San Francisco's Retail Scene

[Reminiscence]

Originally Posted by rs913

Anyone know when Barneys is going to open in Union Square? Website says 9/19/07, but I've heard others say December.

I wonder how well they'll do. Seems like they face a lot of competition...

S.F. Barneys to open in September

Aug 22, 2007 3:00 AM (10 hrs ago)

by Kate Williamson, The Examiner

- SAN FRANCISCO -

Soon, San Francisco will be fit for a visit from Carrie Bradshaw.

Barneys New York, a department store beloved by the Sex and the City character and famous for designer fashions with an edge, will open a “flagship” store on Union Square on Sept. 19 at 77 O’Farrell St., the former FAO Schwarz building.

Previously known under a 47 Stockton St. address, the building was built for the Newman and Levinson Department Store in 1909, according to the American Institute of Architects San Francisco Chapter, which received a sneak peak at the building this month.

“Obviously, it’s a landmark building, so the front of the building was basically left intact,” Barneys spokeswoman Dawn Brown said. “Inside, we ripped out everything to take out escalators and put in staircases. ... All of the windows have been restored and the front of the store has also been restored. We really think it’s kind of beautiful.”
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The company is opening a store in San Francisco because it is cosmopolitan and Barneys already has many customers from The City, Brown said. At 60,000 square feet on six floors, the San Francisco location will be among the smaller Barneys stores, less than half the size of the Los Angeles location but larger than Boston.

Brown said she expects the Co-op section of the store, featuring edgier fashions and lower prices, to be an attraction to local shoppers.

The opening will come one day after an invitation-only opening party hosted by San Francisco author Danielle Steel and Barneys CEO Howard Socol, benefiting Steel’s Nick Traina Foundation, which funds organizations that aid the mentally ill.

On the larger stage, Barneys New York is in the process of being sold. Dubai investment firm Istithmar agreed this month to buy the chain from Jones Apparel Group (JNY) for $942.3 million after a bidding war with Japanese firm Fast Retailing.

“I think it’s one more name in retailing to add to the mix,” said Stephen Brett, a director of the Union Square Business Improvement District and principal of leasing firm Brett & Co. “Witness the bidding war: Barneys has great international cachet. It really strengthens the Stockton [Street] connector between Yerba Buena and Union Square.”

Several other new stores will open in Union Square in coming months, including Mango, De Beers, Prada and Helmut Lang, according to Donna Ficarrotta, managing director of Union Square Association.

[FourOneFive]

does anyone know if pinkberry is opening in san francisco anytime soon?

http://www.pinkberry.com/html/pbmain.php

[rs913]

does anyone know if pinkberry is opening in san francisco anytime soon?

From what I've read online, probably not. They'll focus on NYC and LA for now.

However, one of the Pinkberry clones in the Bay Area actually, really, seriously tastes just like Pinkberry to me: Papamingo on Channing & Bowditch in Berkeley.

[Hal Incandenza]

Originally Posted by rs913

From what I've read online, probably not. They'll focus on NYC and LA for now.

However, one of the Pinkberry clones in the Bay Area actually, really, seriously tastes just like Pinkberry to me: Papamingo on Channing & Bowditch in Berkeley.

Unsubstantiated rumor from a comment on Curbed SF:

The site of the Shell station [at Market and Sanchez] is going to be a mixed use 6 story building with retail on the lower two floors medical offices on the third and rental residential units on the upper floors. Retail tentants (sic) include Pinkberry and From Gelato of Italy.

[CHapp]

Originally Posted by Hal Incandenza

Retail tentants (sic) include Pinkberry and From Gelato of Italy.

Well, that should make for some healthy competition!

[BTinSF]

S.F. waterfront institution Java House faces rent hike on steroids
Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross
Monday, August 27, 2007



It's a story we've heard all too often: A little family-run business in a newly gentrified San Francisco neighborhood is suddenly hit with a staggering rent hike by a money-hungry landlord.

Only in this case, the landlord is the Port of San Francisco.

The little business getting jacked is the Java House, a mom-and-pop breakfast and burger joint on Pier 40, just up the street from AT&T Park. It just got served notice that its rent is jumping more than fivefold, from $800 to $4,429 a month, effective this coming Saturday.

"There's no way we can make a go at this rent," said owner Phil Papadopoulos, who along with his wife and daughter has been working the counter for the past 23 years.

Like a lot of waterfront businesses, the Java House is on a month-to-month lease from the port.

And like a lot of waterfront businesses, it was getting a nice deal, paying only $800 a month.

Understandably, the port wanted more. So last year, the port and Papadopoulos worked out a new, 15-year lease, under which the Java House would pay a base of $2,045 a month, plus 7.5 percent of whatever it grossed after rent - with more increases down the road.

The initial figure would total out to about $2,600 a month, based on last year's receipts.

Papadopoulos also agreed to make $300,000 in improvements that the port wanted.

The Port Commission OKd the deal in May 2006. The last step should have been approval from the Board of Supervisors - but the lease agreement never got there.

"We kept calling and calling the port and asking what was going on, and they kept telling us, 'Don't worry, don't worry, it's just a formality,' " Papadopoulos said.

The port's Susan Reynolds said her office had a file full of correspondence on negotiations between the port and the Java House since the commission granted initial approval, but that no final lease had been worked out.

In other words, she said, the Port Commission sign-off was only an incremental step, and there were details still to be worked out with the Java House that were never finalized.

