Chinook grows sales, adds stores
Chinook Centre has reached a new sales milestone as it continues to update its retail mix with the announced openings of new stores.
The Calgary mall surpassed $1,100 in sales per square foot in February, a six per cent increase from last year, which puts Chinook in the same category as national shopping centres Yorkdale and Pacific Centre, said property manager Eve Renaud.
She said Chinook is continuing to expand its store mix since Calgary shoppers increasingly want the same brands they find when travelling outside Alberta.
“When they come back home I think they expect those same brands,” said Renaud.
“If we’re able to accommodate that variety at home, it really speaks wonders to how well we perform at the mall.”
New store openings include J.Crew in June, EileenFisher, in August, and TopShop in the fall.
Two new restaurants — Double Zero and State & Main — are expected to open later this year as well.
American retailer Target is to open this spring, although no firm date has been released. Nordstrom will open sometime in the fall of 2014.
Renaud said more store openings of “first to market American retailers” will be announced in the coming months.
Retail analyst Michael Kehoe, of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate Inc., said regional shopping centres such as Chinook are in a constant state of re-invention to keep pace with consumer preferences.
“The process is gradual and often invisible to the untrained eye as the mall owner tweaks the retail tenant mix, dropping some stores and adding new fashion entries arriving into the market,” said Kehoe.
On Tuesday, American fashion retailer Eileen Fisher announced it will open a second Canadian store at Chinook Centre under a franchise agreement with the brand’s Canadian distributor, Se Ce Apparel Co. Ltd.
“There are several reasons Eileen Fisher chose to expand to Calgary,” said Catherine Claman, founder and president of Se Ce Apparel Co. Ltd. “We were struck by the focus on quality of life in Calgary and see a synergy between the ease, functionality and simple elegance of Eileen Fisher’s clothes and the relaxed Calgarian lifestyle.
“The brand has been so well received in Vancouver, and Calgary is a great next step in our Canadian retail expansion plan.”