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GENERAL GROWTH PITCHES ‘PLATINUM PROPERTIES’

They are not just in Iowa anymore. Such is the message behind General Growth Properties’ new GGPlatinum Properties. The marketing program, involving 19 of its 209 malls, is designed to raise the fashion industry’s awareness that General Growth now caters to luxury retailers too.

The program, which advertises mostly in fashion publications, shows how General Growth’s portfolio has evolved from its middle-market roots, says James W. (Wally) Brewster, SCMD, the firm’s senior vice president of marketing and communications.

“We’re now the strongest player with depth in the luxury market,” Brewster said. “And that had not been our roots.”

General Growth stuck to middle markets in the early years after its founding in 1954. After becoming a REIT in 1993, the firm continued to grow by both development and acquisition. It bought Homart Development in 1995, JP Realty in 2002 and The Rouse Co. last year.

But as a result particularly of that latest acquisition, a company that had been known for Sears-anchored centers in the Midwest now owns and manages some of the highest-end centers in the United States, including Ala Moana Center, in Honolulu; Glendale (Calif.) Galleria; and Water Tower Place, in Chicago.

And it wants to bring the fact home to high-fashion retailers.

“I don’t think people realize the extent of our properties,” said Mark Pfeifer, vice president of strategic communications. “We are proud of it.”

With the Rouse acquisition now closed, the timing is particularly good to send the message to luxury retailers that General Growth is a landlord for them, says Brewster.

“[With] the most recent acquisitions, and as we are expanding and building the Palazzo [an expansion of the Grand Canal Shoppes, in Las Vegas], we had enough properties in the area of luxury to start marketing them,” Brewster said.

General Growth launched the program with ads in Women’s Wear Daily, the trade newspaper that is the bible for the fashion industry. The ads show a woman attired in high-fashion, and they run such lines as GGPrestige and GGPreferred, as well as the slogan, “GGPlatinum Properties: Fashioning Elite Opportunities.” Blowups of the ads were displayed at the General Growth booth at ICSC’s Spring Convention in Vegas. (Also in Las Vegas, General Growth launched America’s Premier Shopping Places, a marketing program for 40 properties — including several Platinum projects — and geared toward the travel industry. This program also includes the Festival Marketplaces developed by Rouse, which include Faneuil Hall, in Boston, and Harborplace, in Baltimore.)

Upscale or European retailers can now expand throughout the United States through one portfolio rather than center-by-center, Brewster says. Other landlords, including Macerich, have made similar arguments for their portfolios.

Simon Property Group, which owns its share of luxury properties, is not branding them separately, at least not for now. But the company does take out the occasional ad in Women’s Wear Daily. Simon, the largest U.S. mall owner, touted “The fashion centers of Simon” in one ad that ran right before the Spring Convention. Simon counts The Galleria, in Houston; The Forum Shops at Caesars, Las Vegas; and Phipps Plaza, Atlanta, among its luxury-magnet malls. “Declare your fashionality,” the ad tells retailers.

General Growth declined to say how much it is spending on its Platinum Properties campaign, but a four-color single page of advertising in Women’s Wear Daily lists at $24,910 (the price drops as the frequency of placement increases).

The GGPlatinum ads will run through this year and next, Pfeifer says, to ensure that General Growth comes to mind when luxury retailers look to expand across the country.

— Debra Hazel