What happens in Vegas …
Danbury mall looks to land anchor at annual retail
conference
By ALEXANDER SOULE
For drivers approaching Danbury Fair
Mall in Connecticut, it is nothing more a vacant, anchor
storefront. For John Kinsella, it is an opportunity
to create The Westchester East.
This week, Kinsella sets up shop at the International
Council of Shopping Centers’ annual RECON retail real-estate
conference in Las Vegas, with more than 50,000 visitors
and 1,800 exhibitors expected through Wednesday.
A Syracuse-based leasing representative for Danbury
Fair Mall owner Macerich Co., Kinsella will dangle
an anchor-store “pad” that has remained vacant at the
mall since Macy’s Inc. acquired Filene’s, then shut
down the Danbury store due to the presence of a Macy’s
among the mall’s four other anchor stores.
It is the first time Danbury Fair Mall has had the
opportunity to release an anchor pad in the two decades
since it opened, and Kinsella confirmed he has contacted
Nordstrom Inc. about occupying what could be the mall’s
top-drawer space.
Attracting Nordstrom – or a fashion department-store
competitor like a Bloomingdale’s or Neiman Marcus Inc.
– could in turn serve as a launch pad to attract smaller
luxury retailers in the mold of Tiffany & Co.,
as well as restaurants with more upscale fare than
that offered by current tenants Ruby Tuesday’s and
Uno Chicago Grill.
In short, Macerich envisions a regional competitor
to poach wealthy Hudson Valley patrons from The Westchester
mall 45 minutes distant in downtown White Plains that
itself attracts customers from affluent towns in Fairfield
County, Conn. The Westchester is owned by Simon Property
Group Inc., an Indianapolis real-estate investment
trust (REIT) that also owns the Galleria at White Plains;
the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights; and
the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County.
“We don’t want to fill that pad with just whoever would
take it,” Kinsella said. “It’s about taking that next
step up – really catering to a more affluent customer.”
In the past year, the Danbury Fair Mall has already
taken steps in that direction, renovating the property
to eliminate the feeling of a “cold industrial environment”
in the words of Maura Ruby, the mall’s senior property
manager.
Ruby thinks the warm interiors will heat up lease activity
for Santa Monica, Calif.-based Macerich, which obtained
the keys to Danbury Fair Mall via its $2.3 billion
acquisition in 2005 of Rochester-based Wilmorite Properties
Inc. The developer opened the 1.3-million-square-foot
mall in 1986 on the site of the former state fair grounds
adjacent to Danbury’s small airfield.
At an estimated property value of $447 million, Danbury
Fair Mall is the second most expensive property in
Macerich’s portfolio after its fellow former Wilmorite
property Freehold Raceway Mall in New Jersey which
it valued at $528 million.
Macerich owns nearly 100 malls and shopping centers
nationwide, which combined have 81 million square feet
of space. The REIT delivered $72 million in income
to investors last year, as revenue hit $896 million.
At last report, the company was carrying a $176 million
mortgage on the property due in 2011, and its 4.6 percent
mortgage on the property is the third most attractive
in its entire holdings. Perhaps for that reason, Macerich
also has pledged more equity in Danbury Fair Mall as
collateral than any other property – $13 million.
At the close of 2007, Danbury Fair Mall numbered among
the handful of top-performing Macerich malls across
several key metrics, including leased space and sales
per square foot of space.
With those kinds of numbers, it seems a safe bet Kinsella
will generate attention at more than 40 meetings he
has scheduled in Las Vegas this week. While he doesn’t
expect to come home with ink drying on a lease, he
nevertheless expects big things scouting RECON for
prospective tenants.
“A good day would be if we have a nice fashion department
store make an oral commitment,” Kinsella said.
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