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Short Hills, Capital City reflect home shift

By Kevin Kenyon

A closer look at two retail centers, using a five-year time line, shows evidence of the widening gap between the amount of square footage dedicated to home stores and the amount to apparel shops.

The first property, The Mall at Short Hills (N.J.), is a 1.4 million-square-foot center owned by Taubman Centers, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The upscale center, anchored by Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue, underwent a major expansion/renovation in 1995, allowing mall officials the opportunity to change the tenant mix. Since 1994, the home furnishings category in Short Hills went from 8% of the center's gross leasable area (GLA), to 15% today, according to Craig Perry, the mall's general manager.

"Home-related stores have been by far the largest shift of any category for us," he said, noting that the center added retailers such as Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel, Domain and Illuminations during the expansion, while existing retailers like Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma enlarged their stores.

During the same period, the percentage of space devoted to apparel (48%), remained virtually unchanged, Perry said, noting that other categories such as food, books and music round out the tenant mix.

The shift is by no means an accident, and was carefully orchestrated to take advantage of developments in the marketplace, he added.

"In this general area of New Jersey there's been a tremendous growth in housing, including a lot of teardowns, where people buy older homes, tear them down, and build larger ones," he said. "Part of it is also due to what we see as a maturing customer who is spending more on the home.

"We merchandise the shopping center to fit the need of our customers, so if we see growth in any one particular area we try to meet that need," Perry said, noting that he expects the percentage of space devoted to home products to increase.

The second property, Capital City Mall, is a 650,000-square-foot center in Camp Hill, Pa., which is owned by Crown American Realty Trust, Johnstown, Pa. The midmarket center, which is anchored by JC Penney, Hecht's and Sears, underwent a major expansion in 1994.

Since that time, the space devoted to home has increased 6%, while women's ready-to-wear has decreased 3%, according to John Walter, the mall's general manager.

Part of that shift, he added, can be attributed to the two new anchors that were added during the expansion, Hecht's and JC Penney, which carry more home-related merchandise than Ames or Hess's, the two previous anchors.

The trend, which is being driven by the rapid increase in housing starts in the center's trade area in recent years, is hard to fully quantify, according to Walters.

"Even in some of the traditional stores which have primarily been focused on apparel, there has been an expansion within the store of home-related items," he said, citing Eddie Bauer, The Gap and Old Navy as prime examples of retailers that are now selling home accessories.

"You're starting to see things you wouldn't have seen just a few years ago, because retailers have recognized that this is a big area for growth."