Accenting the luxury market
William Taubman remembers what skeptics were saying about the Cherry Creek Shopping Center when it opened in 1992.
“We were told we would be an utter failure,” Taubman, chief operating officer of the mall’s owner/operator, Taubman Centers, said Wednesday at the annual State of Cherry Creek Breakfast event. “That we just didn’t understand that, basically, the Denver customer was an unsophisticated customer that would never buy clothing unless it was a Wrangler jean.”
More than 25 years later, Taubman says Cherry Creek has asserted itself as the premier retail hub of a booming metro area. And his company is planning to bring in more luxury retailers to meet the tastes of a not-so-unsophisticated customer base.
Taubman was the keynote speaker at Wednesday’s event, put together by the Cherry Creek Area Business Alliance as an update on the financial strength and future of one of Denver’s key commercial areas.
Before he took the stage, Patty Silverstein, president of Development Research Partners and chief consulting economist with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, highlighted that the mall and the neighboring Cherry Creek North neighborhood combined to generate $25 million in sales taxes through the first nine months of
2017. She projected that number would rise to $35 million when fourth quarter numbers are included. The area generates 4.7 percent of all sales taxes in Denver, she said.
Anchoring it all is the mall. Taubman told the audience he expects half or more of regional malls across the county will eventually close amid choppy retail seas, but those that remain will be bigger and stronger. He expects Cherry Creek to be among them, thanks to a mix of prime location, a collection of unique and destination retailers, and what he calls a critical mass of core customers — people making between $100,000 and $250,000 a year — in the Denver market today.
“I think we’ll be the luxury destination,” he said. “I think as key midpriced stores come to the market, they always tend to come to Cherry Creek first.”
While he didn’t offer a name, Taubman said a newto-market retailer is working now on a 40,000square-foot store in the mall. In an interview with The Denver Post after the event, he said iconic luxury clothing and accessories brand Louis Vuitton is in the process of doubling its square footage at Cherry Creek.
“I think when you wake up five years from now, you are going to have more luxury in Cherry Creek and more potential to add luxury because it starts with the nature of the town,” he told The Post. “As the town continues to grow and become wealthier and as the town becomes more sophisticated in its fashion desire, … these fashion stores start to wake up.”
As for plans for the larger shopping center area, Taubman said his Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based company, which owns 27 shopping centers in the U.S. and Asia, soon will announce a trio of retailers that are moving in to the former Safeway at 3110 E. First Ave.
The grocery store closed late last year after 51 years in the neighborhood. Retrofitting work is underway on the building now, Taubman said.
The future of building is more uncertain on the opposite side of the center that most recently housed a Bed, Bath & Beyond.
“That is part of a larger program for us to understand really what we want to do with the entire west end (of the shopping center),” Taubman said. “I think there is an opportunity to densify the west end. We need to understand what that means right now.”