"What are they talking about? I've got a 50-page, single-spaced lease sitting here waiting to be approved," said Don Drummond, the Java House's attorney.

Reynolds also said Papadopoulos might have been dragging his feet on the new deal in order to keep paying the $800-a-month rent for as long as possible.

However, when asked to produce anything showing the Java House folks had tried to stall the deal, the port came up empty.

Somewhere along the line, the port decided it could get a lot more money from the Java House. On July 25, it sent Papadopoulos notice that his rent was going up to $4,429 - plus an $8,800 security deposit.

And after Papadopoulos pays the new rent, the port said, negotiations will start on a new lease.

This from a city whose own Small Business Commission touts it as a champion of business friendly policies designed to "support and enhance an environment where small businesses can succeed and flourish."

Right.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...OVOB.DTL&tsp=1

OK. I'm not a whiny liberal type. But this p*sses me off bigtime. I'm on the verge of making a hand-lettered picket sign and marching down to the Port offices. I can't think of a better place to sit in the sun and refill my cholesterol tank on a warm sunny day. San Francisco cannot afford to lose The Java House. Period.

[San Frangelino]

Delete

[San Frangelino]

From http://www.wwd.com/search/article/11...uery=palo+alto

Published: Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Retail Getting Reenergized in Silicon Valley
By Joanna Ramey
Northern California's Silicon Valley is showing renewed economic vigor, and retailers have taken notice.

Six years after the dot-com bubble burst, three major malls are expanding or beefing up their tenant rosters as competition intensifies in the high-tech center. There also is heightened interest in retail space for freestanding stores of all types catering to the Silicon Valley luxury market and its geek-billionaire mystique.

The mall projects are:

-- A 240,000-square-foot expansion to the 1.4 million-square-foot outdoor Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, which is owned by Stanford University and was leased four years ago to the Simon Property Group. There are 140 stores, and the anchors are Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Macy's, Macy's Men's Store and Bloomingdale's.

-- Valley Fair, which is located in the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara and was developed by Westfield Group, based in Australia, wants to add 560,000 square feet for 55 stores and two more anchors. The mall now has 1.4 million square feet, 244 stores and three anchors: Nordstrom, Macy's and Macy's Men's Store.

-- San Jose's Santana Row, an outdoor shopping-hotel-condo complex developed by Federal Realty, based in Rockville, Md., has become a magnet for young professionals who pack its restaurants and cafes. Santana Row has announced that Hennes & Mauritz signed a lease to open a 7,900-square-foot store this year, and BCBG Max Azria will expand. Santana Row, which has a Macy's, along with 70 stores and 550,000 square feet of retail space, opened in 2002 and competes directly with Valley Fair across Highway 280.

Silicon Valley — or the Santa Clara Valley — got its moniker more than 35 years ago because of the area's concentration of silicon chip manufacturers, which propelled high-tech growth. The valley, a one-hour drive south of San Francisco, has a population of 2.44 million, including 1 million who live in San Jose. The rest of the region is affluent suburban communities built on former almond, plum, pear and apricot orchards. The valley is spread over 1,200 square miles between two mountain ranges at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay.

Most important to retailers, the region is headquarters to many of the world's most important technology companies, including Apple, eBay, Google, Yahoo, Intel and Hewlett-Packard. About one-third of the valley's 1.2 million workers are employed in high tech.

"All these high-end retailers want to come here; they look at the demographics and say, 'We have to have a presence,'" said Steve Sauter, senior broker in Palo Alto for real estate investment dealmaker Marcus & Millichap, based in Encino.

However, finding the right retail location is a challenge because of the lack of large parcels of land and/or big commercial buildings, as well as strict local zoning and land-use rules.

Communities are "struggling with the balance between maintaining...character and uniqueness and not just becoming a mall," said Dale Achabal, director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The strongest indicator of the improved valley economy is recent job growth, said Doug Henton, an economist with Collaborative Economics in Mountain View, Calif., which prepared the 2007 Silicon Valley Index for Joint Venture, a network of local governments and businesses.

Last year, for the first time since the downturn of 2001-2002, more jobs were created in the valley than were lost — the net gain was 31,869. Employment also has become more diversified with growing fields such as bio-tech and environmental technologies.

The increase in employment is reflected in the rising referrals to designer fashion specialty retailer Wilkes-Bashford, said Serita Sangimino, general manager of the regional chain based in San Francisco. Wilkes-Bashford is where Apple chief Steve Jobs buys his trademark, long-sleeved Brunello Cucinelli T-shirts, which Sangimino said cost $165 each at retail.

Even with the improved job creation, employment remains 220,000 below its peak in early 2001 at the height of the speculative Internet market, a deficit economist Henton said wasn't as big as it may seem. Federal employment figures don't take into account thousands of for-hire contractors and independent inventors in engineering and computer-related fields, he said.

Well-known valley innovators include twentysomethings Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, whose YouTube.com video-sharing start-up was bought last fall by Google — also the product of entrepreneurs — for $1.65 billion. There's also Mark Zuckerberg, who three years ago started the social-network Web site Facebook that has been valued at $2 billion.

"There is a lot of money in the area," said Mario Belotti, an economics professor at Santa Clara University, adding that the frenzy of growth more than a decade ago has not been matched. "The economy is growing, but more or less at the same rate as the national economy. Even in terms of IPOs, there are no situations now where you find a company that goes public at $12 and then at the end of the day sells for $80."

