The folks who handle leasing at Urban Retail Properties Co. must be thinking the former Henri Bendel’s space in the 900 N. Michigan Ave. building is jinxed.
There haven’t been any takers for the building’s third and fourth floors after almost a year of shopping them around. But recently, a few pieces appeared to be coming together.
Italian sportswear-maker MaxMara has leased most of the first floor, with high-end footwear merchant Stuart Weitzman taking up the rest. Catalog retailer J. Peterman Co. was lined up to take the second floor. But this week Peterman, known for its expensive, retro-style clothing and exposure on the TV sitcom “Seinfeld,” filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing its retail store expansion as a major cause of its financial problems. We’re guessing that means there won’t be a J. Peterman store at 900 N. Michigan after all. Urban Retail Properties couldn’t be reached for comment.
On a roll: Sears, Roebuck and Co. has been fairly tight-lipped about its expansion plans for the Internet, as well as for The Great Indoors prototype store outside Denver.
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But Chief Executive Arthur Martinez laid out a game plan for 1999 and beyond during an interview last week in his Hoffman Estates office.
By April, Sears shoppers will be able to purchase appliances on the company’s Web site, in addition to Craftsman tools, which have been available in cyberspace for more than a year. Consumer electronics will join the Internet assortment sometime before the millennium.
As for The Great Indoors–the new store concept that offers everything from Thermador ranges to fluffy towels to kitchen remodeling services–two more stores are on the drawing board.
A smaller version of the store will open in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1999. A third will debut in Dallas in early 2000.
Some Sears’ critics have questioned whether The Great Indoors can ever be large enough to matter to a retailer with more than $40 billion in revenue.
While noting that “premature declarations of victory are dangerous,” Martinez said he believes The Great Indoors could end up as a 200-store national chain.
As the store in Denver nears its first birthday, The Great Indoors is closing in on $50 million in sales, he said.
New flashpoint: If the French Connection Group, a trendy apparel retailer from Britain, goes through with plans to lease the former Bigsby & Kruthers space at 605 N. Michigan Ave, it will be one more thing for Ald. Burton Natarus to worry about.
Natarus, as City Hall watchers know, does battle with Michigan Avenue retailers over tacky or overtly sexual displays in store windows. They offend his well-heeled constituents, Natarus says.
So who’s coming to town but a retailer that has caused controversy in Europe for several years with an advertising campaign that incorporates the initials of “French Connection United Kingdom”–a provocative reference to a four-letter word.
The ads have debuted in New York, where they appeared atop 250 taxis, on a Manhattan billboard and on a banner in its SoHo store. It may be hard to shock New Yorkers. But in London, the ads resulted in a 1997 complaint to Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority.
Tight squeeze: Demand for retail space in the Chicago market outpaced a rebound in new construction last year as the shopping center vacancy rate declined to 8.5 percent from 9.6 percent, according to a survey by CB Richard Ellis, a national real estate services firm with offices in Lincolnshire.
Space was particularly tight in so-called power-center clusters–centers anchored by a “big box” store such as Circuit City or Linens ‘n Things. Only 1.8 percent of space was available, down from 2.5 percent last year.
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Contact Susan Chandler at [email protected].