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The Mall at Green Hills


Richard Lawson

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I couldnt agree more! A couple of years ago I found a sweater at Neiman's in Atlanta....loved it except its 450.00$ price. Low and behold, I found the SAME IDENTICAL SWEATER right down to the brand name, fabric, and design at Dillards in Knoxville for 125.00$. Yes I bought it and no....even though I am blessed enough to be able to afford to shop at Neiman Marcus if I wish, I refuse to do so. There is no one that I have to or need to impress. BTW, a Neiman's or a Nordstrom will not "improve the quality of life" in Nashville and Im sure 9 out of 10 Nashvillians really dont care.

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Belk's mall locations are just as good as Dillard's and Macy's, and sometimes they're better.

I think those guys know what Belk is like. They're already in the Nashville market, and Atlanta too. I don't even shop at malls 363 days of the year, but even I can see that Belk doesn't even measure up to Dillard, which is OK in some areas, and definitely doesn't match Macy's. I'm told that the store at South Park is "nice", but that's not typical. I would put Belk on a par with Sears.

And I know the distinction that was made between their mall locations and the stand alones, usually in smaller cities.

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I would think a new Belk "flagship" would be a very nice addition to Green Hills, as they seem to be a very nice higher-end department store with a good retail mix. There one here in Jackson I shop at seems on comparable in quality with the Macys and Dillards in Jackson, Paducah, and Memphis I have shopped at recently. I don't see the comparison to Sears at all, which seems very blue-collar compared to Belk, Macys, or Dillards. Just my opinion from my experience at these retailers.

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While I have nothing against Belk and much like Macy's aspires to do, they do a good job of tailoring stores to meet the needs of the area they're in, I.e.: upscale areas, get more upscale merchandise, however I think this is a step down for TMAGH, as it's not going to be (as has been noted) different from Macy's or Dillard's, the problem is there does need to be a store at that next level, that carries things you can't get at Dillard's and Macy's. There's plenty of money in this town and I think the fact that the LV store alone has been very successful, is telling that this city has money and is willing to spend it on high dollar items.

The other issue is just that there's already several of them around the mid state, there's nothing really special about it, it's not going to be any major pull, whereas people would flock to go to a Nordstrom, if nothing else, just because it's the only one, which would be a bigger draw for the mall as a whole, not just whatever anchor it is.

If this is true, I'm really disappointed.

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The number one ingredient to great fashion begins with the shoes. What Nashville need, are great shoe retailers and the rest of the outfit can come from Dillards or Macys. Most of my high-end purchases are on shoes and outerwear i.e.., coats, jackets, etc. I will spend five or six hundred dollars on a pair of shoes or boots and nice a coat or jacket, but not on sweaters, shirts, and jeans.

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I think those guys know what Belk is like. They're already in the Nashville market, and Atlanta too. I don't even shop at malls 363 days of the year, but even I can see that Belk doesn't even measure up to Dillard, which is OK in some areas, and definitely doesn't match Macy's. I'm told that the store at South Park is "nice", but that's not typical. I would put Belk on a par with Sears.

And I know the distinction that was made between their mall locations and the stand alones, usually in smaller cities.

From what I understand, some Belk locations are on par with JCPenney, but the the one for TMAGH will be similar to their "flagship" in SouthPark and Phipps etc. You can also get ready for another Belk at Indian Lake in Hendersonville...similar to the one in Murfreesboro.

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I think those guys know what Belk is like. They're already in the Nashville market, and Atlanta too. I don't even shop at malls 363 days of the year, but even I can see that Belk doesn't even measure up to Dillard, which is OK in some areas, and definitely doesn't match Macy's. I'm told that the store at South Park is "nice", but that's not typical. I would put Belk on a par with Sears.

And I know the distinction that was made between their mall locations and the stand alones, usually in smaller cities.

I would disagree with putting Belk on a par with Sears and I am not that enthusiastic about Belk as a chain- I would much prefer to see a Nordstrom. However, you should check out the Belk at Parkway Place in Huntsville, AL. This was one of the top 5 Parisian stores and as such carried a lot of high end names. In the Men's Dept. you can now find $1,000.00 Hickey Freeman suits, XMI ties as well as the usual Hart Shaftner and Marx, Joseph Aboud and in sportswear, LaCoste. In the Ladies departments high end names abound as well (e.g. Juicy Couture) I would say this store compares to a Nordstrom. It is located in an afffluent area which can support these fashions. There are also some of the lower priced Belk brands and from what I can see they are not selling as well. Unfortunately the former Parisian store at Madison Square was not as lucky in the conversion and is more of a typical Belk with only a smattering of the higher end brands Parisian carried.

My guess is TMAGH store will be more like the Parkway Place Belk and carry the higher end brands and will actually offer better brands than are currently available at either Macy's or Dillards. I still say, though, too bad a Nordstrom isn't coming.

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Isn't it reasonable to sometimes question a source as to something presented as fact, but hasn't shown up in any press materials or even in the weakest of speculations? I'm not saying that "opendrawerwhore" is wrong because I don't know, but I'm also not assuming he's correct either. ODW, please validate yourself a little. That's all I ask.

And as for Huntsville's Belk carrying Juicy Couture and LaCoste, Green Hills is opening those stores in 2008, so I guess they're doing something right (or so it sounds) so they won't need a dept. store to hawk their goods. A $1000 suit really doesn't sound like such a big deal, does it? Besides, boutiques rule and you don't have to put up with crowds. But I'm still a TJMaxx guy.