However, pressures of supply and demand are apparent when it comes to the availability of retail space, according to Marcus & Millichap's 2007 National Retail Report. In the San Jose/Silicon Valley area, the retail vacancy rate this year is forecast at 2.8 percent, down from last year's 3 percent and 3.8 percent in 2005. By comparison, the Los Angeles retail vacancy rate this year is expected to decline to 6.8 percent, from last year's 7.1 percent and 8.1 percent in 2005.

In San Jose, there is such a dearth of shopping that city officials estimate $2 billion a year is spent elsewhere on all consumer goods, including fashion.

"San Jose is 20 percent underretailed," said Nanci Klein, an economic development executive with the city, which is projected to add 400,000 residents by 2030.

"The challenge in San Jose has been adding significant-size parcels to the retail base," Klein said.

San Jose planners have been creative, she said. For example, space to build high-density, open-air shopping districts that include housing has been generated by recasting an old Palm Inc. corporate campus or a former General Electric nuclear reactor research center into mixed-use projects.

The region's median annual household income remains far higher than the national level and is a magnet for retailers. The valley's median income in 2005 was $76,300, compared with $46,326 for the U.S., according to the U.S. Census' latest figures. In early 2001, at the dot-com peak, the median Silicon Valley household income was $83,000.

The income statistics don't reflect the recent wave of employees exercising their hefty stock options, like the $2.6 billion in options that come due this year for some Google employees hired before 2004, when the Internet search engine went public.

Silicon Valley customers are increasingly diverse; 48 percent of the residents speak another language in addition to English, 23 percent are of Asian descent and 19 percent are Hispanic. Statewide, 42 percent of residents speak another language, and nationwide the number is 19 percent, according to Joint Venture. In addition, 55 percent of the scientists and engineers in the valley are foreign born, compared with 20 percent nationally.

At Santana Row on a recent weekend evening, the valley's diversity was apparent as after-work shoppers strolled and diners filled restaurants. Young women were smartly dressed in jeans and trendy tunics, or short blazers. Men wore jeans and sport shirts and soft-looking leather loafers typical of the valley's casual fashion tone.

"The consumer in Silicon Valley is more a cross-shopper," said Fred Walters, general manager of Santana Row. "They'll buy a Gucci handbag and then shop at Anthropologie or Urban Outfitter. They are not head-to-toe one particular brand."

On a fashion note, economist Belotti observed, "They aren't into, 'Look, look, look at me,'" regardless of income.

However, Christine Campbell, a former technology marketing executive who now owns the women's fashion boutique Crimson Mim in Los Altos, has detected an evolution of fashion savvy. Previously, the attitude was, "If you're smart enough to start your own company, you don't have to dress up for other people,'' she said. "It was a question of credibility."

Campbell's 800-square-foot store is well-stocked with 100 lines, including shoes. For the valley's 100 degree-plus summer temperatures, popular sellers include $295 ethereal peach silk sundresses with a leopard underlay by Claudette, based in Los Angeles. To wear to work, Campbell suggests a casual but crisp, $165 blue-and-white striped blouse by Alara with bishop sleeves and ruching at the torso, paired with $314 lightweight black wool trousers by Tibi and $245 Rachel Comey bejeweled slides.

"People here are wealthy; they travel a lot,'' Campbell said. "They want something different, that's not all over the place."

That wealth keeps Valley Fair mall in the top five performing malls among Westfield's U.S. properties, said Randall Smith, Westfield's vice president for business development in the U.S.

As for Stanford Shopping Center, "There are clearly positive demographic trends in that market," said Rick Sokolov, president and chief operating officer of Simon Properties.

Since 2002, annual sales per square foot at the shopping center doubled to $999, growth that Sokolov said had been achieved by adding higher-price tag retailers such as Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade and Burberry.

So if Valley Fair expands that would potentially bring the shopping center 1.95 million square feet. Add Santana Row Across the Street which is suppose to add 100,000 more square feet to its 500,00 square feet of space in the future, its quite a large "shopping center" at 2.5 million square feet.

[BTinSF]

Barneys likely to give already bustling Union Square retailers lift
George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, September 17, 2007

It's not a scientific analysis, but from her office window overlooking Union Square, retail consultant Ellen Magnin Newman can pretty well measure the district's economy by counting shopping bags.

"After the dot-com bubble burst and 9/11, I would look out the window and see no one on the streets," said Newman. "Now I look out and see armloads of packages. There's a babble of tongues. There's been constant growth of the area, probably since 2005."

San Francisco retailers were in economic quicksand five years ago, and while recovery has taken its own sweet time, there has been a burst of new stores of late, particularly in the luxury category. One of the most noteworthy additions will come this week with the opening Wednesday of Barneys New York, the very stylish luxury specialty store, on Union Square.

Others are coming: De Beers, the jeweler, will open kitty-corner to Shreve & Co. on Post Street this winter; Prada, the couture designer clothier, will move from Geary Street to larger quarters in the old, long-vacant Brooks Brothers building on Post Street after the first of the year; and designer Helmut Lang plans a luxury shop for Maiden Lane, to name a few. They're joining a parade of luxury brands established in Union Square and in the San Francisco Centre.

"Considering how small San Francisco is, we are second strongest for the retail market in the country," meaning second only to New York in gross sales for many retailers, said Vikki Johnson, a principal at the San Francisco real estate firm Johnson Hoke Ltd., which is focused on Union Square.

