Urban Outfitters - Opening Tuesday 11/23

The store is fitted out, the shelves are stocked, the staff trained and the mannequins are clothed. It'll be a pre-Thanksgiving opening for Urban Outfitters at the Town Center Corte Madera tomorrow.

New store news: Target, Urban Outfitters and Woodlands Market

In Corte Madera, the new Urban Outfitters store at the Town Center is taking shape. The shell is finished, staff are being recruited, and the store is being fitted out. The photo below shows how the covered walkway has been enveloped within the store footprint.

Over in San Rafael, the debate over the proposed new Target continues to hit the headlines. Last week the San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution in opposition to the development. Then, after a marathon 7-hour meeting, the San Rafael Planning Commission approved the project:

"Our working families need the convenience of economically priced items in one place that doesn't require a trip on the freeway," Chairwoman Maribeth Bushey-Lang said. While "there are a lot of reasons why this is not the ideal location by any stretch of the imagination," job creation, sales tax revenue and convenient shopping outweigh those concerns, she said.

Also last week the Marin IJ reported that downtown Tiburon will be without a grocery store for up to four months after the Boardwalk Market closes at the end of this year. The owners of the Woodlands Market, who are taking over and expanding the space, had been in discussions with the Boardwalk to buy their business and keep the store open through the transition. However, these talks have broken down, and it looks like the store will close while the Woodlands space is built out, with an opening date sometime in April 2011. This is further bad news for Tiburon, which has the worst performing retail sector in Marin. However, this surely is a great opportunity for a quick-moving operator to set up a grocery store in one of the vacant downtown spaces.

Urban Outfitters heading to Corte Madera

Huge fashion news this week with details released about the proposed new Urban Outfitters store at the Town Center Corte Madera.

Outline plans for the store were discussed at the recent Corte Madera Planning Commission meeting. The Urban Outfitters store will take the 9,154 square foot space currently occupied by Pier One, a retailer which has been in financial distress over the last year. The plans include the enclosure of the covered breezeway on the mall side, which will give the store extra space. As seen on the sketches, the design stands out from the existing Tuscan theme in quite the same way that the new Crate and Barrel store did. I wasn’t a fan of the C&B design, particularly the way in which it thrust its big white façade into the mall, but I quite like the finished product and appreciate the impact that it had on keeping the mall up to date.

This is a big move for the Town Center, which has until now steered away from competing directly with the fashion-led Village at Corte Madera. Urban Outfitters is one of my favorite stores and well overdue a representation here. The company also owns Anthropologie, which is one of the best stores at The Village, with very good merchandise and a wicked sense of humor and creativity in its display.

It will be interesting to see whether the arrival of Urban Outfitters marks a shift in the leasing strategy at the center and is followed by the opening of more apparel retailers there.

Friday news update

Some of the Marin retail news buzzing around this week. Bonus points to anyone who can match the correct story to this picture.

As reported in the Marin IJ, CVS won approval to take over the former Elephant Pharmacy store at 909 Grand Avenue in San Rafael.

The Square in Novato is caught up in a downward spiral, with more retailers planning to vacate the center following the closure of DeLano's market last year. The loss of customer traffic and the presence of an undesirable element hanging out in the car park were cited as key reasons.

Eddie's Ross Grocery store has been bought by the owner of Kentfield's Woodlands Market.

In Corte Madera, Napa Style has closed its store at the Town Center. Over the highway at The Village, Brookstone has closed, but Elegant Living Furniture is soon to open.

The Twin Cities Times chronicles the latest plans for transforming Larkspur Landing Shopping Center into Marin Country Mart. Details are pretty light, save an intention to hold farmers' markets, flower shows and pony rides. Also interesting to note some of the owner's proposals that were denied by the Larkspur Planning Commission, including the construction of a 40 ft water tower and an entrance gate to charge for parking.

Marin retail news update

Mill Valley residents can cast their vote to help select a design consultant for the Miller Avenue Streetscape Plan. All fourteen proposals are on the City of MV website, and those with time on their hands can use the evaluation tool to select their favorite consultant.

Over in Corte Madera, The Village will be getting a not-so-glamorous new neighbor when The Home Consignment Center takes over the Lay-Z-Boy space at 801 Tamalpais Avenue.

