Eight retailers will open soon at several Bay Area malls

PALO ALTO » There has been plenty of news lately about mall shops closing their doors, but at the Stanford Shopping Center, there will be quite a few openings in the next few months.

Seven new stores are slated to open in the ritzy mall some time between now and the end of summer.

Hermès — the high end purveyor of clothing, accessories and equestrian products — will open a 6,000-square-foot store in mid-May. According to the Stanford Shopping Center, it will be the second Hermès location in the Bay Area and the fifth in California. The luxury brand doesn't open brick-andmortar shops often. This one will be the first new Hermes store since 2011.

Next door, in what the shopping center calls its “luxury wing,” Burberry will move to a bigger location from its current spot. Also set to open in May is children's clothing retailer Hanna Anderson.

The remaining Stanford openings are all about food and fitness reflecting a nationwide effort by malls to offer more than shopping.

The long anticipated Bay Area opening of revered burger chain Shake Shack will happen at the Stanford Shopping Center some time in early fall, though a spokeswoman for the mall could not reveal an exact date yet. Other new dining spots include a juice bar called Joe & The Juice, expected to open in the summer, and Lottie's Creamery, which describes itself as a “micro-creamery” that makes ice cream onsite with local ingredients. Lottie's has a spot in downtown Walnut Creek and will open at Stanford this spring. Nespresso, which sells beans and equipment for espresso brewing, is expected to open in the summer.

In September, popular fitness chain Barry's Bootcamp, which has locations in San Francisco, will open at Stanford. It advertises “high-intensity workouts” led by instructors, but they will cost you: One-hour workouts are $34 a pop at the downtown San Francisco location. It will be the fourth fitness studio at the Palo Alto shopping center, which already has SoulCycle, Turbo 26 and Peloton.

Malls and shopping centers have scrambled in recent years as many national chains have either closed up entirely, shuttered underperforming stores or slowed their growth amid competition from e-commerce and an already packed collection of brick-and-mortar stores across the country. For malls such as Stanford Shopping Center, staying competitive has meant investing in the mall — it recently completed a 120,000 square-foot renovation — and bringing in unique or popular tenants to attract crowds.

To that end, the Stoneridge Shopping Center in Dublin — which, like Stanford Shopping Center, is a Simon Property Group mall — is bringing in popular international retailer Zara, which will debut a two-level store later this year, just before the holiday shopping season.