Eleventh annual Independence Day fireworks celebration Miromar Outlets

Miromar Outlets and Germain Arena present the 11th annual fireworks show in celebration of Independence Day on Saturday, July 3, 2010. The family event includes a schedule of activities hosted by Miromar Outlets.

From 3 to 8 p.m., the Lee Memorial Blood Mobile will be on site located next to Reebok Outlet Store. Vital health checks for each perspective donor include pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature, anemia (iron level), and blood type and cholesterol levels at no charge. The Estero Rotary Club will be accepting donations during the celebration for Barbara’s Friends – The Southwest Florida Children’s Hospital Cancer Fund.

At 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Southern Extreme Water-Ski Team will perform on the lake between Miromar Outlets and Germain Arena. At 5:30 p.m. live music will be performed by GEEK SKWAD, a high energy rock band. The entertainment continues into the evening. The fireworks show will take place over the lake beginning at dusk. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets. Coolers and personal fireworks are not permitted. The full compliment of restaurants located in Miromar Outlets will be serving a wide variety of food and beverages.

Miromar Outlets is a project of Miromar Development Corporation, a multi-faceted real estate development company with a portfolio of residential and commercial properties including the nearby Miromar Lakes Beach & Golf Club and Miromar Design Center. Miromar.com.

Miromar Outlets is located at exit 123 off I-75, on Miromar Outlets Boulevard in Estero, between Naples and Fort Myers, across from Miromar Design Center. Store hours are Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. MiromarOutlets.com.

Bargain shoppers find their outlets in Texas

Malls that specialize in name brands have held their own by being a destination for consumers who are ready to buy

Joanna Heffernan and her teenage daughter, Kayden Graham, walked out of the Coach outlet store at Houston Premium Outlets, each holding a Coach bag with a purse inside. They had driven from their Richmond home to the sprawling outlet center in Cypress on Wednesday, “just to get away and out of town,” Heffernan said. “It's far enough away that you went somewhere.” And she likes to shop for deals, she added. There are many people like Heffernan who enjoy bargain hunting for name brands and are willing to go a ways to do it.

Developers are opening more outlet malls with such consumers in mind. For example, Simon Property Group, the world's largest shopping center developer, noted in its first quarter earnings report it had four construction projects — all for outlet malls.

In the Greater Houston area, Simon has the two largest collections of outlet stores. Katy Mills at 5000 Katy Mills Circle is more than 1.2 million square feet and has more than 175 stores, 65 percent of which are outlets. Katy Mills opened in 1999 and was acquired by Simon in 2007.

Private school teacher Nikki Vlasek and her 8-year-old daughter, Kate, were in Katy Mills on Tuesday, “making a day out of it. We rode the carousel, she played some video games and she might climb the rock climbing wall,” Vlasek said.

Katy Mills has outlet and traditional stores, and Vlasek said she was gravitating toward bargain shopping at the outlet stores, including Ann Taylor and J. Crew, although she also went to a traditional Old Navy and Claire's there.

Simon's other outlet-focused property, Houston Premium Outlets at 29300 Hempstead, is an upscale concept, said Michele Rothstein, senior vice president of marketing for Premium Outlets.

In November, 25 more outlet stores are slated to open at Houston Premium Outlets, bringing the total to 145. The expanded mall will be 541,000 square feet.

Among the soon-to-arrive merchants, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th will become the center's largest store.

High occupancy

For the fourth quarter of 2009, Simon saw 91 percent occupancy for its traditional regional malls, compared with 98 percent for outlet malls. Sales per square foot in regional malls, excluding anchors, was $433, compared to $500 at outlet malls.

The Outlets at Conroe at 1111 League Line has 38 outlet stores including Bass, Guess, Izod, Kitchen Collection, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger. Owned by Newport Beach, Calif.-based Craig Realty Group, the Outlets at Conroe has been doing good business considering the economy, general manager Tanya Tounzen said. “We've seen sales increases every month this year. It's because of our value pricing,” she said.

The economy is helping drive the growth of the outlet sector, said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz and Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York. “More Americans are under financial stress and watching every penny, but they still are drawn to name brands,” he said.

An investment in time

More so than the traditional mall shopper, an outlet mall shopper is likely to buy, said Kit Yarrow, a professor of business and psychology at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

“Going to an outlet mall is destination shopping,” she said. “The time and energy spent to get there is an investment. People will buy so they won't feel like they've wasted a trip.” 

SOURCE: David Kaplan Houston Chronicle www.chron.com

Apparel costs to rise: Perry Ellis CEO

Clothing maker Perry Ellis International sees a 10 percent rise in industry wide apparel prices over the next two years amid rising commodity prices and higher labor costs in China.

