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SIMON HELPED TURN TEAVANA FROM NOVICE TO SOPHISTICATED CHAIN

As the largest landlord of U.S. retail space, Simon Property Group handles its share of hungry entrepreneurs seeking to expand their businesses into malls. And though Simon doesn’t provide financial assistance, it does make a practice of offering business advice to companies it deems worthy.

Take Teavana, for example. This chain of sophisticated tea shops, which launched in 1997 as just another Atlanta mom-and-pop shop, is brewing some big expansion plans. Teavana says it will be operating 26 stores across the country by year-end and aims to open an additional 20 next year.

As a private company, Teavana will not disclose figures, but it says sales are growing. And with more U.S. consumers ditching their coffee cups for tea bags everyday, the company’s growth prospects seem endless.

Whatever success Teavana has achieved has not come without help, however. Just a few years ago, the retailer was a fledgling under Simon’s wing. “They want to see you succeed, and we take full advantage of that nice partnership,” said Teavana CEO Andrew Mack.

In Simon, Mack found a fairy godmother and a business consultant rolled into one when he went shopping for mall locations for his concept. “It’s been, ‘How can we help you?’ from day one, and it’s been a win-win,” he said.

Simon, which controls Atlanta’s two top malls - Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza — reviewed Teavana’s business plan, staffing, budgets, inventories and products, and then offered the retailer a short-term lease for an in-line store at Phipps Plaza in 1998.

In 1999 Simon approved another short-term lease for a Teavana store across the street in Lenox Square. Within a year “we recognized we were in it for the long haul and took both the stores permanent,” Mack said. “We had great support from Simon and the general manager at the property with merchandising ideas and marketing.”

It was the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship. Today 14 of Teavana’s stores are in malls owned or managed by Simon.

— JMS