SouthPark Mall

[InSouthPark]

17 hours ago, Madison Parkitect said:

They're not anywhere close to opening, I'd say it's like... this fall based on how much is done outside.

Geez they could have built a new mall faster!  

[Phillydog]

On 1/11/2023 at 4:37 PM, nakers2 said:

People often joke that Charlotte is the biggest city that nobody's heard of. Obviously this is hyperbole, but it's not without merit. Charlotte for years was a large small town. People patronized local businesses or chains (Belk, Ivey's, etc) and the bank crowd uptown was the primary purchaser of high end clothing, usually not high fashion though, but rather your banker attire of suits and ties. Unfortunately this has translated into a stigma on what kind of "fashion" would succeed in the city. I think we will see a boom of smaller chains opening flagships at Southpark and around the city, and as they gain traction, the legacy luxury brands will follow. 

Excellent observation.  North Carolina, generally, dies a shifty job promoting itself.  We aren't naturally bloviators like Georgia, Tennessee, Texas.  We need to more agrmgressively sell ourselves.

Edited January 22 by Phillydog

[kayman]

On 1/21/2023 at 9:30 PM, Phillydog said:

Excellent observation.  North Carolina, generally, dies a shifty job promoting itself.  We aren't naturally bloviators like Georgia, Tennessee, Texas.  We need to more agrmgressively sell ourselves.

Yeah it does seem like the convention and visitors' (tourism) officials aren't doing a good job at all on North Carolina. It's like they don't want more tourism when we really need more leisurely visitors and tourists than only business or work-related. We're an evolving economy which is more leisurely driven than corporate or business due to the drastic rise in remote/virtual meetings. Charlotte, the Triangle needs more leisurely tourists more than business tourists to thrive and survive. 

[Rufus]

Posting here, but Atlrvr posted in the Southpark Projects page that Veronica Beard is opening at Philips Place. This is pretty good get as it seems like Denver is the closest metro in size that has a store location. The rest are in pretty mega retail metros. Hopefully this leads to more announcements. 

[Rufus]

Chiming in with another retail update: 

1. MCM has closed -- it was just a kiosk, so it's not much of a loss. NM and Nordstrom both carry the brand, so I wonder if this was a testing ground to see if things were viable for a store. 

2. I think it has been posted before, but Burberry is under renovation. When the renovation is finished, the temporary store near the "main" entrance will be vacated. That could turn into something special. 

3. Finally, OMEGA will be opening a boutique in the mall according to the website. This is a good get. I wonder if it is part of the TAG HEUER space, or a separate space. Nonetheless, it's a good get in terms of retailers. 

I also just want to chime in and say how outrageous it is for this Altar'd State brand to have one of the largest collections of square footage in the mall. They have FOUR brands right next to each other in Tullabee, AS Revival, Arula, and Altar'd State. I don't have high hopes that all of these will last in terms of overall viability, but it is insane to have this much space taken up. 

[Madison Parkitect]

11 hours ago, Rufus said:

I also just want to chime in and say how outrageous it is for this Altar'd State brand to have one of the largest collections of square footage in the mall. They have FOUR brands right next to each other in Tullabee, AS Revival, Arula, and Altar'd State. I don't have high hopes that all of these will last in terms of overall viability, but it is insane to have this much space taken up. 

It boggles my mind that, even here in the Bible Belt, there is enough interest in this weird Christian Girl Fall brand for them to have multiple brands and so much mall space.

[TheOneRJ]

ZARA’s first NC location to open at SouthPark Mall: https://www.businessinsider.com/zara-store-openings-renovations-us-list-2023-3?amp

[CLT2014]

What are we going to complain about now. 

Exciting news!

I wonder where the Zara is going to go in the mall? Perhaps the old Microsoft store location (doesn't seem big enough though). I don't see any large vacancies on the mall map.

Edited March 16 by CLT2014

[TheOneRJ]

2 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

What are we going to complain about now. 

Exciting news!

I wonder where the Zara is going to go in the mall? Perhaps the old Microsoft store location (doesn't seem big enough though). I don't see any large vacancies on the mall map.

They must know something we don’t. 

[CLT2014]

4 minutes ago, TheOneRJ said:

They must know something we don’t. 

A mall expansion for a 20,000+ square foot Zara in one of these two locations could make sense:

[CLTProductions]

34 minutes ago, TheOneRJ said:

They must know something we don’t. 

They do...there are tons of moving parts here. It wont be open til 2025 and there isn't even a final lease yet.

[Madison Parkitect]

35 minutes ago, CLTProductions said:

They do...there are tons of moving parts here. It wont be open til 2025 and there isn't even a final lease yet.

Opening in 2025 would give them enough time to build a new expansion...

[ClassicColtrane]

2 hours ago, TheOneRJ said:

ZARA’s first NC location to open at SouthPark Mall: https://www.businessinsider.com/zara-store-openings-renovations-us-list-2023-3?amp

HUGE! There are so, so, so many people in Charlotte who have been clamoring for a Zara for years. This helps not only Charlotteans' shopping experience, but people's perspective on Charlotte's " cool factor" ... can't tell you how many times I've had friends come visit me who said "geez, Charlotte doesn't have a Zara?"

[CLT2014]

Other wildcard how Zara will fit.... Macy's could finally be leaving SouthPark Mall (they've largely given up on competing here) and one level of their building becomes Zara and the other becomes available to another tenant or expansion space. 

