Danbury Fair”™s four national brands anchor a shopper”™s wish list of 180 stores and vending kiosks in a 1986 retail equation of drive-park-shop that defies the web juggernaut. The mall maintains a 90-percent-plus storefront occupancy rate across 1.3-million square feet, with another two major leases inked for 2014.
On a recent back-to-school shopping day, the crowds poured in like a practice Black Friday, quickly filling parking lots with the ethos “the early bird gets the spot close to the entrance.”
“It”™s great,” said one shopper corralling a scrimmage of eager young consumers through the 13-vendor food court. “We get all our shopping done and we only have to park once.”
Three anchors ”” Macy”™s, Sears and J.C. Penney ”” have been on site since the mall opened in 1986. The fourth, Lord & Taylor, opened in 1991 after a two-year renovation. All boast six-figure square-footages.
Clothing retailer Filene”™s Basement created a 167,000-square-foot retail void when it left in 2006 (the company completely closed shop in 2011). The space is now fully occupied by XXI Forever, L.L. Bean, Dick”™s Sporting Goods and Brio Tuscan Grille. Such is the allure of what Melissa Eigen, Danbury Fair”™s senior marketing manager, summed up as “location, location, location” ”” tapping Connecticut, Westchester County and Hudson Valley markets as far north as Poughkeepsie.
Eigen offered perhaps the best anecdote a prospective retailer could hear. “We see lots of customers with lots of bags,” she said, backing it up with national metrics from industry analysts Customer Growth Partners L.L.C., based in New Canaan. “They say back-to-school spending will be up 3.4 percent this year.” Chicago-based Shopper Trak places growth at 4.3 percent with a 0.6 percent commensurate uptick in retail foot traffic, she said.
Eigen, a mother of two who went to the mall as a child and rode the still- meticulous carousel, said she had shopped at the mall every day the previous week to outfit her older child for school. “I easily spent a couple of hundred dollars and I”™m not done,” she said.
The National Retail Federation expects back-to-school spending to average $634.78 for families with children in grades K-12. Together they are expected to spend a total of $26.7 billion for K-12 children; $72.5 billion in 2013 when college-aged youths are calculated.
The typical lease at Danbury Fair is 10 years, according to Eigen, who works for mall owner Macerich, the California-based retail developer with 61 centers nationally. The closest to Danbury is Cross County Center in Yonkers, N.Y., which Macerich manages, but does not own. The company owns and manages about 61 million square feet of retail space nationally.
Rents and sites are determined on an individual basis, according to Eigen. Factors include the obvious, like square footage, and the less obvious ”” like who”™s retailing nearby. “Some want to be near the competition,” she said. “Others not so.” Food, with its venting and fire-suppression needs, could, for example, face a higher rent than a shoe store interested in the same space.
The musk of black ink next year will attract Arhaus Furniture to 19,145 square feet and a Lego center to another 2,815 square feet. (Lego centers are owned by the same company that runs Madame Tussaud”™s, among other international attractions; there is already a shop in Yonkers”™ new Ridge Hill shopping center, Danbury Fair”™s closest direct competition and also host to the likes of Lord & Taylor and L.L. Bean.)
Retailers like Dick”™s and L.L. Bean have their own entrances at Danbury Fair, as do the on-site restaurants, like Brio, Ruby Tuesday and The Cheesecake Factory, not associated with the food court.
“The mall hours are 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Monday to Saturday,” Eigen said. “It”™s 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. But the restaurants and department stores have their own entrances so they have the freedom to open and close as they want, as with Thanksgiving shopping or, for the restaurants, staying open late.”
The mall is very much aware of its place as a community player, hosting eight youth-themed events annually in conjunction with National Geographic. Both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts use the space, for events including the storied Pinewood Derby competition. Its July 4 fireworks have become a “must see” (and hear), attracting up to 25,000 people. Habitat for Humanity, the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut and the Danbury Animal Welfare Society all benefit from donated mall space for events.
“We certainly open our doors to the community,” Eigen said.
