Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 | 1:24 p.m.
The FAO Schwarz at the Forum Shops at Caesars closed Jan. 23.
Sun Coverage
The recently closed FAO Schwarz store at The Forum Shops at Caesars will soon be home to the largest H&M store in the country.
The Forum Shops announced that H&M will open in the three-story, 55,000-square-foot venue this fall. Las Vegas already is home to two of the Swedish retailer’s stateside outposts -- one at the Miracle Mile Shops and one at Town Square.
The FAO Schwarz location closed Jan. 23 after the store, with its iconic wooden Trojan horse, let its lease at the Forum Shops expire at the end of January. The Strip location opened in 1997.
Mall officials said in February they were hopeful they can lease the space to a national retailer that wants to establish a flagship store or its largest store nationwide in one of the country’s premier shopping destinations.
Described by owner Simon Property Group of Indianapolis as “part Beverly Hills, part Rome’s Via Condotti and part Madison Avenue,” the Forum Shops has about 160 stores and has boasted it is visited typically by 50,000 people a day.
Forum Shops has long been long known as the nation’s highest-grossing mall with annual sales last reported at $1,400 per square foot.
FAO Schwarz has no plans to open elsewhere in Las Vegas, and remains focused on the FAO Schwarz brand with its flagship New York City store and its Web site.
What is an H & M Store?
Fashion, clothes, etc
http://www.hm.com/us
FAO Schwarz chickened out on us here in Vegas showing their true colors of greed the carpetbagging money grubbing bums they are. I hope that they fail wherever they go because they took their money from us and the tourists here in Vegas when things were jumping, then just bailed like all of the other carpet bagging traitor companies which operated here in the valley, and deserted us.
Cheap clothes. Trendy but priced like Old Navy.
i would never set foot in an h&m store after they were found to be cutting holes and destroying perfectly good clothes that didn't sell instead of donating them to charity.
stevem, they could be a new fashion statement for you. =D
anyone that spends $1.00 in an h&m store should be ashamed of themselves.
I hope they stock their full line as they do in larger cities instead of the crap they have in the Miracle Mile or Town Square stores.
H & M ? why not 99 cents store
Cheap clothes, at the prices that the Forum Shops charge for rent. This is going nowhere.
Congratulations to H&M and to the Forum Shops - good news for both. I don't know how they pay Town Square rent at H&M prices, but they do it.
ARE WE TOO LATE TO MAKE A BID ON RENTING PROPERTY?L
TOYS.COM
Anyone think H/M will be closing in the Miracle Mile? It doesn't seem like a brand w/ a lot of loyalty that can warrant the need for 3 stores such a small distance apart. Harrah's did just buy Planet Hollywood...
The FAO brings me back childhood memories.... hahahahaha....!!!
H & M is coming here in Portland Oregon in the old Saks Fifth Avenue building. Same situation--high rent, cheap clothes. How do they do it?
People will want to work there because they pay very well.....but they also work you hard.
lots of heat and little light - goodness the economy is horrible - hope h & m can make it work - what will happen to the horse? maybe they can put it on a truck and have pole dancers ride it? that brought lots of customers to the strip clubs now maybe it can bring traffic to the strip period.
Is it S&M or H&M? I think an S&M store would be more appropriate for LV. But I guess an open store is better than a shuttered store.
stevem, we usually don't agree, but if your right on h&m ruining items i'm with you 100%.
A lot of ignorant know-it-alls here.
H&M is fashion for the masses.
Valkommen till Forum Shops, Hennes & Mauritz!
Lycka till!
wow, another "trendy" clothing store, All I can say is "Whoop-Dee-Doo"!
At least FAO had a product line that was not available elsewhere. Their "toy" car selection was the best in Las Vegas.
fosimmons, every count in Florida (even those by Democrats, who tried to skew it their way) always had Bush in the lead. You really need to get over it, It was the fools at the TV networks who gave Florida to Gore while Bush was up by 100,000 votes (before all precincts were counted).
I think you need to get over it and realize that your guys are running the show now (and what a FINE job they have done)!
a 99 cents store. hahahaha, classic.
carpetbaggers? uh...ok...
This wasn't even the original group that owned FAO when they opened in the forum shops. For that matter, it has changed ownership a bunch of times. The forum shops store was a shadow of its former self for what seems the last six years when it temp closed and reopened. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.
Toy retail is notorious for being terrible. Toys r us, Walmart, Target, and Kmart sell 95% of the toys in our country.
Forum shops have gone downhill since the late 90's and early 2000's for that matter. Some upscale stores have left, along with others that really made this place unique. Virgin superstore...etc....Niketown..YUCK!!
Having spent four years in the mall in security i can tell you that FAO didnt do a ton of retail out the door there, they primarily used that location to handle online sales. It was common to have three UPS trucks there daily doing their pickups, and i dont mean the reg UPS trucks either, the largest they had, sometimes even huge box rental trucks, the outbound shipping was huge.
The only unique things on the sales floor were the really huge stuffed animals, for the most part everything else can easily be found at any other store like walmart,toy's r us, etc. If i remember correctly they are owned by toys r us now. I can see why they left, rents in the mall go above the $1.400 per sq ft listed in this story, thats the old rate from several years ago. I can see why FAO left when their contract expired, it doesnt make sense to handle online there at those rents, much better served to handle it out of a large warehouse they own elsewhere.
The simons are a pretty strange and arrogant bunch, but they are the largest mall owner in the world, and since the old man died and the kids now run the outfit, they have really put the crank on the rents in the mall.
Since the recession, most of the stores effected are those unique and smaller ones that arent so much worldwide stores, some of the nice restraunts, etc, only world wide chains with their respective motherships that can cover the gap have remained.
I have knowledge of some deals, shady ones by Simon that have made some stores leave, like stage deli who had been there since the mall opened. They were told their rent would go up three times what it was when their contract expired in 2007, so they left. The real deal was that juicy couture needed more room and wanted to be closer to the dock(dock 1) as they move a pretty good volume, and also near the festival fountain area instead of a hallway to phase 3 where they were. The stage location is 2 story with a freight elevator which gives them a much larger backstock area, and the means to handle it more easily. A backroom deal was made, stage was driven out, more profit for Simon.
Another situation was lafiesta restraunt. The plumbing(sewage system) is so bad in phase 1&2(older parts of the mall) they were basically told they had to move to phase 3 up front by by the Trevi fountain at the old rate, take it or leave it, but it was a much poorer location for them, specially in the cold months, i dont how they survived or if they are still there now, i havent set foot in the mall since my last day of work there in oct of 2007 when the co. i worked for lost the contract. Now they have Anderson in there and it's about the crappiest security outfit to work for, if not the worst, right down there at the bottom.
Ferarra's, penhooligans, many other unique and great stores that got their rents jacked by Simon's greed have all moved on. I miss the place and the people, we were all like family there.
The high-end stores at all the different casino's are just there for 'show'... not too many people can afford their prices. Maybe they make it up late at night - ya know, when they close the whole store down so some celebrity can have a private 'shopping spree'. Maybe if they DID put more reasonably prices stores in these spots they might ALL make a little money - the store itself and the mall operator who will most likely get paid his rent on time. I can certainly see why even high-end places eventually close up shop and move on - you can't run a business on looky-lou's.... someone has to buy your over-priced crap in order for you to pay the rent.