Page 14
— Retail Properties Quarterly — February 2016
Retail Trends
by Michelle Z. Askeland
When Saks Fifth Avenue closed its
doors after 20 years at the Cherry
Creek Shopping Center in 2011, it
was up to the mall’s general man-
ager, Nick LeMasters, and his team
to reimagine the space on behalf of
the property’s owner, Taubman Prop-
erties.
“Every time a store closes, it repre-
sents great opportunity,” LeMasters
said. “When they closed, it was out
of our control because it was part
of their national strategic plan. So
immediately we began to strategize
around repurposing that space.”
The 1.1-million-square-foot mall
prides itself on offering a variety of
lines that are unavailable anywhere
else in the market, which attracts
many of the 18 million annual visi-
tors. Of the 160 stores, more than 40
are exclusive.
“With a lot of malls, you find
duplication,” he said. “So those 40
stores make us distinct.”
As fewer big department stores
remain, malls need creative thinkers
to determine how to best capitalize
on the freed space. The additions
must complement the existing ten-
ants while bringing something new
and exciting to the mall mix.
Cherry Creek found its solution
with a new luxury wing that is
anchored by a 70,000-sf, four-story
RH Gallery. The space is a furniture
gallery concept that showcases the
brand’s new business concepts, RH
Modern and RH Teen, in addition to
the classical Restoration Hardware
concepts and outdoor living.
“RH Denver is a first-of-its-kind
retail concept that blurs the lines
between residential and retail,
indoors and outdoors, physical and
digital,” according to RH. “Concep-
tualized as a grand-scale, multilevel
classical contemporary building
filled with fresh air and natural
light to reflect Colorado’s outdoor
lifestyle, RH Denver features decom-
posed granite courtyards with trick-
ling fountains, Juliet balconies, an
expansive garden terrace, a grand
double staircase with massive sky-
light soaring 70 feet overhead, and
a rooftop park and conservatory
with a grove of Quaking Aspens and
views of the Rocky Mountains.”
“It truly is a gallery,” said LeMas-
ters while giving a tour of the space.
“Each floor feels different and gives
you a true experience as you walk
through it. We’re very proud to be a
partner of the project.”
Restoration Hardware previously
occupied a 13,000-sf shop in a differ-
ent part of the mall. From demoli-
tion to the grand opening in October,
the project took 2½ years. Cherry
Creek mall handled the build-out
and RH did the tenant finishes with
all the architectural details.
“The RH Gallery is a game changer
for us,” LeMasters said. “I liken it to
Ikea in the sense that people will
drive great distances to come visit it
specifically. It’s a tremendous draw.”
Once the anchor tenant was
secure, the puzzle began to fill in
the rest of the luxury-wing tenants,
which involved a combination of
moving tenants and introducing
new brands. For example, Tiffany
& Co. and Free People both moved
from smaller store footprints within
the mall to the wing. Tiffany & Co.
now offers its full product line and
Free People became a flagship store.
At the same time, the leasing team
sought to add new brands that cus-
tomers would recognize but previ-
ously were not available, such as
Tory Burch.
“We wanted a Tory Burch here for
years, but we didn’t have the right
space,” said LeMasters. “In many
ways, Cherry Creek sells itself, but
ultimately we both have to agree
that the location makes sense.”
The mall is merchandize by life-
styles rather than by categories. All
the stores in the new wing were
selected because they have the same
“neighborhood” feel; that is, all high-
end, luxury goods, from jewelry,
clothing and accessories to upscale
personal hygiene to home furnish-
ings.
“Our merchants like to be with
other stores that they know over-
lap,” he said. “They want to be in the
right neighborhood.”
For example, the customer profile
of RH Denver is similar to the cus-
tomer profile of someone who shops
at Tory Burch, so while they’re not
the same type of products, the shop-
pers could be the same, he said. The
same can be said of Louis Vuitton
and Hyde Park’s customer profile, he
said.
Courtesy RH
RH Denver, a 70,000-square-foot furniture gallery, anchors the mall’s new luxury wing.