Johnson, who brokered the transactions for Barneys, the H&M store on Powell Street and De Beers, said the flurry of business reflects San Francisco's recovery and unusual concentration of customer bases within a five-block radius - hotel districts south of Market Street and west of Union Square, the theater district, convention and business districts and, increasingly, upscale residential options, all within an easy walk to and from Union Square and the Westfield San Francisco Centre.

"I think Barneys and H&M are two of the most significant deals in the San Francisco market," said Johnson, "bringing in a brand-new component in both categories, luxury (Barneys) and midpriced (H&M)."

Barneys New York is the buzz du jour. It has taken over the old Joseph Magnin building at Stockton and O'Farrell streets where, real estate sources say, the company is spending $35 million to gut and transform the space into a temple of fashion.

Howard Socol, Barneys New York board chairman and chief executive officer, said the company does not disclose such figures, but he said the business plan in San Francisco is to create "a jewel box, not a mega-size store but a specialty store."

The store's new address certainly has plenty of history behind it.

In its first life, the 1907 building at 77 O'Farrell St. (also given the address of 48 Stockton St.) housed the Newman & Levinson Fancy Goods Store. In 1914, Joseph Magnin, in his first and only commercial real estate transaction, leased the building and bought the company. The store bore his name at midcentury and was an iconic San Francisco clothier and purveyor of jewelry and other fine goods until its sale in 1970. From 1989 until 2003, it was the San Francisco flagship of FAO Schwarz until the upscale toy retailer was trounced by cheaper mass discounters.

Ellen Magnin Newman, now "more than 70," grew up in the building her grandfather had taken over, playing retail merchant with her brother, Donald, and worked there until it was sold. She said she couldn't be happier with its new lease on life.

"It's a very lively company, interesting, exciting," she said of Barneys New York. "It's much better than a toy store.

"There was a time and a place for Joseph Magnin, and there was a time and a place for it to go away," she said.

Competition awaits Barneys, whether it be from Wilkes Bashford Co., Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue, at the higher-end price points, but retailers like Richard Horne, the president of Shreve & Co., think that's a good thing.

"Long run, it's healthy. Brings in more shoppers," Horne said of Barneys' entry into the market and competition.

Shreve's business itself this year is 20 percent higher than its pre- 9/11 sales, said Horne. That reflects the region's recovery, the health of the luxury category and an infusion of European visitors who, with the U.S. dollar weakened, can buy luxury items for less than they can at home.

Sales tax figures from the San Francisco Controller's Office help tell the tale: For the 12 months ended March 31, San Francisco's 1 percent share of sales tax collected by Union Square merchants was $11.7 million. That compares with $10.3 million for the same period in 2006 and $9.1 million in 2005. Of those totals, sales tax from apparel stores in the district produced $3.8 million for the year ended March 31; $3.2 million in the same period in 2006; and $2.6 million in 2005.

Citywide, San Francisco collected nearly $121 million for the year ended in March, and of that $11 million was from sales in apparel stores, trailing only restaurants and miscellaneous retail. The citywide figure was $114.5 million in 2006 and $105.7 million in 2005.

"That's very healthy and shows a rebound in our local economy," said Todd Rydstrom, director of budget and analysis at the controller's office.

Economic fundaments bode well for continued growth in retail and for hotels, said Rick Swig, chief executive of RSBA & Associates, a hotel and resort consultancy in San Francisco.

"The last cycle, in 2000, was built with the smoke and mirrors of the dot-coms. This cycle, with technology and the biotech world, is firmly based on a solid foundation, and in the national corporate economy, business is good," said Swig. "When business is good, companies send people to conferences. San Francisco is among the top five conference destinations."

San Francisco hotels are prospering, compared with the downturn of 2001-2003, when occupancy sank to around 60 percent or less. In June, the occupancy rate in Union Square/Moscone Center hotels was 81.7 percent, compared with 80.6 percent a year ago, according to PKF Consulting in San Francisco, which tracks the industry.

At the Handlery Union Square Hotel, the rate was 97.5 percent in August, said Jon Handlery, the general manager.

"A lot of that is the shopping - and people seeing 'Jersey Boys,' " said Handlery. "It's the best shopping, almost equal to New York. ... That sells people on coming to San Francisco rather than Los Angeles."

Is such a wealth of high-end shops in a concentrated area off-putting to some? "I think not for the San Francisco market," said Linda Mjellem, executive director of the Union Square Association, representing retailers and other stakeholders. "And I think not for the San Francisco visitor. Our niche is in luxury," she said of the square, "and we have grown eclectically with the addition of these stores that cater to a younger, edgier market."

Barneys is a good fit, said retail consultant Helen Bulwick of New Market Solutions in Oakland, "because it is great fashion apparel, high quality, urban and young, and there's nothing comparable on the square. "

Barneys is known for - in addition to women's shoes - establishing relationships with and encouraging young designers and catering to, as chief executive Socol put it, "great customers who favor fabulous luxury goods."

The price points are many, noted Michael Celestino, Barneys' executive vice president and director of stores, from $95 sneakers to $10,000 suits - and much more than that for select designer women's items. The average age of Barneys' customers is mid-30s to early 40s, but "it's much less about age than it is about attitude," he said, that being "a fashion intelligence, a fashion sense."




E-mail George Raine at [email protected].

