![]() The dog spied on the ground floor was Misty, a nine-year-old Westy whose owners, Jack and Kristie Needham live across the street from the mall. Her friends, Laila Cummings and Jill Gower, then planned to pick out a birthday gift for the birthday girl. “It’s a special event for a special birthday,” she said. Thursday and fanned out to the expanded cosmetics department (14,000 lipsticks in 2,500 colors), the men’s department (2,500 dress shirts in more than 30 sizes) and the full-service Bazille restaurant on the second floor.Īs if on cue from Nordstrom marketers, two women from Carmel Valley headed to the restaurant’s outdoor seating on the balcony where they treated their neighbor, Theresa Hirst, on her 50th birthday. Hundreds of women (and a few men, a handful of kids and at least one dog) poured into the store at 10 a.m. The old Nordstrom, opened in 1984, is expected to repurposed or replaced. “We didn’t have any windows (at the old building) and didn’t know what the weather looked like,” he said. That was a welcomed change to Matt Doverspike, 24, who waited on children’s department customers on opening day. “We want it to feel like it’s a building that’s more alive and vibrant,” he said. “We don’t want it to feel like it’s a closed-up old building,” he said. Jamie Nordstrom said the use of large picture windows in the new and remodeled locations is meant to open up the store to its surroundings. There are now 122 full-line stores in 40 states, Canada and Puerto Rico 227 Nordstrom Racks, two boutiques, two clearance stores and seven Trunk Club personalized clothing service sites. It relocated its Los Angeles store to Century City and simultaneously opened its prototype Nordstrom Local on Melrose Place, where tailoring and other services, not products, are available. While some department store chains are cutting back - Sears recently closed its Westfield UTC store and new uses are being reviewed - Nordstrom is redesigning or replacing its flagship stores. Some tenants will offer extra time to customers who are dining out, going to a movie at ArcLight cinema or working out at 24-Hour Fitness. To control parking and encourage turnover of spaces, Westfield plans to charge visitors after the first two hours, starting sometime next year. The terminus will be at a second-level station in the Genesee Avenue median opposite the recently opened UTC parking garage. That may be alleviated when the San Diego Trolley’s Blue Line opens in 2021. Since then, the “towne” has grown into a dense suburban center of high-rise apartment towers and office parks with maddening traffic jams during morning and evening commutes. Hahn called it “University Towne Centre” with the hope it would be the go-to place for students, faculty and staff from nearby UC San Diego. Hahn opened the mall in 1977, he included an ice skating rink and the Mingei International Museum that has since moved to its own building in Balboa Park. Mixed use and architectural beauty is nothing new at UTC. “I really think we have a responsibility to be a catalyst in those areas,” Hecht said. There are richly landscaped plazas with fountains and public art, such as “Octo,” a kinetic metal sculpture by Anthony Howe, and a photo mural by local scientist Mark Shimazu, located at the mall concierge desk. The menu includes an 8-ounce dry-aged filet mignon for $53. “I think the location is really great for us and will say who we are,” Larsen said. ![]() “We have a plethora of food that’s already there and I would say we are doubling or tripling the amount of food that will be here in the development,” Hecht said.įirst-to-market offerings include Shake Shack, the New York upscale burger-and-fries eatery, and Din Tai Fung, an international dumplings and noodles restaurant.įlemming Larsen is opening his fifth Larsen’s steakhouse, and his first in San Diego, next month at the high-visibility spot on La Jolla Village Drive, just east of Genesee Avenue. The paradigm has shifted from products for sale to food and beverage with a number of first-to-market openings coming soon. “And we’re either going to win or lose on that paradigm.” “Either we’re delivering top quality experiences to our customers through our retail partners or we’re not,” said Westfield’s U.S. Westfield’s 400,000-square-foot expansion on the former parking lot along Genesee Avenue will house up to 90 new shops, restaurants and services with 36 opening by year’s end.Īt a time when many malls are closing across the country because increasing numbers of shoppers are buying via smartphones, Westfield hopes its investment in “experiential” retailing will compel consumers to leave the couch and return to see what’s for sale, what’s to eat and what’s fun to do.
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