Nearby, the Old Town Square will be losing one of it's most popular stores when Tamalpais Paint and Color moves to a location in East Corte Madera in January. The current building was offered for sale last year, at which point the paint store was "in the middle of their 10-year lease". Any local residents care to suggest what they would like to see in that space?

Good news for leopard-print throw rug fans: Z Gallerie (Town Center Corte Madera) has emerged from bankruptcy.

A new proposal was unveiled for the Hannah Ranch site in Novato. The development proposal includes a 116-room hotel and a small amount of office, retail and restaurant space, and was greeted with much more enthusiasm than the previous attempt to build a Home Depot at the site.

Weekend news digest

At the end of another week of depressing stories of store closures, bankruptcies and sales declines, it's time to tune in to the serious news stories in Marin-land.

First off, the Marin IJ took an excursion to northern San Rafael this week and came back with two stories about Northgate. The first article was about the renovations to Northgate Mall, where the big news is that the mall is.... still being renovated. There are a couple of photos of the (still empty) new food court, but not much to get excited about.

Second article reports on approval of the redesign of Northgate One, home of the World's nastiest Safeway. No word on whether Safeway will remodel their store, but they at least show some nice before and after shots of the center's refurb:

Meanwhile, the Twin Cities Times gets enthusiastic (and who wouldn't be) about the replacement of the Town Center Corte Madera's Maccas with The Counter. From the website:

Step into The Counter® and you’re greeted with a clipboard and an extensive list of fresh mouth-watering ingredients that allow you to build your own gourmet burger. Our 312,120+ different burger combinations make every burger as unique as each customer. Rarely is the same burger made twice in one day.

Anti-Established in 2003, The Counter® is the 21st century’s bold answer to the classic burger joint. Ushering in a fresh era of industrial decor, today’s music, cold beer, unique wines, cocktails, and burger options that are only limited by your imagination.

Read the build-a-burger menu and try not to drool.

Reasons to be Cheerful - Part One

So let's forget the recessionary doom and gloom for a moment and start the week with a good news story. And what better news could there be for Marin folks than the long-awaited opening of the mega huge Crate & Barrel at the Town Center Corte Madera. Before you get too excited, you need to know that the store doesn't actually open its doors until late Spring, but to get the juices flowing here are a couple of pics of the construction I snapped this weekend.
As you might be able to make out from the photos, the structural work is nearly complete and they are starting to finish off the services and interior walls. What you can't see is just how big the store will be. At over 18,000 sq.ft, the store will be much larger than the old store that closed in The Village in 2007, and will include the full C&B range, including a furniture department.
I have to say I am a little surprised by the external design of the new store, which is very sleek, square and modern. It's what you would expect to see on a C&B in a strip mall, but in the middle of the faux-tuscan Town Center it seems out of place (the 'before' picture above shows the old Shoe Pavilion store). I guess it's good to have variety and individuality in the mall architecture, but I just get a feeling that the square boxy-ness of the store might interfere with the center's Feng-Shui, which was a key ingredient in the design of the current center. It would be a shame if the new Crate, plonked down in the middle of the mall, blocked the flow of positive energy along the thoroughfare. The bad Chi could totally put people off their gourmet flatbread at Champagne Bakery...

Weekend News Feed

The Marin IJ agonizes about dowtown Tiburon becoming a retail wasteland (yes, there are a couple of vacant stores). And see the comments following the story to find out why the popular vote reckons the TPD is to blame. And a plea from Tiburon Town Manager Peggy Curran for residents to patronize their local stores.

Have you seen the Trader Joe's song on YouTube?

Sales are booming for Novato florists. (Okay, it was Valentines Day)

Ann Taylor Loft is smoking hot..http://tinyurl.com/bq3ayp

but there's no smoking at the Town Center Corte Madera..http://tinyurl.com/afz97h

Top Retail Cities in Marin

Continuing our look at the retail sales tax data for Marin County from the California Board of Equalization (great name by the way). The table below shows total sales at retail outlets by city for the years 2006-07. So what is it telling us?

