Anthropologie, Ulta near deals for Virginia Beach locations

VIRGINIA BEACH

While Wall Street has turned the national outlook gloomy, some South Hampton Roads shoppers could perk up with the prospect of two retailers coming to town.

Anthropologie, a trendy women's fashion and home-decor chain with its closest store now in Richmond, appears on a list of Town Center retailers in a Virginia Beach promotional video. Warren Harris, the city's economic development director, showed the video Thursday at the Virginia Beach Convention Center during the Idea Exchange, an annual event sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers to help retailers and developers make deals.

Gerald Divaris, chief executive of Divaris Real Estate Inc. and a partner in Town Center, said it's premature to announce Anthropologie's arrival. Divaris Real Estate representatives, though, told others at the Idea Exchange that the Philadelphia-based retailer had agreed to a Town Center store.

Ulta, a cosmetics and hair products powerhouse with a location in Newport News, plans to open its first South Hampton Roads store next month at Landstown Commons in Virginia Beach, said David Rayner, the retailer's vice president of real estate.

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc., based in Romeoville, Ill., has 283 stores nationwide and is looking at locations in the Hilltop or Town Center areas of Virginia Beach or Greenbrier section of Chesapeake, Rayner said.

Rayner participated in the "Speed Date" session at the Idea Exchange. Retailer representatives sat at designated tables, and real estate agents and developers moved every 10 minutes from table to table to court potential tenants.

"What's your square footage?" one agent asked Rayner.

Ulta likes 10,000 square feet of space, he told visitors. "We're looking for power centers," he elaborated. "If they have a Target and a Best Buy, a Bed, Bath & Beyond and a Barnes & Noble, we go into a euphoric state."

At the table for Petsense, a small pet-supply chain, Robin Muir told suitors that he needed locations at least 30 miles from primary competitors PetSmart and Petco, taking the retailer out of Hampton Roads. "Basically, we do small-town U.S.A.," said Muir, the real estate consultant for Petsense.

Developers pitched Muir on sites in Franklin and Nags Head, N.C. "This one definitely fits the bill," said Michael Zarpas, president of Global Real Estate Investment in Norfolk, of his shopping center in Franklin.

National brands such as Ulta and Anthropologie have helped draw consumers to malls of all types - from the traditional indoor collections of stores to "power strips" to outdoor lifestyle centers, said Robert Gibbs, a national retail consultant based in Birmingham, Mich., who was keynote speaker for the event.

People redeveloping "main street" have much to learn from malls, Gibbs said. Today, downtown locations account for only 2 percent of retail sales, he said. "They are now offering goods and services that nobody wants."

Urban planners and downtown developers typically see independent merchants as their bread and butter. They believe national chains cramp the character of a downtown and compete with nearby malls, Gibbs said.

Large retailers and mall owners have insights into consumer habits that main street could use, he said. They study the way shoppers shop. They know that customers walk through malls at 8 feet per second, tend to turn to the right when they enter a store and more willingly pick up blue jeans that are folded on tables instead of hung.

Downtown developers don't need expensive sidewalk bricks or ornate trash containers to attract shoppers, Gibbs said. They need stores that customers want to visit.

"Our job is to get people to shop and to get people to buy things that they, frankly, don't need," Gibbs told the retail industry listeners.

He urged them to avoid getting depressed about the economy, which will turn around. "People always have to shop."

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com