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At Vegas event, PREIT chief pitching hard for Market East mall

Since landing in Vegas on Saturday, he has been selling the Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia at Market East, the company's latest baby, at the nation's largest retail and real estate annual confab, known as ReCon, which will conclude Wednesday.

With the mall's targeted spring 2018 opening, Coradino and his team held no fewer than 150 meetings over three days to pitch Fashion Outlets.

Coradino said he wanted the parade of investors, brokers, and retail agents walking through PREIT's booth to see what the former Gallery at Market East would look like after its $500 million-plus makeover.

"We really put our Sunday best on for this," he said.

PREIT is in a joint venture with another real estate firm, Macerich, which is known for improving malls, to turn the Center City venue into what Coradino described as "a must go."

To sell the project, he had fancy 3-D video presentations showing the mall from all angles - facing Market Street with new lit-up signage up and down the corridor for a more inviting appearance, the restaurants that will line Filbert Street, and the food court that will face both the mall's interior and the commuter station for grab-and-go opportunities.

"I need it filled," said Coradino, who worked the room like a dervish, shaking hands, going in and out of meeting rooms, and seeking out those he hadn't seen in a while.

The renovation, he said, will fix a key design flaw of the mall where the stores were built in a "defensive mode," facing away from Market Street.

Instead, the project will open out to the street, inviting in shoppers and passersby.

Orkin said he had four or five national restaurant chains interested in opening in Center City and eyeing space at the mall.

"They are looking in the range of 6,000 to 9,000 square feet," Orkin, who talks regularly with PREIT about new restaurants for its Philly and South Jersey malls, said after watching the video. "They are looking because Center City is being recognized as having a very vibrant restaurant scene."

Coradino, ever the salesman, says he can't name names yet, but "a half-dozen retailers" have signed leases and he was "in negotiations with several more."

Just after 2 p.m. Tuesday, Coradino made his way into a small room with national representatives from Victoria's Secret.

Heather Crowell, PREIT's director of investor relations, cued up the Fashion Outlets video for them.

They watched attentively and "were receptive to the project," Coradino said after emerging from the room. "They're ready to talk to us about a deal."

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...Ozcad0z1T64.99