Edited March 16 by CLT2014

[TheOneRJ]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

Other wildcard how Zara will fit.... Macy's could finally be leaving SouthPark Mall (they've largely given up on competing here) and one level of their building becomes Zara and the other becomes available to another tenant or expansion space. 

If Macy’s were to close I think it’s more likely the entire building would be demolished and rebuilt for additional retail expansion or hotel/office like what just happened at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. 

[turbocraig]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

Other wildcard how Zara will fit.... Macy's could finally be leaving SouthPark Mall (they've largely given up on competing here) and one level of their building becomes Zara and the other becomes available to another tenant or expansion space. 

I've been in that Macy's recently and the lower level where the Men's Dept, housewares, and Basement or Backstage or whatever that is, looks like a Ross.  Crap strewn everywhere, unfolded merch, sparse inventory in sections.  It has major "Everything Must Go" vibes.  Just trashy.  

[turbocraig]

I also have no idea where Zara would go in the mall, but I hope we get a decent sized store that reflects the size of the city.  The Zara at Crossgates Mall in Albany NY has been there a few years and is 30K sf on two levels.  For comparison, our H&M is 21K sf.

[Take2]

Zzaaarrraaa.. does this mean Charlotte is a world class city now? And what store that's not here will we fuss about now? (Wegmans is not an option because we do have a store... in Chapel Hill.. the commute isn't too bad)

Edited March 17 by Take2

[KJHburg]

9 hours ago, Take2 said:

Zzaaarrraaa.. does this mean Charlotte is a world class city now? And what store that's not here will we fuss about now? (Wegmans is not an option because we do have a store... in Chapel Hill.. the commute isn't too bad)

Until we get our Wegmans within the county no world class status for us. 

I think this Zara will go somewhere in the mall even if it means shuffling some stores around I don't believe they would build anything new or add on.  

[LKN704]

Fantastic news! It's been a long time coming and I know several friends of mine are happy that they will no longer have to drive to Atlanta for their Zara fix. 

On 3/16/2023 at 2:31 PM, turbocraig said:

I also have no idea where Zara would go in the mall, but I hope we get a decent sized store that reflects the size of the city.  The Zara at Crossgates Mall in Albany NY has been there a few years and is 30K sf on two levels.  For comparison, our H&M is 21K sf.

For whatever reason, the fashion scene and retail brand awareness in the Capital District really punches above its weight (based on metro population) likely because of its strong ties and relative proximity to NYC. People commonly made shopping day trips to "the city" when I was a kid. 

The H&M in Crossgates opened in 2000 and was the chain's 8th store location in the US. They've since downsized (H&M now builds smaller stores, around 20k sqft) but when opened, the store was a massive 50k sqft store. 

The Apple store in Crossgates opened in 2001 and was one of the first 25 stores in the country...I could be wrong, but I don't think Charlotte got an Apple store until 2004 (which is when the Southpark store opened). 

Extremely off-topic, but I vaguely remember H&M being less "youthful" back then and more akin to a regular department store. My mom said they had the best maternity clothes, and (she claims) that the old Crossgates store had a very large maternity department...I don't think any H&M still have such a department in-store.

This is the Crossgates store on opening day in 2000:

It's amusing to me that the mall tile floor looks more dated than some of the outfits (several of which are now back in style, like the "dad" athletic sneakers)!! Anyways, it's interesting to see that the average age of people waiting to enter looks older than the current demographic of your average H&M customer. 

Edited March 17 by LKN704

[Synopsis101]

I wish Zara were opening somewhere in Center City instead.

[nakers2]

On 3/18/2023 at 6:18 AM, Synopsis101 said:

I wish Zara were opening somewhere in Center City instead.

I think people are watching with baited breath to see how "Queen City Quarter" (IE, former Epicentre) does with it's reimaging/rebranding. But Zara wants to play it safe, and for retail, Southpark is very safe.

On 3/14/2023 at 9:12 AM, Madison Parkitect said:

It boggles my mind that, even here in the Bible Belt, there is enough interest in this weird Christian Girl Fall brand for them to have multiple brands and so much mall space.

They're not so on the nose with the "Christian company" stuff, my Jewish girlfriend loves to shop there. I agree that the store(s) are massive, but considering that they convinced Southpark to allow them to cut a skylight out of the ceiling in their main store, they've got long term ambitions. I wouldn't put my money on Zara going there.

[Temeteron]

2 hours ago, nakers2 said:

I think people are watching with baited breath to see how "Queen City Quarter" (IE, former Epicentre) does with it's reimaging/rebranding. But Zara wants to play it safe, and for retail, Southpark is very safe.

They're not so on the nose with the "Christian company" stuff, my Jewish girlfriend loves to shop there. I agree that the store(s) are massive, but considering that they convinced Southpark to allow them to cut a skylight out of the ceiling in their main store, they've got long term ambitions. I wouldn't put my money on Zara going there.

 

2 hours ago, nakers2 said:

I think people are watching with baited breath to see how "Queen City Quarter" (IE, former Epicentre) does with it's reimaging/rebranding. But Zara wants to play it safe, and for retail, Southpark is very safe.

They're not so on the nose with the "Christian company" stuff, my Jewish girlfriend loves to shop there. I agree that the store(s) are massive, but considering that they convinced Southpark to allow them to cut a skylight out of the ceiling in their main store, they've got long term ambitions. I wouldn't put my money on Zara going there.

I think the “Queen City Quarter” needs to completely remodel and IMO completely restructure also.  It will need very strong tenants if and when it opens for the grand opening in order to have an appealing draw.