Men’s retailer At-Ease will open a larger store at Crystal Cove Promenade in Newport Beach in the spring. The new store will combine the Fashion Island store with the one already at Crystal Cove. The Fashion Island store will close.
At-Ease sells men’s career and casual clothing by Cole Hahn, Tommy Bahama, Seven for All Mankind, Eton of Sweden, Allen Edmonds and Sperry Topsider.
The store’s design will reflect its new coastal digs with yacht-like decor,warm woods and granite floors.
More Tenants
Bella Terra in Huntington Beach added a few office tenants to its second floor: CorePower Yoga signed a 10-year lease for a 7,809-square-foot spot, according to Coreland Cos. of Tustin, which represented Bella Terra owners, San Jose-based DJM Capital Partners Inc. The lease is valued at $1.36 million.
Also open is Dental Oasis, which signed a 10-year lease for 4,000 square feet,valued at $1.19 million,and Atlantis Eye Care, which signed a five-year lease for 2,500 square feet. That deal is valued at $360,000.
Coreland also negotiated a 20-year, 15,393-square-foot lease for a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store on behalf of the Anaheim West Shopping Center, where the store will open. The lease is valued at $4.9 million.
Ownership Change
As soon as Vilebrequin, the men’s and boy’s swim shop, opened at Fashion Island, the company’s ownership changed hands. Fashion Fund One, a private equity fund in the Netherlands, bought the St. Tropez company from owner Pierre-Alain Blum, according to Women’s Wear Daily.
Anchors Open
The District at Tustin Legacy shopping center has all of its anchors open. The Whole Foods Market is already the chain’s top selling store in the Southwest, said Jeffrey Axtell, who oversees new shopping center development in Southern California for Vestar Development Co. Phoenix-based Vestar co-developed the mall with New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Kimco Realty Corp.
The bowling alley is set to open in the summer.
Forecasts so far indicate that the mall will have about 18 million customers per year, he said. The company installed traffic counters at its entrances, which tally the number of cars that enter. Vestar started putting in counters at all of its projects a couple of years ago, he said.
Getting the word out has been the focus of the mall, which is using all available means to promote the center,two Web sites, bus advertising, direct mail ads and community events, such as bands on the weekends.
The sprawling center will get a boost once the housing and offices go up around it.
The mall is expected to have a total of 40,000 homes. About 2,000 are under construction. Shea Properties is developing several hundred acres at Legacy Park and is expected to build more houses late next year or in early 2009. Offices are going up first, he said.
Though this year is expected to be tough, he said the company wouldn’t be skimping on landscaping, security or maintenance. The developer is sitting tight, focusing on two to five years out, he said.
The District also signed restaurants to open in 2008: Marmalade Caf & #233; and Bistro West.
Marmalade Caf & #233; is based in Santa Monica. This will be its first OC store. Bistro West is a formal restaurant with a big selection of international wines.
Among the 30 or so restaurants open:
Johnny Rockets, JT Schmid’s Restaurant & Brewery, Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, Chaparos Grill, Chick-fil-A, Daphne’s Greek Caf & #233;, Red Brick Pizza, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Auld Dubliner Irish Pub, Ono Hawaiian, Valentino Chocolatier and The Cravery.
Shopping Spree
People went on a shopping spree in November and December,but they never left their desks. That’s according to Reston, Va.-based comScore Inc.
From Nov. 1 to Dec. 11, shoppers spent more than $20 billion online, up 19% from the same time a year before. EBay dubbed the second Monday in December as “green Monday,” which turned out to be the best online spending day of the season so far for the company.
This year, shoppers spent $881 million on Dec. 10, a 33% increase. That’s more than the $730 million that shoppers spent on “Cyber Monday,” the first Monday after Black Friday, the kickoff shopping day of the season.
Revamped Dealership
Land Rover Newport Beach will begin selling Aston Martins and Jaguars at its renovated dealership in January. The new dealership, under construction since December 2006, will have four 50-inch flat-screen TVs, wireless Internet, coffee bars and other amenities. There will be 36 service bays in the expanded service area.
The official grand opening is set for March and will coincide with the launch of the 2009 Jaguar XF.
Christmas, Fletcher Style
Fletcher Jones Motorcars is selling an allotment of red and silver autos for the season. This month is expected to be the Newport Beach dealer’s best for the year, although the company had a strong November.