And this is just for you, Park Avenue: Guess who found a brand new pair of Salvatore Ferragamo meeting shoes at the Nashville Flea Mkt. for $25? Retail: $480. Now THAT'S shopping! They're just lovely. :)

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Nothing against Belk, but Davis Street is not going to add a Belk to Green Hills. The Mall is attracting high end retailers (Lacoste, Burberry, ect.) and Belk is not in that league. (again no offence to Belk fans)

The store will likely go along Abbott Martin in the open parking between the Mall parking garage and Dillards owned surface parking lot.

That could change depending on what they do with the new property they bought by the Dillards garage on Cleghorn. How or if they connect that property to the Mall outright may be what is delaying any announcement. The Mall might be trying to do a complicated deal with Rochford who owns the adjoining office building/theater and parking garage.

If it was a straightforward deal they would be making announcements now.

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Nothing against Belk, but Davis Street is not going to add a Belk to Green Hills. The Mall is attracting high end retailers (Lacoste, Burberry, ect.) and Belk is not in that league. (again no offence to Belk fans)

The store will likely go along Abbott Martin in the open parking between the Mall parking garage and Dillards owned surface parking lot.

That could change depending on what they do with the new property they bought by the Dillards garage on Cleghorn. How or if they connect that property to the Mall outright may be what is delaying any announcement. The Mall might be trying to do a complicated deal with Rochford who owns the adjoining office building/theater and parking garage.

If it was a straightforward deal they would be making announcements now.

I thought I had missed something there. Davis Street has spent all this energy and money to up market TMAGH and all of a sudden they are settling for a Belk. It wasn't making sense to me.

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Nothing against Belk, but Davis Street is not going to add a Belk to Green Hills. The Mall is attracting high end retailers (Lacoste, Burberry, ect.) and Belk is not in that league. (again no offence to Belk fans)

The store will likely go along Abbott Martin in the open parking between the Mall parking garage and Dillards owned surface parking lot.

That could change depending on what they do with the new property they bought by the Dillards garage on Cleghorn. How or if they connect that property to the Mall outright may be what is delaying any announcement. The Mall might be trying to do a complicated deal with Rochford who owns the adjoining office building/theater and parking garage.

If it was a straightforward deal they would be making announcements now.

I wouldn't necessarily throw out Belk so quickly. While I am not a Belk guru, I am sure the Belks at SouthPark and Phipps carry Lacoste. While Green Hills is getting an inflow of luxury stores, they aren't the type that are out of reach for Belk to carry. The nicest Dillards in the country carry Lacoste as their medium brands.

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I wouldn't necessarily throw out Belk so quickly. While I am not a Belk guru, I am sure the Belks at SouthPark and Phipps carry Lacoste. While Green Hills is getting an inflow of luxury stores, they aren't the type that are out of reach for Belk to carry. The nicest Dillards in the country carry Lacoste as their medium brands
Belk most certainly carries Lacoste. They also carry brands like St. John knits, Stuart Weitzman, Cornelliani, Burberry, Furla, Ferragamo, Laura Mercier, Kiehl's, Herend, Garfield & Marks, Allen Edmonds, and Brighton. Obviously, they don't carry all these brands in all their stores, but there is definitely a reason to believe that Belk would bring a quality store to Green Hills.
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Belk told us we were going to have a 'flagship' store to replace our Parisians out here in Cool Springs... they told us it was going to be great, wonderful brands, great events, high quality, not your same old Belk...yadda yadda yadda. Since the switch... it sucks. I miss Parisians and feel that what we have now is nowhere near the quality of what we had.

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Belk? Belk? Surely not. Belk is a middlebrow retailer. Green Hills already has two of those (a very middle market Macy's and Dillard's (which the last time I was in it sold clip-on ties--enough said)).

What we need is a genuine luxury dept store--e.g. Saks or Neimans. A Neimans executive in town recently said that Nashville was the number two market in the country for mail sales. There are plenty of Nashville people who travel to Atlanta and Chicago and elsewhere to shop at luxury department stores. The Mall needs a "Fifth Avenue store" and there's no Belk on Fifth Avenue.

I would be amazed if the mall settles for a Belk store, and I hope that doesn't happen.

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I tend to agree, Belk would not be a good fit for this mall. The Belk here in Murfreesboro is nice, not as nice as Dillard's but better than J.C. Penny's. They carry all the same brands as Dillards including Calvin Klein and others like Nautica. There are nice home furnishings as well. A Belk in addition to Macy's and

Dillard's would be midmarket overkill in Green Hills. The Mall at Green Hills deserves better than this. Come up Nashville, come up.

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^ I tend to agree with that assessment.

GHM area is tending to be much more upscale than a Belk's. Not to detract from Belk's,( I like the stores). But a Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom or Marshall Fields would be a better fit for the area with all the other upscale stores there. You want to have something no one else has to make it a draw and a Belk's would not fit the bill.

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Belk told us we were going to have a 'flagship' store to replace our Parisians out here in Cool Springs... they told us it was going to be great, wonderful brands, great events, high quality, not your same old Belk...yadda yadda yadda. Since the switch... it sucks. I miss Parisians and feel that what we have now is nowhere near the quality of what we had.

I never heard Belk was going to have a Flagship store in Cool Springs. When they made the aquisition of Parision; the only stores scheduled to become 'Flagship' stores were Phipps Plaza in Atlanta and The Summitt in Birgmingham. What I did hear was the Cool Springs location would become a 'Belk Premier' which is a step below the Flagship store, but above the 'Better Belk' that is found in Murfreesboro.

I once read somewhere Belk had 4 different level in store types...

Belk (Mt. Juliet)

Better Belk (Murfreesboro)

Belk Premier (Cool Springs)

Belk Flagship (Summitt, Phipps, & Flagship in Charlotte)

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