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg.../MNH0S5UB3.DTL

And more:

Barneys prepares to bow in S.F. with luxurious new store
Sylvia Rubin, Chronicle Fashion Editor
Monday, September 17, 2007
Irene Banks, who was shopping at the Barneys New York outlet in Napa last weekend, is no stranger to the mystique of this store, whose small selection of fall items she was perusing. Whenever she visits Manhattan, she faithfully visits the Madison Avenue specialty retailer known for its high prices and high-concept merchandising.

Does she spend a lot of money there? "No, no. You go to look. It's Barneys!" said the stylish Toronto real estate agent. "I might buy a pair of sunglasses or a belt or a white poplin shirt that is practical but has just enough pizzazz to make it different."

After months of construction and burgeoning buzz among those who swoon over a perfect seam, a new 60,000-square-foot, six-story Barneys New York opens in downtown San Francisco on Wednesday.

Gawkers and glitterati, hold on to your handbags. The place is pricey, pretentious, original, intimidating, trendy, fun and hip, and after all these years, through bankruptcy and multiple owners, it's still one of the retail world's more desirable destinations.

This is where you'll find the store's signature "fairy blue" skin-toned mannequins. Twenty thousand pairs of shoes. A $14,000 Vionnet gown. Phone-booth-size parfum sniffing chambers. A $75 tube of lipstick by Serge Lutens. (Refills are only $30.)

Nobody goes to Barneys to bargain hunt, though that's how it all began back in 1923, when Barney Pressman hocked his wife's engagement ring to start his menswear emporium in New York.

He offered tailored clothing by well-known names at prices far below list. For years, that was what the store was all about. But the company changed its discount image in the mid-'80s and has since gone through more transformations than Madonna.

From affordable to snobbishly expensive, from family-owned to conglomerate takeovers and most recently through a protracted billion-dollar bidding war, the brand has survived and further raises the bar set by the new Bloomingdale's and other Westfield Centre boutiques that opened in downtown San Francisco last year.

The chain, which was acquired last month by the Dubai investment firm Istithmar for $942.3 million in cash, will continue to expand its reach. Several new stores (all with the trademark red canopies) have opened recently in Seattle, Dallas and Boston. Stores in Las Vegas and Phoenix are coming soon.

Why does the Barneys name seem to be so resilient when so many department stores find themselves struggling? It's known for having some of the best buyers in the business, who stock items that are unusual, not just expensive - and that makes the place more of a curiosity and an event for the shopper, say retail analysts and consultants.

"Barneys' high-end edgy luxury is a niche that downtown San Francisco didn't yet have, and that's the part that it can fill," said Vikki Johnson of Johnson Hoke Ltd., the San Francisco real estate firm that sealed the deal with the landlord for the location - the old Joseph Magnin and FAO Schwarz spot at Stockton and O'Farrell streets in the landmark building designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, a protege of Bernard Maybeck.

"The buyers keep up with all the latest brands; the merchandise is always ahead of the curve," Johnson said. "They have a reputation for taking risks - have you ever been in their shoe department?"

Case in point: A $1,070 pair of seriously distressed cowboy boots that look like they were left in someone's attic for decades. "These are flying out the door in New York," said Carlos Castillo, manager of the women's shoe department in San Francisco.

Having the brand gleefully mentioned a thousand times on the hit HBO series "Sex and the City" didn't hurt Barneys' image, either.

"The brand got a lot of exposure through that show by introducing the name to a lot of people," said Elizabeth Shobert, project director at Envirosell, a New York retail consulting and research firm.

"There is a continuing curiosity of the brand," she said. "Their spectrum of merchandise is very broad; the Co-Op young designer section is growing and accessible to a wider audience. I can go to Barneys and find a $60 T-shirt or spend $1,500 on a handbag."

The stores are known for their quirky, whimsical interiors - in San Francisco, you'll see driftwood furniture, mixed-pattern couches, a clothing rack made of antique pennies - and every floor is different. "They take some of the elements that people love about boutiques and incorporate them," Shobert said.

Even though there is a fair amount of overlap of merchandise with the other high-end stores in each city, "Barneys has always had pieces made exclusively for them by designers that you won't find in other stores, and that lures in customers as well," Shobert said.

Women with big bucks, as well as those with more style than salary who will stretch their budgets to buy a special pair of shoes or a bag, can sustain a store like Barneys in San Francisco, said Pamela Mendelsohn, a retail consultant and broker with Johnson Hoke who was not involved in the Barneys deal.

"A lot of people who live in the Bay Area go on regular shopping trips to New York, Los Angeles and Europe because they can't find the merchandise they want here," she said. "I think Barneys will bring them back, and I also think it will attract a lot of tourist shoppers."

Those with money are spending it. "Luxury shopping has been doing extremely well the last four years," said Ken Brown of Research Connect, a market research firm in Boston. "And high-end retailers don't need as many customers as midrange retailers do to survive."

Fashion name-droppers will be in their element on the cushy third floor (marble floors, linen and silk wall treatments in the spacious fitting rooms) where the store's well-known customer service is supposed to kick in. This is where Lanvin, Rodarte, Nina Ricci and Balenciaga are sold. Bottega Veneta, Rick Owens and Vionnet, as well as the Barneys New York collection, are San Francisco exclusives.

Men get two floors - designer and Co-Op - with big names like Battistoni, Lanvin, Zegna, Isaia and made-to-measure suiting, as well as Brioni, Armani Black Label, Kid Robot and Helmut Lang.

