Columnist Muriel Stevens: Expansion is always in Fashion

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2001 | 8:24 a.m.

Muriel Stevens' shopping and travel columns appears Wednesday. Her dining column appears Friday. Reach her at 259-4080 or muriel@ lasvegassun.com.

How close is the Fashion Show mall expansion to completion? Close enough that I couldn't wait to meet with Rita Kitts Brandin, vice president and development director for the Rouse Company (which owns the center), and Karen L. Kozemchak, manager of sales and marketing.

There's no question that the announcement of the Fashion Show's expansion raised the heart rate of every serious shopper. Nordstrom (finally!), Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale's Home will join the anchors already in place: Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Dillard's and Robinsons-May. The redesign of the Fashion Show is terrific. Shoppers will enjoy being able to go to one area to visit all of the anchors and to another for the boutiques.

Bloomingdale's Home and Nordstrom (west expansion) is expected to open in the fall of 2002. NM, Saks, Macy's, Dillard's and Robinsons-May, currently open, will show off their new look also in 2002. In fall of 2003 the project will celebrate its grand opening and the debut of Lord & Taylor.

"When completed," Brandin said, "Fashion Show promises to reinvent the way retail is experienced by uniting shopping, entertainment and visual media. Our customers will be thrilled when they see our lineup of stores reflecting the best of Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive, New York's Fifth Avenue and Chicago's Miracle Mile. And they will find it all under one roof.

"We will create a convenient environment to experience the country's only shopping center that can boast of having eight powerful department stores right here in Las Vegas."

Studying the models, it was clear that this was a different kind of shopping center, with innovations galore. Yet the store layout is clean and simple.

Each evening the runway in the great hall will offer fashion shows geared to adults and children, as well as other entertainment.

While still open for business, Neiman Marcus and Saks are undergoing major expansions. When completed Neiman Marcus will increase in size from 102,000 square feet to 160,000; Saks will more than double in size going from 64,000 square feet to 160,000. Dillard's, Macy's and Robinsons-May will also expand dramatically. Saks and Dillard's will not only expand, they will, in essence, become completely new stores.

The Strip side of the Fashion Show has been turned into a plaza, with sidewalk cafes and bistros. For the first time the Strip side will offer retail. Neiman Marcus will have a sidewalk cafe and a fine dining room with access from the Strip. There will be other eateries, too.

Brandin expects the 600-foot high-tech "cloud" canopy that covers the plaza to become a signature meeting place. This awesome "cloud" will provide relief from the sun, and visual entertainment via a giant tri-vision wall of special video screens placed below the cloud canopy. Imagine the photo ops.

After Rouse studied the kind of parking Fashion Show patrons liked best, it doubled the underground parking and added three additional entries. An underground parking space costs about three times or more than what an aboveground space costs to to build, but the study proved that Las Vegans, by a large margin, preferred underground parking. There will be no charge for valet parking.

There will be a total of 300 stores in the two million square feet of retail space.

More Fashion Show: How easy is it to shop the Fashion Show during construction? Much easier than I anticipated. It was not easy going down Spring Mountain Road to the Fashion Show underground valet (my preference), but getting into the garage and valet parking was no problem.

Later, after a ride around the mall to view the building progress, I realized it would have been easier to use NM's aboveground valet on Spring Mountain Road or Saks' valet on Frontier Drive. There's a traffic light at the Strip making it a cinch to cross, at least for me (I live on the east side of town).

Getting into the Fashion Show didn't appear to be a problem for the crowd of shoppers already there when I arrived at 10 a.m. Seating areas are still in place and were already filled with shoppers taking a break before visiting their favorite retailers. Many store windows had signs offering sales items.

Still more Fashion Show: Some time ago I wrote about the Fashion Show charging a fee for mall gift certificates. Anyone can bypass the gift certificate fee by getting a free Premier Shopper Club card at the concierge desk or center court.