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Tenant consolidation to surge in Asia

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Retailer Sentiment Survey Asia says 44 percent of the Asian chains it surveyed have plans for mergers or acquisitions over the next few months, which suggests that the method is the most popular among retailers seeking to grow. In Southeast Asia the number comes in at 64 percent, in China at 41 percent and in India at 30 percent. “They have the skill sets to make such strategic moves work,” the report says, “and the understanding that as the market and competitive landscape increases, organic growth alone will not be the way to deliver on profit expectations.”

Catch a wave

Extreme sports equipment retailer Adrenalina is literally making a splash with its first store, at Simon Property Group’s Florida Mall, in Orlando, Fla. The store includes a FlowRider, a wave ramp machine that uses compact wave technology to simulate surfing and boarding by pushing water up a ramp at a speed of over 60 miles per hour. Adrenalina stocks gear for mountain bikers, skateboarders, skydivers and surfers, and also produces a clothing line, a magazine and a popular television program about extreme sports that airs on Fuel TV and Fox Sports en Español. “Our one-of-a-kind wave ramp will make the Adrenalina store a destination, not just a place to shop,” said the company’s president Jeffrey Geller. The store is operated by franchisee RokBottom Co.

TableArt gives food courts good taste

To add some upscale flavor to the food courts at its Westfield San Francisco Shopping Centre and its Westfield Topanga mall, in Woodland Hills, Calif., Westfield Group enlisted the talents of specialty retailer TableArt. The retailer, which sells high-end flatware, linens and other table dressings out of a boutique in the trendy Los Angeles neighborhood of Melrose Heights, customized plates, melamine trays and utensils for the food courts (dining terraces, as Westfield calls them) at the company’s San Francisco Centre and Topanga properties, The porcelain dinnerware, which features a simple pattern and a tasteful display of the Westfield logo, is a far cry from the “sporks” and Styrofoam found in most food courts. “It’s absolutely remarkable,” said Walter Lowry, who owns TableArt and is frequently featured in such periodicals as Bon Appétit and Real Simple. “It makes a very positive statement. It gives consumers an idea of what they can do at home, that they can eat a meal on something beautiful.” But the dinnerware is functional as well, he says. The flatware is magnetized so that spoons and forks stick to the mall’s garbage cans if diners accidentally throw them away.

New logo

Saks Fifth Avenue is imitating Louis Vuitton and other luxury brands by trying to turn its logo into a status symbol. The beleaguered chain is abandoning its old logo in favor of a version with a script font in a square. All the stores’ awnings, shopping bags and private-label goods are to bear the new logo, which was developed by Terron Schaefer, Saks’ group senior vice president of creative and marketing, and consultant firm Pentagram Design. The designers also created a signature pattern that looks like tweed by dividing the new logo into 64 quadrants and then scrambling those quadrants. Saks will use the pattern on store carpeting, special-edition dresses and shoes, and more.

Coming attraction

Albuquerque, N.M., is ready for its close-up. Contractors there are working overtime to complete a 25-acre movie studio in time for the first scheduled shoot, in February. Albuquerque Studios is one component of Mesa Del Sol, a 12,900-acre, master-planned development by Forest City Covington NM. The studio, an offshoot of California’s famed Culver Studios, is a joint venture between Forest City and Pacifica Ventures and will contain eight soundstages and some areas for set construction and storage. The studio will be used for feature films, commercials and music videos. The state of New Mexico, attempting to attract studios from California, is offering low-interest loans and a 25 percent tax refund on any in-state spending by film companies. When it is completed, sometime over the next 30 years, Mesa Del Sol will contain 515,000 square feet of retail space over five separate areas, in addition to 1,400 acres of industrial space, residential space, a community center, restaurants and a boutique hotel. One retail section, oriented to the studio employees, will be placed in between the studio and the residential section. “There will definitely be traffic driven from the movie studios, which essentially will have 2,500 to 3,500 employees on site,” said Mark Lautman, director of economic development at Forest City Covington. “And everybody needs to work out, needs to send mail, needs coffee and lunch.”

U.S. apparel chains head north

U.S.-based specialty apparel chains are finding Canada to be a profit center and a springboard for international expansion, said Brian Tunick, a JPMorgan retail analyst, last month at ICSC’s New York Conference & Deal Making, in Manhattan. Limited Brands’ $628 million deal to acquire Canadian lingerie chain La Senza is only the tip of the iceberg, Tunick said. “Canada is the new China,” he said, pointing out that many of the apparel retailers he follows are enjoying some of their most profitable return on investment through their Canadian operations. In September Canadian specialty apparel sales grew 16.2 percent year on year, while sales of family apparel rose 15.1 percent, and children’s and infants’ apparel sales went up 13.4 percent. Sales per square foot at nonanchor tenants in Canadian malls hit $528, the biggest jump in the nine years ICSC has tracked Canadian sales. Tunick predicts that more international retailers will open stores in Canada this year. Some may be looking to follow Limited’s lead and enter Canada through acquisitions, observers say. The 200-unit, Montréal-based Le Chateau apparel chain, which posted a 12.4 percent jump in net sales to $77.8 million for its third quarter (ended Oct. 28), has put itself up for sale.

Report: Nordstrom has best real estate

Nordstrom leads its U.S. peers when it comes to quality store locations, and is the traditional U.S. retailer with the greatest opportunity to gain department store market share over the next five years, says a Merrill Lynch study of 391 malls in 15 large U.S. markets. Merrill Lynch analysts ranked the malls by the strength of their locations. Of Nordstrom’s 63 stores, 94 percent are located in these prime-located malls. By comparison, 82 percent of Neiman Marcus’ 22 stores and 19 percent of Federated Department Stores’ 305 Macy’s units are in these malls. In the next five years, Nordstrom’s market share growth opportunities will be enhanced by Federated’s divestitures of duplicate former May Co. stores, the report says. Of the 80 such stores marked for closure, 16 are still up for grabs, including those at Galleria Houston, King of Prussia (Pa.) Plaza and Victoria Gardens, in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.