• San Rafael captures the largest slice of retail sales, with $1.3 billion or 38% of sales in Marin in 2007. San Rafael extends over quite a large area, which includes the downtown area, Northgate Mall, the big box retail along 101, Montecito Plaza and Home Depot.
• Novato is the second largest city, with 18% of the total, or $595 million. Most of this is drawn through Vintage Oaks.
• Corte Madera, with sales of $450 million, or 14% of the total, takes third place.
• The city with the greatest increase in sales was San Anselmo, with growth of $9.9 million, or 14% between 2006 and 2007. I don't recall any major retail changes taking place, so I wonder if the change reflects the impact of the floods on New Years Day 2006, which took out many downtown businesses for several weeks.
• Mill Valley also had a good 2007, up $6.9 million or 3.7% in 2007, possibly as a result of new store openings at Strawberry Village.
• Corte Madera recorded the greatest fall in sales over the period, down $4.2 million or 0.9% in 2007. This may reflect refurbishment work at the Town Center (Barnes & Noble) and The Village, which went through a program of renovations in 2007.

The BoE data also provides details of sales by retailer category. Unfortunately, the Board is in the process of changing how it classifies businesses, so we can't do a meaningfull comparison with previous years. I'll publish some charts with this data later this week.

The return of Crate and Barrel

Everybody cheer: Crate and Barrel is coming to the Town Center at Corte Madera. A year after closing it's store at the Village, the popular homeware retailer is taking over 8,000 sq.ft at the TC, with Z Gallerie shifting into the ex-Bombay space at the center.

A C&B spokesperson gushes:

"The customers have a sense of taste, style and trends, which is what Crate
& Barrel is all about," Everhart said. "Our furnishings, tabletop and
accessories reflect the lifestyle that is associated with Marin residents."

Read the full story in the IJ here.

Corte Madera Town Center

The Town Center at Corte Madera is a familiar sight to anyone who regularly drives south on 101 through Marin County. There’s the Container Store, REI and Barnes & Noble - all clearly visible from the freeway. But unless you stop to visit you might miss the attractive pedestrian mall, lined with boutiques, gourmet merchandise stores and eateries, that is tucked in between the shops that face the freeway and a Safeway and Rite Aid on the other side.

The Town Center is a shopping mall that serves several different purposes: it’s a neighborhood center that provides everyday shopping for the local population; it’s a destination mall that draws people in from the wider region to shop the Container Store or REI; and it’s a lifestyle mall that people visit to stroll, browse and eat in the elegant architectural setting that the owners claim is modeled on an Italian hill town.

Because of these contradictory personalities it has taken several years and a few false starts for the Town Center to establish itself. A few years ago the center was updated with the help of a Feng-Shui design guru, who introduced fountains, wall artwork, plantings and lots and lots of tables and chairs, all carefully positioned to promote a feeling of peace and harmony.

The leasing team has also been at work on the tenant roster, replacing down-market stores with more upscale brands. Last year a Barnes & Noble bookstore was brought in to replace Marshalls at the southern end of the center. More recently, the popular PF Changs restaurant and two up-market home furnishings stores: Harvest Home and Napa Style, were added.

The Details

Location

Located just west of Highway 101 at Corte Madera, approximately 3 miles south of San Rafael and 7 miles north of San Francisco. Access from the Tamalpais Boulevard, Paradise Drive exit (northbound) and Madera Boulevard exit (Southbound).

Composition

The Town Center contains 350,000 square feet of retail space clustered around a north/south pedestrian mall. Approximately 70,000 sq.ft of professional suites are located above the stores at the southern end of the mall. Car parking is provided around the perimeter.

Performance

Retail sales estimated at approximately $500 per sq.ft, or $160 million per annum in total.

The center’s share of trade area retail spending is estimated at 19.2% in the primary sector (Corte Madera and Larkspur) and 5.1% in the secondary sector (remainder of Southern Marin).


Highlights

• The heart of the mall, nicely presented with outdoor seating, fountain, plantings and a few decent places to get something to eat and drink, including AG Ferarri, Bryans Fine Foods, Champagne and Tullys.


• Great family restaurants, including CPK, PK Changs, Pacific Catch, Il Fornaio.


• A nice selection of home furnishing stores in the southern mall: West Elm, Z Gallerie, Harvest Home, Pier One, Sur La Table.


• Just enough funky arts & crafts stores to make the place interesting: Columbine, Meadowlark Gallery, Napa Style (with 23 different types of table salt).


• The solid anchor stores that draw people in: REI, Safeway, Barnes & Noble, Container Store.

Lowlights

• The West entry, with ugly fixed seating outside McDonalds.


• The South entry, with vacant ex-Good Guys unit, Charles Schwab, entry to professional suites providing little interest.


• The South mall, sunk below the level of the shops, makes access difficult and deters browsing.