Friday, Aug. 1, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.
An outlet mall that city leaders hope will be the catalyst for downtown Las Vegas redevelopment greeted shoppers this morning during a "soft opening" aimed at giving the stores time to work the kinks out.
Instead, the opening was hectic, as contractors tried to finish up their work in stores and competed for space with shoppers and reporters. In fact, the Las Vegas Premium Outlets mall was busy before its opening time of 10 a.m. today.
Honolulu resident Sharon Ming, 55, said she was thrilled the mall, set for a grand opening Aug. 8, opened before she leaves for home Saturday.
"This is a nice mall; they will get a lot of business from people from Honolulu," she said.
Las Vegas resident Mary Bobier sat eating scones and drinking coffee with her niece, 12-year-old Lindsay Wilson from Chicago. Bobier said her niece has been to all of Las Vegas's major grand openings in recent years, including the Aladdin and Paris casinos. Bobier said the outlet mall is no different.
Bobier said she will primarily shop at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets rather than Belz or the Las Vegas Fashion Outlets in Primm.
"It's close, number one, and I've lived in Chicago -- Downtown Las Vegas is not scary to me," she said.
Wilson, in between sips of her iced coffee, said she thinks people will be more willing to go downtown now.
"Downtown will be more popular," she said. "People will tell their friends and it will start big things."
Many skeptical industry experts are watching closely to see if in fact the outlet mall will meet officials' lofty expectations, expectations that mirror the opinion of Wilson.
It has been more than a year of anticipation for city officials and shoppers alike, waiting for Chelsea Property Group, in partnership with Simon Property Group, to open its 435,000-square-foot Las Vegas Premium Outlets on what was formerly barren railroad land.
The mall is one in a series of redevelopment efforts by the City of Las Vegas over more than a decade to revive the struggling downtown area.
"It's the beginning of the downtown renaissance," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "It's the first real brick and mortar that we have under my administration that will cause people to come downtown."
Chelsea Property officials estimate that the outlet will annually attract more than 8 million shoppers, locals and tourists alike, to the $95 million center near Interstate 15 at Grand Central Parkway.
To help lure some of those shoppers downtown, the city will begin bus service this week that will shuttle people to and from the outlet mall, Fremont Street and other downtown attractions.
While experts expect the outlet mall to be successful, it's doubtful it will be a magnet helping the rest of downtown, said George Connor, senior vice president with commercial real estate brokerage Colliers International Las Vegas' retail division.
"The majority of the people going to the mall will get back in their car and go back to the Strip," he said. "I don't see a great crossover."
Despite doubts as to whether it will attract business to the rest of downtown, the opening of the Las Vegas Premium Outlet Center may be one of the biggest successes for the city.
Redevelopment of Lewis Avenue was supposed to have started more than a decade ago when a Japanese developer announced plans to build the Minami Tower where the federal courthouse now stands at 333 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Existing buildings at the site were demolished and a huge hole was dug for the tower's basement and foundation.
The developer wound up giving the nearly 6-acre site, dubbed the "Minami Hole," to the city after funding for the project failed in the early 1990s. In 1997 the city cleaned up the site so that the $100 million federal courthouse could be built there. The George Building was completed and occupied in July 2000.
Other redevelopment projects include the Charleston Plaza Shopping Center, Fremont Street Experience and Neonopolis. Neonopolis has suffered with high tenant turnover since it opened in May 2002.
One reason downtown revitalization may not have been as successful as some had hoped is competition from all the other investment and development opportunities in the Las Vegas Valley, said Jeremy Aguero, a principal with research firm Applied Analysis.
"As long as there is the opportunity to develop as (developers) can, a lot of money will not find its way to redevelopment," he said.
Goodman said he didn't want to talk about past projects to revitalize downtown because they were part of initiatives begun in prior administrations.
"I just care about when I became mayor," he said.
Goodman said the World Market Center, a wholesale furniture market scheduled to be built by 2005 on 57 acres -- along with a new downtown IRS building and museum in the downtown post office -- all indicate the area is moving in the right direction and that investors are starting to take notice.