Prices have to go up at some point. The American consumer will have to pay higher prices... It's only apparel and electronics, the items that keep coming down, everything else in life has come up," Chief Executive George Feldenkreis told the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit in New York.

Feldenkreis said the push for higher wages in China and the government's recent move to relax controls on the yuan would further contribute to price increases.

"Beijing is 30 million people. There is a movement to bring some of that prosperity to the midwest region in China. That is also creating more issues with labor costs... you have seen some unrest," he said.

The company, which sells branded merchandise in department stores such as Macy's Inc and Kohl's Corp  and also licenses its brand to retailers, is also looking to migrate more toward direct ownership.

"We have announced we are taking back the dress shirt license, and (there's ) another we haven't announced but we will take back," Feldenkreis said.

Perry Ellis has considerably reduced its business with discount chain Wal-Mart Stores Inc due to price issues, and Feldenkreis said eventually even Wal-Mart will have to raise apparel prices.

It is now doing business worth $3 million to $4 million with the world's largest retailer, down from $60 million within the last three years.

About 90 percent of Perry Ellis' revenue comes from its men's business, and the CEO said the men's business performed much better than the women's segment during the recession.

However, many men have traded down, opting for cheaper options to dress shirts and costly suits, he said.
"Men are wearing less suits... men are buying cheaper suits, Feldenkreis said. "Even the $200 suit has actually been growing ... but what really has suffered the most is that suit between $300 and several thousand (dollars)."

The company, which ended the quarter with $31.8 million in cash and no borrowings against its senior credit facility, is also up for buying a mid-tier women's brand, he said.

"We have been interested in making an acquisition in the women's space. A well-managed company... I don't want to buy anything I have to turn around anymore," he said, adding the company has some credibility with older women who recognized its namesake top designer in the United States.

In 2008, Perry Ellis spent $33.1 million to acquire the women's wear lines C&C California and Laundry by Shelli Segal from Liz Claiborne Inc, and has been reworking those brands to resonate with shoppers.

Feldenkreis, a member of a group vying to bring the World Cup to Miami, also said there was a possibility the company might soon become involved with a soccer brand that it would license.

SOURCE: Reuters

For other stories on this topic see:

Rising labor costs in China

Production Costs Rise - Who will pay in this tough economy?

 

 

Grandma arrested after kids left in hot car

A grandmother and her boyfriend face charges after police say they left her two small grandchildren alone inside a locked hot car in the parking lot of an outlet mall on Tuesday.

An off-duty Cincinnati police officer spotted the youngsters, 4 and 5, in the back seat of a four-door Pontiac about 4:50 p.m., according to Monroe police. The vehicle was parked outside Cincinnati Premium Outlets off northbound Interstate 75.

Windows on the driver’s sides of the vehicle were rolled down about 6 inches and all doors were locked. At that point in the day, the temperature was about 84 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The off-duty officer waited several minutes to see if someone came back to the car. When no one did, she called Monroe police.

Both children were visibly hot. After a few minutes in the cool air, though, they seemed to be fine, police said.

About 20 minutes later, a man and a woman carrying shopping bags approached the Pontiac. They told police they had stopped to use the bathroom and were only at the mall a short time.

Officers didn’t buy it. They confronted the couple about the shopping bags and arrested them.

Dianna Taylor, 49, and Alvin Abney, 52, both of Dayton, were booked into the Warren County Jail on misdemeanor child endangering charges about 6 p.m.

Both were held overnight on $2,000 bond each. They are scheduled to appear at 1 p.m. Thursday in Lebanon Municipal Court.

The children's mother was called to the mall parking lot to pick them up, police said.

SOURCE: Cincinnati.com

Prime Outlets Grand Prairie shopping center is on slow track

Prime Outlets' proposed shopping center in Grand Prairie first had to wait out a recession. Now, it's caught up in a pending merger.

While the project has no opening date, it's still alive, according to developers and city officials.

Prime owns land in Grand Prairie where it expected by now to have a 450,000-square-foot outlet center open with commitments from Neiman Marcus Last Call and Saks Off 5th.

Fall 2009 was the first target date for the center planned for the north side of Interstate 20, between State Highway 360 and Great Southwest Parkway.

It was pushed back to May 2011, and now it's in limbo again. "Maybe fall 2011," said Bob O'Neal, Grand Prairie's economic development director. "It's a one-year construction schedule. All the engineering is ready to go. We did the intersection improvements they needed."

Prime must meet requirements of a Federal Trade Commission inquiry of its pending merger. Simon Property Group Inc., the largest U.S. shopping mall owner, reached an agreement in December to buy Baltimore-based Prime Outlets from Lightstone Group for $2.33 billion, including debt.

Indianapolis-based Simon is cooperating with the FTC, which is putting the merger through antitrust scrutiny.
Simon had also bid on its largest competitor, Chicago-based General Growth Properties. Earlier this month, Simon chairman and CEO David Simon said the company had "moved on" and had no plans to make another bid for General Growth, which is reorganizing in bankruptcy.

