GOOD NEWS!!!
Mecca achieved in Cherry Creek
Cherry Creek mall becomes one of only six in the nation to have Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Macy's.
By Elizabeth Aguilera
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 10/06/2007 05:29:14 PM MDT
(Post / Lyn Alweis)
The big bird has finally landed in Cherry Creek Shopping Center and it's wearing Seven For All Mankind jeans and Kate Spade shoes and carrying a Burberry handbag.
After circling the coveted Cherry Creek mall for years, Nordstrom Inc. is getting ready to open a top-of-the-line store Oct. 19.
Nordstrom's long-awaited arrival in the upscale shopping center ends years of effort to get into the area and raises the already high-end reputation of the Cherry Creek mall.
It isn't the first Nordstrom in the Front Range, but it represents the acquisition of a long-desired clientele.
In 1996, unable to garner a spot in the shopping center, the Seattle-based retailer set up shop at Park Meadows and later
Nordstrom store manager Yolanda Larson, left, looks over display fixtures for the Marni clothing line with Lauren Buchsbaum at the soon-to-open Cherry Creek site. (Post / Lyn Alweis)at FlatIron Crossing mall. As a result, Denver shoppers who longed for Nordstrom's storied shoe department had to head to the suburbs.
"For Cherry Creek, it represents a unique opportunity to regain market share that was lost when Nordstrom opened in the other two malls," said Nick LeMasters, general manager of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. "The Denver customer that enjoys Nordstrom will be able to stay in Denver."
Nordstrom sees itself more as a boutique than a large department store, with a mix of unique merchandise, high-end designers and some of its own specially produced products: small specialty stores under one roof.
"We want to be where the best stores are," said Erik Nordstrom, the company's president of stores. "We want to be where there is a convergence of retail that attracts customers. We really like the mix of stores that are in Cherry Creek."
With Nordstrom,
Cherry Creek becomes one of only six shopping malls in the nation that can claim Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Macy's as tenants, joining the ranks of such retail meccas as the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas and Fashion Valley in San Diego.
The arrival of Nordstrom will pad the
J.R. Pietz, left, first assistant manager, and Melinda Kopel, Salon Shoes department manager, conduct a meeting with shoe-department staffers. (Post / Lyn Alweis)offerings for upscale shoppers by adding a whole new merchandising base and presentation, said Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of America's Research Group.
"Their key thinking is that you have to be at the right location, and that is why they wait so long for the right location," Beemer said. Cherry Creek "is upscale, it's fashionable and it continues to be an avant-garde area."
The shopping center's track record speaks for itself, LeMasters said. It is in the top 1 percent of revenue-producing malls in the country, he said. The shopping center and Cherry Creek North combined make up the single-largest sales tax revenue generator for the city and county of Denver, LeMasters said.
"It was not difficult
Lingerie and hosiery manager Meaghan Deever, left, and Shawna Watts unpack merchandise in preparation for the store's opening. (Post / Lyn Alweis)for us to convince (Nordstrom) and it was not difficult for us to agree on a deal," LeMasters said.
The Cherry Creek mall customer demographic is 65 percent female, 35 percent male, with a household income at or above $100,000. The two groups that make up this demographic are affluent empty nesters and up-and-coming professionals in the 25-40-year-old range, typically with no children.
"We believe with the addition of Nordstrom we'll have everything they (core customers) desire now," LeMasters said.
Cherry Creek and Nordstrom have been courting for years. The first opportunity came when the shopping center was redeveloped in 1990, but Nordstrom didn't take a pad, LeMasters said.
The company waited until 1996 to open the Park Meadows store because "Part of it was that we wanted to be at the best mall, Cherry Creek, but we couldn't get in there," Peter Nordstrom told the Denver Post in 2005.
When Nordstrom opened the Park Meadows store, customers there began to ask for a store in Cherry Creek, Erik Nordstrom said.
"But it isn't that easy," he said. "It's a tight shopping center in an urban area, and it's been difficult for the developer to help us get there. We tried on many occasions going back to my dad and his cousins, but it didn't happen."
In the late 1990s, there were efforts to bring the retailer to the current Safeway location but that didn't come to fruition.
Not until two years ago, when Lord & Taylor announced it was closing its Colorado stores, did the opportunity arise.
In 2005 the May Department Stores Co., then-owner of Lord & Taylor, sold its Cherry Creek site to the mall's owner, Taubman Centers Inc., to end litigation between both parties. That move allowed Nordstrom to obtain the space.
In March 2005 Nordstrom negotiated a deal to take over the Lord & Taylor pad.
As Nordstrom has remodeled the site to its own style, other retailers have been primping for their new neighbor.
In the spring, Saks unveiled an updated look, and in Cherry Creek North, Andrisen Morton Women's underwent a $1 million renovation. Executives at both stores said they were partly motivated by a desire to capture their share of the new traffic Nordstrom will generate.
"Anytime you have a new competitor coming into the market, you want to look at what you can offer," Saks general manager Kay Cline said when the store revealed its new look. "You want customers to find something new in your store as well."
Nordstrom has expanded the Lord & Taylor space to 138,000 square feet, making it the mall's second-largest department store after Macy's.
Nordstrom's other two stores in the area are much larger. The Park Meadows store is 245,000 square feet and FlatIron Crossing's is 172,000 square feet.
But Erik Nordstrom said that, in recent years, most of the stores the company has opened have averaged 140,000 square feet. That's largely because, as with Cherry Creek, the company has been moving into existing malls in urban areas as opposed to new shopping centers.
LeMasters expects the new store to significantly boost Cherry Creek's already high sales.
"There's no question we expect more considerable volume out of this store than Lord & Taylor ever produced," he said.