The lower-level cosmetics area features familiar lines like Nars, Clarins and Shu Uemura alongside harder-to-find makeup and fragrance lines like Le Labo, by Terry and Frederic Malle parfums ($210 for a 100 ml bottle). To sample a Malle fragrance, stick your head into a clear booth that's pumped up with oxygen. The top half of a double door is opened, and you inhale.

Then there's the famed shoe department - big Barneys bait - that takes up the entire mezzanine level. With soft cream-colored carpeting and comfy couches, it overlooks the street and the first floor. In stock: the aforementioned 20,000 pairs of shoes, by Lanvin, Azzedine Alaia, Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Chloe, Prada and others. (Saks carries 30,000 pairs of women's shoes, in comparison.)

The San Francisco store will have a small home and gift section, and both men's and women's Co-Ops, the lower-priced departments that showcase young and edgier designers like 3.1 Phillip Lim, San Francisco-raised Alexander Wan and Trovata.

A few hundred guests will get the first peek at the offerings at an invitation-only opening benefit bash tonight hosted by Danielle Steel along with her couture-clad clan, including Samantha, Victoria and Vanessa Traina, as well as Maxx and Zara Traina. Isabel and Ruben Toledo (the new Anne Klein designer and her illustrator husband), perfumer Malle and San Francisco-born designer Derek Lam are also expected to be on hand for the occasion.

Once inside, the decor is a big attraction. San Francisco's store is done in chestnut and blond woods, blond carpets, ivory and black marble floors, and bronze metal accents. Longtime Barneys collaborator sculptor John-Paul Philippe designed the abstract geometric metal staircase (no tacky escalators here) and the cosmetics display cases decorated with archival Japanese colored paper paints and inks of flowers and vines that have a '60s vibe.

But perhaps more important, the building has huge first-floor windows.

That makes Simon Doonan, the store's chatty creative director and window impresario, even more jumpy-joyful than usual. Doonan's theatrical window displays are an integral part of the store's lure. He has been creating the store's provocative, evocative and must-see windows for two decades and will oversee the San Francisco windows.

The opening display, a photo montage of the store's history, was designed to acquaint San Franciscans with the store. Future windows will have tie-ins with well-known local organizations, like Alice Waters' Edible Garden Project and others.

"Our goal is not only to build strong ties in the community but also to provide a place for dreamy distraction," Doonan wrote in an e-mail.

This fall he'll feature drawings by the artists of Oakland's Creative Growth, the nonprofit art group for the developmentally disabled. Paper, the jazzy art and fashion magazine out of New York, invited the Creative Growth artists to interpret looks from the fall 2007 collections. The drawings will be displayed alongside the original outfits.

"It's intended to be a surreal and crafty dialogue between these two opposite worlds and features everyone from Marc Jacobs to Lanvin," Doonan wrote.

For the fashion purist, however, the store is best known for editing the collections down to a fine art.

"Designers always give you a lot of choices, and we work very hard on how we bring a special selection to each store," said the store's fashion director, Julie Gilhart, in an e-mail message. "We treat the well-known designers with as much respect as we do the up and coming. We know the San Francisco customer cares a lot about quality and design, and we will do our best to satisfy their needs."

The store's private label collection, said Gilhart, "is perfect for San Francisco - sophisticatedly quiet clothes that have a gentle design and superb quality."

The bad news: There will not be an in-house restaurant like Fred's, the busy mover-and-shaker hangout in the New York store. Nor will there be a warehouse sale - another Barneys signature - at least not right away.

And darn it, there won't be a doorman, either.


E-mail Sylvia Rubin at [email protected].

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg.../MNAQRVU0E.DTL

[San Frangelino]

Prada, the couture designer clothier, will move from Geary Street to larger quarters in the old, long-vacant Brooks Brothers building on Post Street after the first of the year

So Prada will be taking the long vacant space. If thats going to be it's only retail tenant, then its going to be a big store. From what I remember reading, its 15,000 square feet of space.

The little video on the chronicles website shows some nice images of the interior. They have really spiffed that store up inside from what was there with FAO.

[BTinSF]

^^^Walked by today and peered in the windows. Looks about as spiffy as you'd expect. I loved one window with a theme something like "Luxury with Humor".

[BTinSF]

Westfield dazzles
Mall thrives in first year, but Mid-Market struggles
San Francisco Business Times - September 21, 2007
by Sarah Duxbury
Najib Joe Hakim

Prior to opening, Westfield San Francisco Centre promised just about everything short of a cure for cancer.

The project, jointly owned by Westfield and Forest City, would give San Francisco close to 1 million square feet of new retail space, including a 365,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's. It would restore the Emporium Dome, a lost city landmark. It would create thousands of new jobs and attract 25 million visitors who would spend $600 million -- which in turn would kick $17 million into the city's general fund. The mixed-use project would give downtown shopping a new heart, salvage a decrepit block of mid-Market and kick-start regeneration of the surrounding neighborhood.

On the eve of its first anniversary Sept. 28, Westfield executives say most of those lofty goals are being met.

Such is the success of the center, it could be doing even better than its owners, Westfield and Forest City, admit. Neither company will disclose sales figures for the center, and few of the center's 170 tenants break out the performance of stores.

Nevertheless, a close, critical look at the center one year in suggests that sales of $600 million could be wildly conservative.

