital center where customers can mix and make their own CDs, download books and music, publish their personal books and create photo albums.

What about food: Sharky’s, Kudo Beans, Sushi Ito, Red Mango, Joeys Grill and Lounge, BJ’s Brewhouse, Blue C. Sushi, Duke’s Chowder House and RACHA Thai.

And entertainment: AMC opened a new 16-screen theater on the third level of the shopping center, incorporating stadium seating top to bottom, LoveSeats and wall to wall screens with new IMAX capabilities.

And for kids: The Westfield Kids Play Space is a hands-on Exploratorium where kids can discover the wonders of the earth’s rainforest. It's close to Starbucks and Auntie Anne’s, as well as many children’s retailers, including Crazy 8, Gymboree, Limited Too, Pumpkin Patch and Stride Rite.

Not all of the new stores are aimed at the high-fashion crowd. Crazy 8 brought its first store to the Puget Sound area.

The store, owned by Gymboree, sells durable kids' clothes at a lower price than its parent company. Crazy 8 has the same feel with lots of complete outfits: pants, shirts, socks, hairbands, coats and shoes that match.

I found boys' jeans for $9.99 (if you buy two pairs.) T-shirts for $5.99 (if you buy two.) Dresses for $15.99 and a cool lion sweatshirt for $17.99. The store was much quieter than shops aimed at teens and 20somethings.

The mall added dozens of new or remodeled shops to its shopping center.

Some of the new ones include: Pink, a teen/college version of Victoria's Secret. The store sells sweats, jammies and lingerie with bold PINK branding. I also saw shirts and shorts with University of Washington and Washington State University logos.

I stopped into Love Culture, a store I had never heard of but then I am not the target demographic. It seemed a lot like Forever XXI, which is pronounced "X" "X" "I" by the way - inexpensive but fashionable aimed at teens and 20somethings.

White House/Black Market, Banana Republic, Sephora and other also opened today.

I picked up a few things while talking to shoppers at H&M:

A dress for my daughter: $12.90
Scooby Doo pajamas for my son: $9.90
A blue T-shirt for me: $7.90
A scarf for me: $12.90

The men's section is on the first floor and the H&M staff were carefully monitoring the number of people there to make sure they met fire codes. That meant waiting in line to get down there. (Which also meant I didn't pick up anything for my husband.)

Shoppers waited in line more than 20 minutes to get into the H & M store.

Dorothy Timmons from Maple Valley was eager to check out clothes for her kids at the store. She waited with her husband and two kids, too.

"I was born in Europe so having H & M here is way cool," she said. She confessed to texting her friends around the world today bragging that Seattle was getting the retailer.

Once inside she browsed shoes and belts for her kids, along with other stuff for the two girls.

The lines were inside too. Lines to get into the dressing room. Lines to go to the first floor. Lines to pay.

Celebrity stylist Robert Verdi (known for dressing Eva Longoria Parker) was helping customers pick out outfits.

"What's great about H & M is that it's affordable and high fashion," he said.

Claire Giordano, 16, waited outside the mall for three and a half hours to get in. She asked Verdi to help her pick out some new clothes.

"He's a nice person and this was so much fun," she said as she headed off to the dressing room with an armload of clothes including a brown bomber jacket and floral tops.

H & M spokeswoman Jennifer Uglialoro said the long lines will continue through the weekend.

"People know that we get stuff in the store everyday. Once we sell it out, we don't reorder. So buy it today if you like it," she said.

Hundreds of people waited outside Southcenter Mall this morning to be among the first to see the new stores.

The mall put on quite a show with speeches, acrobats and flying banners.

Much of the buzz outside the mall was about H & M, the European retailer known for its high fashion at low prices. Shoppers were plotting the best way to get there.

Tracy Hughes, 18, of Burien, lined up this morning to get in first. She and four of her friends wanted to see H & M, XXI and other shops.

"I'm so excited to have the stores in my area," she said.

Rumors that Boeing is planning to open a second assembly line in Everett for its much-delayed 787 Dreamliner have surfaced again in the aviation press.

According to those reports, Boeing would open that second assembly line into part of the area where its now builds 767s. The 767 assembly line, which now produces just over one plane a month, would be moved to another building.

Boeing's existing Everett Dreamliner assembly line

With 896 orders from 53 airlines already booked even before the first Dreamliner flies, Boeing is constrained in accepting new orders by its ability to produce more aircraft within a reasonable period of time.

Most airlines looking to order a 787 now are looking at a minimum of a six or seven-year wait until they receive their aircraft.

I haven't heard yet from Boeing on the issue, though they usually are mum about production issues until the decision is made.

Opening a second final assembly line in Everett wouldn't speed up production unless Boeing's suppliers make similar moves. Those suppliers still are having some difficulties producing subassemblies even at the glacial pace of current production.

New figures from the federal government's Bureau of Transportation Statistics show Sea-Tac Airport passengers fared considerably better than average when it comes to fare increases.

The survey, which uses figures from the first quarter of 2008, show fares at Sea-Tac rose only .6 percent from the first quarter of 2007 and only 1.9 percent from the first quarter of 2001.

The national average from 2007 to 2008 was 4.4 percent but the national figure for the 2001 to 2008 period was a 4.6 drop.

Considering an even longer perspective, Sea-Tac ranked 76th of 85 domestic airports in average fare increases from 1995 to the first quarter of 2008. Sea-Tac fares rose 13.1 percent in the period. Nationwide, the average was a 21.4 percent increase.

At the top of the list was Lihue in Hawaii where average fares rose 102.5 percent since 1995.

Second was California's Burbank where fares were up 68.8 percent.

What the figures don't say, however, is how changes in the pattern of air traffic skew those figures. In 1995, most of Lihue's traffic was short hops to other islands. By 2008 the airport on Kauai had developed a considerable long-range business directly to the U.S. The same with Burbank. The suburban Los Angeles has many more transcontinental flights than in 1995.

In another statistical measure, Sea-Tac ranked in mid-pack at 38th among the 100 airports the BTS ranked for average fares. The average Sea-Tac fare was $345.39 in the first quarter of this year.

Cincinnati, a hub airport dominated by Delta Air Lines, the average of $535.32 topped the list. It was followed by four mid-sized airports, Greenville, South Carolina; Madison, Wis.; Knoxville, Tenn., and Grand Rapids, Mich.

At the bottom of the list for average fares was Atlantic City, N.J. where the average fare is only $108.71.

Note that the survey was based on prices during the first quarter of this year. Air fares are up considerably since then.

Southcenter mall opens its remodel today and I am going. I'll let you know what the new stores look like and how bad the traffic is.

Send any questions about the mall my way. I have already collected a list from people including:

Is it Forever "X" "X" "I" or "Forever 21?"

What does the store Pink sell?

Is there a JCrew?

How many places are there to get coffee?

How long are the lines at H&M? (I suspect the answer to this one is: really, really, really long.)

I'll start posting updates later this morning.