Old Orchard Observer

$10-or-Less Clothing Retailer
A new style for Old Orchard
October 7, 2005
By Becky Yerak

Gone are the days when shopping malls relied solely on department stores as anchor tenants.

At Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie, a $10-or-less clothing retailer is moving into a vacated Saks store, an example of how even upscale malls in well-heeled areas are rethinking the notion of who should occupy the biggest spaces.

Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, which sells inexpensive men's, women's and children's clothes including jeans, jackets and licensed college goods, will occupy all three floors of the 105,000-square-foot space vacated by Saks in July. It is expected to open next month.

The privately held Port Washington, N.Y., firm typically operates stores ranging from 20,000 to 150,000 square feet in less prestigious malls.

"This is our first Class A mall," Steve & Barry's spokesman Rick Gomes said.

"They came to us because we're a company who can put something in quickly," he said of the retailer's relationship with mall owner Westfield Group.

At Old Orchard, Steve & Barry's joins such traditional mall stalwarts as Marshall Field's, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom. Spaces for those retailers range from just under 200,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet.

As retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. open hundreds of free-standing stores a year, malls are trying new ways to remain relevant to consumers, particularly younger ones, and are looking beyond tried-and-true conventional department stores as key tenants.

"We thought Steve & Barry's would be a great addition and bring a different clientele," said Thomas Sikoral, Westfield Old Orchard general manager.

In May, Steve & Barry's was named in an International Council of Shopping Centers survey as one of retailing's five hottest merchants--along with Apple Computer Inc., Coach Inc., Williams Sonoma Inc. and White House Black Market, a subsidiary of Chico's FAS. Inc.

In a May interview, Steve & Barry's co-founder and co-Chief Executive Barry Prevor, said he is interested in any mall anchor spots that might open up as a result of industry consolidation, which recently has touched such retailers as Sears, Macy's and Marshall Field's.

Mall developers, he noted, have become more open-minded about what constitutes an anchor tenant in light of mergers that are making department stores more homogeneous.

"If a mall has four department store anchor spots, and one goes vacant, then years ago mall management would have thought, `Get another department store.' Now, they say, `We have three department stores selling the same brands at the same prices. What would be the point of bringing in an identical department store?'" Prevor told the Tribune.

"So they look for alternative uses. This has been one of the great drivers behind our growth," he said.

Steve & Barry's has 87 stores in 27 states and plans to open another 40 stores by year-end.

In June 2004, it opened one in Westfield Chicago Ridge mall in Chicago Ridge, followed in October 2004 by a location in North Riverside Park Mall in North Riverside.

The retailer has plans to open more stores across the area, including outlets at Westfield Fox Valley in Aurora, Randhurst Mall in Mt. Prospect, Westfield Louis Joliet in Joliet, University Mall in Carbondale and in Springhill Mall in West Dundee.

Source: Chicago TribuneSteve and Barry's University Sportswear was founded in 1985, and while it seems like a good short-term fit for Old Orchard, my money is that they have a short-term lease with Westfield so that the lifestyle center plans would not be harmed.

Amy and I checked out the new store shortly after they opened. While the merchandise was somewhat appealing (mainly for price), the store itself looked like the new tenants had done nothing to remodel the space. Thus indicating that this is probably not a long-term solution for Old Orchard. But we'll see.

The addition of Steve & Barry's will help The Promenade section of Old Orchard not seem so dead, but I'm not quite sure that it fits the image that the mall is trying to portray. Then again, Westfield has already done a pretty good job making the mall more crappy, so anything goes these days.