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Specialty leasing gives tenants a second chance to intercept shoppers
Shopping center owners and managers looking for new tenants for their properties may just want to take a look at their current tenant roster. A growing number of retailers, including prominent department store chains, have opened second locations within malls to further connect and communicate their message to consumers. In other cases, select retailers are testing new concepts and formats through smaller footprints and kiosk locations within the mall.
"Some of our tenants have opened inline stores in malls where they already operate," says Anita Saleh, VP of specialty leasing at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.based Taubman Centers. "Other retailers are testing new markets with smaller-size shops. In both instances, it adds a unique merchandise mix to the shopping center. In some cases, we have successfully incubated tenants on a permanent basis."
One Taubman tenant that has been opening stores in tandem with its existing anchor locations is Dallas-based Neiman Marcus. During the last holiday season, the retailer opened specialty stores of roughly 5,000 sq. ft. in Denver, Las Vegas and Dallas. The locations sold holiday merchandise as well as the retailer's Epicure line of high-end food products and professional cookware. Leases for the smaller footprints generally last about four months, from September through December or early January.
"Space is always constricted during the fall season, and it's difficult to add holiday goods in our anchor stores, so to generate sales we've gone out and leased temporary space in some of the centers where we are anchor tenants," says Wayne Hussey, senior VP of properties of Neiman Marcus. "Our holiday and trim merchandise is a very important, big part of our...