The World Market Center and the Las Vegas Premium Outlets fall under a tax increment finance district in which 18 percent of taxes generated by the two projects will be funnelled to provide affordable housing, while the remaining tax money is split 50/50 with the respective property owner and the city, contingent on the property owner putting the money back into the infrastructure.
"The bottom line is, I can't think of anything more positive that has happened during this administration," Goodman said. "(The outlet mall) is an entirely new business for the downtown area. It's going to be a real meeting place and will revolutionize the way we think of downtown."
The center's grand opening on Aug. 8 will have live music, contest drawings and wandering entertainers throughout the weekend.
While not all of the mall's 120 stores opened today, all the stores are expected to be open by Aug. 8, said Dottie Montana, general manager of the open-air center.
A ribbon cutting with Goodman is scheduled for Aug. 7.
The center, open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 9 p.m. Sunday, will employ about 400 full-time and 400 part-time employees, Montana said.
"It's dusty now but it soon will be booming," Montana said while wheeling a golf cart around construction crews, equipment and trailers during a recent tour of the development.
Chelsea has lined up dozens of high-end retail stores such as Armani Exchange, Brooks Brothers, Dolce & Gabbana, Guess, Izod, Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, Max Studio.com., and St. John, as well as mid-priced stores such as Bass, Levi's Outlet, Rave, and Eddie Bauer.
Nike is the center's largest tenant, occupying a 10,000-square-foot space.
Montana said the shopping mall has something for everyone of all ages -- and all price ranges.
A food court, set behind a dramatic leaning wall of glass, will open with five eateries.
"We will attract shoppers that are looking for quality upscale merchandise for a great deal at great prices," she said.
Taking a walk around Clark County's Government Center, across the street from the Las Vegas Premium Outlets, county employees Georgia Budd and Helen Reyles said they, and many of their colleagues, are looking forward to the outlet center's opening.
Budd said many county employees are especially looking forward to the opening of the center's food court.
Reyles said she was hoping for a large anchor like Off 5th, Saks 5th Avenue's outlet store, at the outlet mall -- but said she still plans to shop at the outlet center despite the lack of a Saks.
"We know where we're going to go on our pay days," Reyles said.
While Chelsea's Las Vegas Premium Outlets is projecting it will pull in shoppers in droves -- six tour groups ranging from 35 to 50 people from California and Utah were booked months before the mall opened -- it is expected to pull business away from the area's two existing outlet malls, Belz Factory Outlet at the south end of the Strip and the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas in Primm.
Chelsea officials contend there are plenty of shoppers to go around and that the other outlet centers and regional malls won't hurt for lack of business.
"We just compliment the other shopping," Montana said.
Belz officials declined comment. In past interviews, Belz officials have said they anticipate an initial drop in traffic, but any long-term effects would be hard to gauge.
In markets that have a Premium Outlets and Belz, there has been an impact on the Belz property, company officials said in past interviews.
Chelsea operates 34 Premium Outlets centers around the nation.
Ann Ackerman, vice president/director of marketing for the Florida-based Talisman Co., L.L.C., which owns and operates the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas in Primm, said officials there don't expect a drop in traffic.
The indoor outlet mall is about 45 minutes south of Las Vegas.
"We draw heavily on the Southern California market on their way from and to Las Vegas," she said.
The mall will continue its marketing initiatives with Las Vegas hotels and casinos, which include daily shuttle runs from the MGM Grand and New York-New York hotel-casinos. Ackerman said a new stop is being added at the Aladdin hotel and casino.
But Connor said that compared to Belz, Las Vegas Fashion Outlet might see the bigger hit in terms of sales and traffic.
"I think there will be some effect to Belz, but perhaps the larger effect will be to Primm," he said. "Most (Las Vegans) that go to Primm are looking for upscale merchandise. If they can locate it in a 15-minute drive rather than a 50-minute drive, that's a great alternative."
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