Bloomingdale's alone did $5 million in sales in its first five days and met its full-year forecast after just nine months, said Alan Svensen, the store's general manager. Factor in sales at Nordstrom, the nine-screen Century Theatres and the acknowledgment by Heather Almond, senior asset manager at Westfield San Francisco Centre, that the lower level food emporium has notably exceeded expectations, and $600 million seems awfully low. Indeed, sales at the center would reach that amount if each of the 25 million visitors -- another target the center has hit -- spent just $24.

The center is 99 percent leased, and tenants are clamoring for any available space. Kate Spade will open a street level store in the old wing in time for the holidays. Kiehl's recently opened a boutique and True Religion will open a denim outpost at the mall early in 2008. None of these tenants was on Westfield's radar a year ago.

The return of tourists has partly fueled the center's success. Merchants from Bloomingdale's to the San Francisco Soup Company reported higher-than-expected sales in July and August.

But tourists make up just one-third of the shopping mix, which is equal parts San Franciscans, regional shoppers and tourists, and anecdotal details all suggest that traffic is high.

Bloomingdale's opening was one for the history books. For its first 10 hours, a line wrapped around the block, and it has maintained that momentum. "Any way you cut it, the project has been a big win for Bloomingdale's," Svensen said.

That's allowed Bloomies to strengthen its assortment. For example, the men's store didn't open with Armani because Armani didn't think Bloomingdale's could sell its product in San Francisco, Svensen said. But this is already Bloomingdale's third-best city behind New York and Boston, and the store now carries a full Armani assortment.

Westfield took risks in leasing the center. Half of the tenants that opened in the new center were also new to San Francisco. Many were young, untested upstarts by established mall players. That fit the aim to create a unique destination, Almond said, but as the failure of Gap Inc.'s Forth & Towne shows, those stores had no guarantee of success.

A new tenant is already lined up for the vacant Forth & Towne space, Almond said, but the operator slated to open a tapas bar under the famed dome never happened. The center is still looking for an appropriate tenant.

Nor is everybody over the moon. Charles Phan said his Out the Door concept is only doing OK.

"People are not embracing the mall in the evening as much as I'd like to see," he said, adding that his 150-seat, 5,000-square-foot restaurant gets only one dinner seating and is not meeting his projections.

Lunch, however, is great. Others in the food emporium agree that lunch business is strong, even complaining that seating is scarce during peak hours.

Upstairs in the fourth floor restaurant collection, Chris Yeo of Straits Cafe said it's his lunch business that's weak, which means business is slightly under projections. But, he added, sales are trending up and dinner is strong.

Phan and others are hopeful that people will learn to think of the mall as a place to go for full-service, fine dining, at night as well as during a shopping trip. The completion of new downtown condos will also help increase density.

Traffic will also presumably increase once the 245,000-square-foot office tower is fully leased and occupied.

Microsoft will move into its space in January 2008. San Francisco State has been so pleased with its new downtown campus that it took 18,500 square feet of additional space, bringing its total to 125,500 square feet. And Forest City has located its San Francisco office on the eighth floor of Westfield Centre.

Steve Eimer, who oversaw the development for Westfield, has moved on. The project is into its management phase.

Transforming a boarded-up building into a bustling retail mecca is good for the city, and offers hope to others keen to change recalcitrant corners of the city. While the project hasn't yet had a powerful impact on Mid-Market, watchers say that it has certainly boosted Powell Street and increased traffic on Market between Westfield and the Ferry Building.

As for salvaging Mid-Market, the jury is still out.

"We see more critical mass on Market Street than we did two years ago," said Carolyn Diamond, executive director of Market Street Association, adding "It's had a minimal impact west (of Fifth Street) at this point, because there isn't anything there to go to."

Urban Realty's project in the 900 block could cause the jump, giving shoppers a 265,000-square-foot reason to cross Fifth Street.

The developers started buying up properties in 2004, after Westfield and Forest City's plans were public.

"We were aware they were up-and-coming," said David Rhoades, a principal with Urban Realty, and that spelled opportunity. In addition to 935-965 Market St., where they plan their value-based retail complex City Place, Urban owns 901 Market St.

Urban planners, like Gabriel Metcalf at SPUR, laud the center for proving that transit-focused urban malls can thrive.

"This is part of a renaissance of our shopping district ... and the good news for all of us is that that shopping area is doing so well," Metcalf said.

Last year, Forest City and Westfield also bought the Metreon. They have yet to determine what they will do with it, though they plan to take advantage of the mix they've created in Westfield San Francisco Centre and bring critical mass still further south of Union Square.

[email protected]/ (415) 288-4963

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...24/story2.html

[San Frangelino]

From:http://www.nypost.com/seven/10052007...st_in_hops.htm

FIFTH 1ST IN $HOPS
AVE. HAS HIGHEST RENT
By MARK JOYELLA

October 5, 2007 -- Rodeo Drive? Puh-leeze!

The country's far-and-away leader in elite retail remains Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, by a $7 million mile.

Real-estate firm Colliers International ranked the most expensive shopping streets in the United States by price paid per square foot, and Fifth Avenue took top honors, with an average rent of $1,350.

Rodeo Drive, by comparison, ranked third with a relatively bargain-basement price of $480 per square foot.

