Page 8AA —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— November 4-November 17, 2015
Retail
by John Rebchook
Location, location, location.
Those have been the three most
important things in real estate for
as long as Mark Sidell can remem-
ber.
“I think I canmake a prettygood
argument, when it comes to retail
real estate, the three most impor-
tant things are experience, experi-
ence and experience … and don’t
forget the location,” said Sidell,
president of Gart Properties.
The experience will be
unmatched, he said, at the recently
announced, newest anchor tenant
at Gart’s Denver Pavilions.
Uniqlo, a Japanese casual wear
clothing store, will lease 27,500
square feet at Tremont Place and
the 16th Street Mall, where Barnes
&Noble is currently located.
Barnes & Noble, an original ten-
ant at the Pavilions, will close at
the end of the year.
Barnes & Noble wanted to keep
its two-level store open through
the Christmas shopping season,
Sidell said.
Uniqlo, for “unique clothing,”
will open in the fall of 2016, he
said.
Uniqlo is part of the Japanese-
based Fast Retailing chain.
The chain’s founder, Tadashi
Yanai, has a net worth of $19.9 bil-
lion, making
him the richest
man in Japan,
according to
Forbes Maga-
zine.
“They are
e x p a n d i n g
around the
U.S. and the
world; they
are especially
expanding outside of their home
in Japan and throughout Asia,
Australia, Europe and the U.S.,”
Sidell said.
“They have this concept that
fits in well with (other anchors)
at Pavilions such as H&M and
Forever 21,” Sidell said. H&M
recently expanded its footprint in
Pavilions by taking another 10,000
sf of space.
H&M, Forever 21 and Uniqlo,
“each has a slightly different con-
cept, so theywill complement each
other,” Sidell said.
Uniqlo, he said, might carry a
“puffy jacket” thatwouldcost $300
at Patagonia orNorthFace and sell
it for about $89, he said.
“And they might have a cash-
mere sweater that would cost you
$300 at Nordstrom, and their ver-
sion would cost you $79 or $89,”
Sidell said.
He said he and the Gart family
have long been aware of and fans
of the various retailers operated by
Fast Retailing.
“Especially with the Gart fam-
ily retail legacy, we make it our
business to knowwhat are the hot
retailers in the U.S. and globally,”
Sidell said.
So two years ago, when Stuart
Zall of the Denver-based Zall Co.,
offered to introduce Sidell and his
team to Uniqlo officials at an Inter-
national Council of ShoppingCen-
ters convention in Las Vegas, they
jumped at the opportunity.
“Stuart Zall is a good friend of
ours,” having also represented
H&M, which at the time, like
Uniqlo, was a first-to-market retail-
er for Denver.
In fact, the Pavilions might be
the only Uniqlo in the Denver area
for two years or so after it opens.
Even afterUniqlo expands in the
metro area, Pavilions will remain
its flagship store, he said.
Sidell said his first job was to
convince Uniqlo that Denver was
a good fit for it. While the first
Uniqlo in the U.S. opened in New
York a decade ago, the only other
store in the central U.S. opened in
Chicago about two weeks ago.
“We knew Denver, particularly
with its growth in the millennial
population segment, would be a
great fit for them,” Sidell said.
The Barnes & Noble space was
a prime location that was ready to
go for the right tenant, he said.
“When the Barnes&Noble lease
was coming up a couple of years
ago, we negotiated in their lease
that allowed us to ‘recapture’ that
space and re-tenant it, if we found
a replacement for them and gave
them a certain amount of notice,”
Sidell said.
In exchange, it reduced the rent
paid by Barnes &Noble.
“We gave them enough notice
so they could stay during the
Christmas season and plan for the
most efficient exit,” Sidell said.
He said he expects Uniqlo will
spend “several hundred dollars”
per sf for its tenant improvements.
“One benefit to them is that
19,500 square feet of the 27,500
square feet is on the second floor,”
as second-floor space is less expen-
sive than ground-floor space on
the 16th Street Mall, he said.
In addition to Uniqlo, Henry’s
Tavern recently opened along the
16th Street Mall in the Pavilions in
space where the VirginMegastore
closed six years ago.
As far as the Uniqlo store, Sidell
said the only downside is that
Barnes & Noble is leaving the
Pavilions for good.
He said he thinks its departure
likely will be good news for the
Tattered Cover in Lower Down-
town.
“We asked Barnes & Noble if it
wanted to keep a small presence
in the Pavilions, but it did not,”
he said.
“We would have liked them to
stay,” he said.
“The Pavilions gets quite a bit
of tourist and convention busi-
ness, and I think a small bookstore
where they could pick up a book
or a magazine would be some-
thing they would find useful,”
Sidell said.
Other News
n
Kathy and Johnny Inc.
recently paid $3.25 million for the
14,770-square-foot
Twenty Mile
Depot
at 18951 E. Mainstreet in
Parker.
The sales price equates to
$220.04 per sf.
Tenants include
La Casita,
Canyon Fitness
and
Mile High
Pilates.
Mitch Trevey
and
Nick Nick-
erson
of
Trevey Land and Com-
mercial
were the listing brokers
in the transactions.
n
JB Office Furniture,
doing
business as
Denver Desks,
leased
20,000 sf atWestminster Square at
3047W. 74thAve. inWestminster.
Gene Stone
of
Antonoff & Co.
Brokerage
was the listing broker
and
SofiaWilliamson
of
Dunton
Commercial
was the cooperating
broker in the transaction.
n
Green Sativa LLC,
a mari-
juana dispensary, leased 1,750 sf
at the Pecos Shoppette at 8411
Pecos St. in Federal Heights.
Gene Stone
of
Antonoff & Co.
Brokerage
was the listing broker
in the transaction.
s
Uniqlo will open in about a year at the Barnes & Noble space in the
Denver Pavilions at Tremont Place and the 16th Street Mall.
Henry’s Tavern recently opened in the former Virgin Megastore in the
Denver Pavilions.
A look at the interior of an Uniqlo store in New York City
Tadashi Yanai
