53.2 F
Laguna Hills
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Xmas Trees: South Coast First, Fashion Island Biggest


This year’s giant Christmas tree has rolled into South Coast Plaza, making the front page of the Orange County Register and delighting the folks at the Costa Mesa shopping center.

Vito’s Custom Christmas Trees in Laguna Hills picks out trees for South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island. Here’s the deal: South Coast Plaza’s tree never is taller than Fashion Island’s (though the Costa Mesa shopping center’s is plenty big at 96 feet). The trade-off: South Coast Plaza’s always arrives first.


South Coast Face-Lift

South Coast Plaza shoppers might notice the shopping center is getting a face-lift. What else would a near 40-year-old in Orange County do?

The terrazzo floor and brick areas are being replaced with marble. Wood-capped handrails are going bronze. More seats are coming around the planters. Automatic doors will be installed and a glass elevator will be added. A new, large concierge is being built across from Theory. There, shoppers can make theater and dinner reservations.

The bulk of the $30 million worth of renovations is being done at night to keep customers focused on shopping. Construction will stop altogether this month, resuming in January and finishing in time for South Coast Plaza’s 40th anniversary by November next year. An anniversary logo is in the works. The newly designed Bloomingdale’s is expected to debut next year as well.


Hot Segerstroms

Henry and Elizabeth Segerstrom, the public faces of South Coast Plaza, are among OC Metro’s “Hot 25.” The Segerstroms also won an award for their work at the Orange County Performing Arts Center from Orange County Innovation, a Tustin-based coalition of business and academic groups.


One More on South Coast …

Set your TiVos: The Style Network’s episode of “How Do I Look?” featuring several South Coast Plaza stores, airs Jan. 13.



Cosmo Signing

Lauren Lipton, deputy editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, signed her new book, “It’s All About Your Husband,” at Barnes and Noble at Fashion Island last week.


Another Mall Remodel

Buena Park Downtown is looking at remodeling its lower level next year and bringing in tenants, general manager Cyndi Taylor said. Demand for junior apparel is high, so the mall might see more of those kinds of tenants, Taylor said. The food court may also get a lift from the lower level to the upper level.

Who’d of thought hot dogs could be such a draw. Portillo’s, the hot dog restaurant from Chicago, still is going strong at the Buena Park mall.

“It’s such a wonderful gem for us,” Taylor said.

Taylor replaced Michael De Leon in July. She was the former Laguna Hills Mall general manager. Prior to that, she was the assistant manager at Fashion Valley in San Diego and an assistant general manager for Neiman Marcus.

Fruit, Not Flowers

Fruit bouquet store Edible Arrangements opened on Beach Boulevard in Westminster last week. Tom and Nancy Caruso of Garden Grove own the shop.

A fruit bouquet is made of hand-carved strawberries, pineapple, grapes, melons and such.


Retail Outlook

Word is, this holiday shopping season is going to be a good one, according to a National Retail Federation survey. It’s forecasting that the average shopper will spend nearly $800 this year, and that holiday sales will increase 5% this year to $457 billion. The survey also found that many consumers already have started shopping. About 40% of the people surveyed said they started before Halloween.


As for Auto Sales

Slower economic growth, high consumer debt and the soft housing market could put a dent in car sales next year, according to the Costa Mesa-based Orange County Auto Dealers Association’s quarterly report.

There are some potential positive forces, such as continued low unemployment and relatively lower gas prices.

New car registrations, a barometer of sales, are expected to decline by about 4%.

Registrations exceeded 180,000 vehicles in 2004 and 2005 and are expected to do the same this year, according to the report. But those numbers are expected to decline in 2007 and then go up again in 2008 and 2009, pushing the 200,000 mark.

For the third quarter, the top 10 brands are comparable to the second quarter, except Lexus has surpassed Mercedes-Benz, GMC has moved on the list replacing Acura at No. 10 and Nissan has moved down from No. 6 to No. 7.

Lexus, at No. 5, has 5.5% of the market, a 0.3% increase. Mercedes-Benz lost 0.5% market share for 5.3% of the market. BMW still is at No. 8 with 3.8% but is down 1.1% from the prior quarter.

For the year through September, Toyota’s tiny Yaris was No. 1 for the entry-level category, with 675 registrations and 44.2% of the market. Toyota’s Scion xA followed the Yaris.

Next were the Hyundai Accent, Chevrolet Aveo and Kia Rio.

Toyota was tops in five of 16 categories.

The Mercedes CLS-Class led the way for luxury registrations with 1,543. In the sports car category, Chevrolet Corvette was tops with 492 registrations, followed by Nissan 350ZX, Porsche 911, BMW Z4 and Mazda MX5.

The full-size sport utility vehicle category has Chevrolet Tahoe at the top with 2,623 registrations, followed by GMC Yukon, Toyota Land Cruiser, Ford Expedition and Toyota Sequoia.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-