"Retailers, and in particular luxury retailers, continue to desire prime street-front locations," said Ross Moore, senior vice president at Colliers.
And more than anywhere else in the country, "prime" means Fifth Avenue.
"Fifth Avenue is iconic. It's synonymous with fashion and shopping," said Tiffany Townsend, communications director at the city's marketing organization, NYC & Company.

Who pays the price to be where it's at? Stately stalwarts like Tiffany, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman have decades of history on Fifth, but newcomers like Apple want in, too.

The California computer giant planted the flag at Fifth and 59th last year with its distinctive glass cube, and saved some high retail cost by building most of the store one flight underground.

Apple's 20-year lease reportedly calls for a well-below-market rent of just $1,000 per square foot.

Last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the Fifth Avenue spot as an "incredible location."

The influx of such global brands as Apple, Hugo Boss and others has dramatically driven up prices along Fifth, rising from an average of just $1,000 a year ago.

Gucci last year agreed to a record retail price of $1,500 per square foot for the right to bring back their flagship store to The Trump Building.

"Fifth Avenue is by far the greatest retail street not just in the nation but, in my opinion, the world," said Stephen Siegel, chairman of Global Brokerage at CB Richard Ellis, who brokered the Gucci deal.

"Between the residents and the visitors, the consumer traffic is spectacular. As a result, Gucci will have its most spectacular store located there."
Heavy tourism and near-zero vacancy rates result in Fifth Avenue's high prices, about three times that of second-place Union Square in San Francisco.

Fifth Avenue, however, just misses being the priciest stretch on Earth, with London's Old Bond Street taking the top spot at $1,400.

[dimondpark]

oops.

[San Frangelino]

From:http://www.mercurynews.com/alamedaco...nclick_check=1

Work starts on food pavilion

Jack London Market to feature fresh produce, restaurants
By Francine Brevetti
MediaNews
San Jose Mercury News

Article Launched:10/23/2007 01:35:43 AM PDT

Promising a public bazaar to rival the Ferry Building in San Francisco or the Pike Place Market in Seattle, developers and city leaders broke ground Monday on the much-anticipated Jack London Market, the cornerstone of efforts to rejuvenate Oakland's historic waterfront.

"Jack London Square will be the biggest public market on the West Coast," said Jim Falaschi, managing partner of project developers Transbay Holdings and Jack London Square Investors.
Formerly dubbed Harvest Hall, the six-story Jack London Market will be constructed on the Embarcadero between Webster and Harrison streets, across from the Amtrak station.

When completed in early 2009, it will occupy 170,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space. The first floor will feature an open-air farmers' market with local produce, artisan foods and fresh meat and fish halls. Bistros and restaurants are planned for the second floor, while culinary businesses and a professional chefs' kitchen are planned for the third floor. The top floors will include space for offices.

A parking garage structure will be finished within 18 months, developers said.

Developers, including Ellis Partners, Transbay Holdings and Jack London Investors, see the market as a water-side tourist destination as well as a bustling marketplace for daytime consumers.

The marketplace "will have an everyday fresh market," Falaschi said. "That means produce, bread, a delicatessen. It will resemble something like the (San Francisco) Ferry Building Marketplace or the Pikes Street Market in Seattle, but not that pricey. It will be a market reflective of the community, offering what would be bought for everyday uses."
The new emporium is one aspect of a plan that includes some 1 million square feet of new development over the next seven years to attract consumers, business and tourists. Falaschi said construction will begin this year on four new structures in Jack London Square, with construction beginning next year on three more. Those buildings will house mostly commercial development to enhance the Jack London area.

At the groundbreaking Monday, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland praised the project, saying it will "(reorient) Oakland from the hills to the waterfront."

The city is interested in developing retail projects that serve residents across the entire economic spectrum, said Councilwoman Nancy Nadel, referring to the city's retail investment strategy.

Oakland's Community and Economic Development Agency is working to identify neighborhoods' in particular need of retail stimulation and opportunities for retail expansion.

Keira Williams, urban economic analyst with the Economic Development Agency, said the marketplace will boost efforts to revive Jack London Square.

"The downtown area needs a grocery store to buy food to take home and prepare," Williams said. "This concept sounds good. It will speak to the needs of people for fresh foods.

"But," she added, "will people living within a half mile go there for things like Pampers and toilet paper?"
Still, she said, Oakland will benefit from the new development.

Contact Francine Brevetti at [email protected] or (510) 208-6416

[San Frangelino]

Here is a rendering of the Market from: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_7256539

[BTinSF]

"produce, bread, a delicatessen. It will resemble something like the (San Francisco) Ferry Building Marketplace or the Pikes Street Market in Seattle, but not that pricey. It will be a market reflective of the community, offering what would be bought for everyday uses."

I hope they are serious. The model (even though not many Bay Area people will understand what I mean) should be Baltimore's Lexington Market:


Source of all photos: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1765...xington-Market

My only gripe about the Ferry Building is its uncompromising focus on the high end and "gourmet".

[peanut gallery]

Just two blocks from the actual "square" and replacing a parking lot. Sounds good to me. I hope it's successful.

[peanut gallery]

I totally agree with you, BT. The Ferry Building is too "boutique" for the most part. The other place I had in mind is the Grand Central Market in downtown LA.

[San Frangelino]

I am thankful for the existence of Ferry Building Market, but I too hope for something more down to earth here. I was thinking of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia as a model. Wasn't aware of this one in Baltimore, which also looks like along those lines as well.

What is Emeryville Public Market like?