New center on track for September opening K
Mark your calendars shoppers, would-be retail employees and parents looking for a place where the kids can expend some energy.
The largest shopping center now under construction in the Denver area will celebrate its grand opening Sept. 27. And its going to have an outdoor play area complete with a 30-foot-tall climbing structure to go along with its discount merchandise, developers say.
The 330,000-square-foot Denver Premium Outlets broke ground at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and East 136th Avenue in Thornton in October. After announcing the center’s first bundle of tenants last month, developer/owner Simon Premium Outlets released the names of more incoming brands Friday.
They include: Calvin Klein, an Ann Taylor Factory Store, Vineyard Vines and Tommy Hillfiger.
“I think the biggest story is going to be the orchestration of all the retailers coming in and building their stores over the next 60 days,” Simon Premium Outlets CEO Stephen Yalof said.
The village-style center will have around 80 shops. Yalof expects it to create 500 full- and part-time jobs. He’s not concerned about stores staffing up in Denver’s tight labor market. Many positions will be entry-level and Yalof believes brands like Nike and Polo Ralph Lauren will attract young workers. A job fair is planned for the center Aug. 16.
Yet to be announced are the restaurants that will fill the center’s dining pavilion. Those four names, as well as that of a sit-down restaurant tenant, are expected to be released just before opening day, Yalof said.
Simon is including a full-service restaurant and outdoor play place with Thornton residents in mind.
“We’re going to be a regional draw, but the local people are the ones who are going to have to live with us every single day so we want to make sure there are things for them,” Yalof said.
As of June 30, 1.5 million square feet of new retail space was being built in metro Denver, a 34.4 percent increase over retail construction underway on June 30 last year, according to real estate firm CBRE. Denver Premium Outlets is the biggest portion of that crop, CBRE reports, but infill projects and mixed-used buildings with ground floor shopping and dining space remain popular with developers. roger is considering expanding a ban on Visa credit cards imposed by one of its subsidiaries, in the latest signal that retailers are preparing a fresh battle over the $90 billion they pay in swipe fees every year.
Merchants have long looked for ways to cut such charges, including by lobbying lawmakers for lower rates and through technology upgrades that avoid traditional card payments entirely. Shares of payment companies including Visa, American Express and Mastercard dropped on Monday.
Kroger, the largest U.S. supermarket chain and parent company of King Soopers and City Market in the Colorado market, said its Foods Co. Supermarkets unit in California will stop accepting Visa cards at 21 stores and five fuel centers next month. Kroger spokesman Chris Hjelm said in an interview that the parent company might follow the lead.
“It’s pretty clear we need to move down this path, and if we have to expand that beyond Foods Co., we’re prepared to take that step,” Hjelm said. When the amount retailers pay in card fees “gets out of alignment, as we believe it is now, we don’t believe we have a choice but to use whatever mechanism possible to get it back in alignment.”
But Colorado residents who shop at King Soopers and City Market won’t have to fret about using their Visa to buy bananas and kitty litter — those stores will continue to accept the iconic card.
“As we redefine the grocery customer experience, we are always looking for partnerships that create customer value,” King Soopers spokesman Adam Williamson said in a statement. “At this time, our King
Soopers and City Market stores in the Colorado market will continue to accept Visa credit.”
Kroger’s announcement followed Walmart’s decision last week to abandon Synchrony Financial after the two couldn’t agree to economic terms. And Amazon.com’s foray into financial services has also been seen as a way the retailer could save $250 million.
Visa and American Express were the worst performers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday, with each dropping more than 2 percent. Mastercard declined for a third day in a row, the stock’s longest losing streak since May.
Still, the world’s largest payments networks continue to benefit from a global shift away from cash to electronic payments. Visa has climbed 20 percent this year as Mastercard rose 31 percent, outpacing the 12 percent gain by the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.
AmEx said separately on Monday that it planned to work with an external party to conduct a review of its foreign-exchange business after a report said employees boosted rates for some business customers without notifying them. Staff writer Natalie Weber contributed to this story.