Simon gains 22 retail outlet centers nationally if it completes the merger with Prime.

In recent years, Simon has acquired two other major mall operators, Mills and Chelsea. Simon also is the largest operator of traditional regional malls, including Firewheel Town Center in Garland, Irving Mall and the Galleria in Houston.

In Texas, Simon owns one of two major centers in San Marcos; four Premium Outlets, including one in Allen, and Mills malls in Grapevine and Katy. Once the deal is completed, Simon will have 63 outlet centers nationally.

Another proposed outlet center similar to Grand Prairie also has been delayed. Prime has plans to build in Livermore Valley, east of San Francisco.

Simon spokesman Les Morris said he couldn't comment on Prime projects since the merger was still pending.

Prime is actively leasing both projects, looking for additional retail and restaurant prospects, said a spokeswoman for Prime.

In May, Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. canceled plans for a similar shopping center in Irving.

"We're still positive and anxious," Grand Prairie's O'Neal said.

"Prime has a healthy list of tenants." A year ago, Prime had lease commitments for 50 percent of the space from Michael Kors , Dooney and Bourke, Hugo Boss, Brooks Brothers , Tommy Hilfiger and others. In March, it said Cole Haan and Esprit were among additional retailers signing leases this year.

SOURCE: MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News

Opry Mills gets $5M permit to rebuild shells of tenants' stores

The cost of what it will take to put Opry Mills mall back together again continues to grow clearer.

A rehabilitation building permit for $5 million was issued on behalf of the mall Tuesday. Belfor Group USA, whose red, white and black trucks and billboards are now a common sight in Nashville, was issued the permit to return the mall to “white box” status, that is, to shell out the building in advance of tenants.

According to the permit, additional permits will be required to ready the individual tenant spaces.
The mall’s Bass Pro Shop has already received a $2 million building permit for repairs to its anchor space. In a recent interview with the Nashville Business Journal, Bass Pro’s local general manager said Simon Property Group, the mall’s Indianapolis-based owner, is financially responsible for restoring the shell of tenant spaces — the walls, floor, etc. Individual tenants, he said, are responsible for repairs inside their spaces.

The 1.2 million-square-foot mall has been closed since early May’s flood. Simon Property Group has yet to say when the mall will reopen.

SOURCE: Nashville Business Journal

For prior posts on this subject see:

Opry Mills tenant mix, timeline unclear after historic flooding

Flooded Opry Mills mall's revival begins

Log Cabin Bar and Grill

CROSSROAD CUISINE - My quest to find great local food when I'm on the road.

On my prior visit to The Crossings Premium Outlet I mentioned that The Log Cabin Bar and Grill opened. On that trip I ate at The Barley Creek Brewing Company. I promised that on my next trip I would test out this new restaurant.

The Log Cabin Bar & Grill

Located in The Crossings Premium Outlets

Between Carters and Coach

570-619-7812

 The restaurant has an appropriately Pocono Mountain decor.

We started with the Black and Blue Chips. They are described as house made chips topped with melted blue cheese, crumbled bacon and a dash of cayenne pepper.

The chips are home-made as advertised. I personally thought they were cut too thick and were a little too hard. Now that's a matter of opinion, some people may like them that way. I didn't. The dish goes down hill after that. There is virtually no bacon. You can see that in the picture. However the biggest sin is the "melted blue cheese". That's just not true. What is on there is an inexpensive bottle dressing with very little blue cheese. It mostly tastes like Italian salad dressing. I definitely would not order this dish again.

After that I had Camp Fire Burger: melted pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, and Tabasco frizzled onions.

They did redeem themselves with the burger. The burger was juicy with a great meaty burger flavor. It was not a premade frozen burger. While the bun was a little big for the burger, it was a good fresh poppy seed bun. The Tabasco frizzled onions were a nice addition. I didn't think the pepper jack cheese, jalapenos and Tabasco onions were too hot....but I like hot food.

You could sub fries for the chips if you wanted, but beware they use Hunts Ketchup not Heinz. You have to use Heinz, it is the best. Frankly I am really surprised because Heinz started in Pennsylvania.

Overall I would say this; its better than the food court in the mall. However the food court in this mall is terrible. If I was here and wanted lunch and didn't have time to leave the mall I would eat here again. However I would still recommend you make the time and drive the short distance to the Barley Creek Brewing Company. Especially if your done working and can try a few of their home made beers.

For other great places to eat when your on the road, check out:

The 5-8 Club, Home of the Juicy Lucy

Al's #1 Italian Beef

If you liked this post then you have to get this book: 
500 Things to Eat Before Its Too Late

Mark Libell