In an otherwise dismal April for Orange County auto sales, the luxury market saw a twist.
Lexus surpassed Mercedes-Benz in April sales, according to the Costa Mesa-based Orange County Automobile Dealers Association’s monthly report.
In April, Toyota Motor Corp.’s luxury brand rose 0.5% from a year earlier to 813 new registrations, a barometer of sales. Mercedes came in at 798, down 12% from a year earlier. BMW, the No. 3 player in the luxury auto market here, came in at 700, down 16%.
The subtle gain for Lexus marks the first time the brand has surpassed Mercedes here amid a running battle. Lexus earlier surpassed Mercedes nationally. The dominance of Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach has been a big challenge for Lexus here.
And the battle is far from decided: Lexus held a slim 15-auto lead over Mercedes here in April.
Newport Lexus, across the street from Fletcher Jones, has been a factor. So have rising sales at the county’s other Lexus dealerships.
Mercedes has its own firepower. Fletcher Jones’ sales were up 7% in April, though down 3% for the four months through April. Newly expanded Mercedes-Benz of Anaheim seems to be making its mark, with sales up 11% in April and 9% so far this year, according to the dealer.
The county’s two other Mercedes dealers aren’t faring as well. House of Imports in Buena Park was down 26% for April and is off 12% for the year. Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel was down 21% for the month and down 2% through April.
Overall, Orange County didn’t shop for autos much in April.
Sales of all types of autos were off 6.2% in April from a year earlier to 14,062. Along with Mercedes and BMW, nearly every make saw declines, including: Volvo, off 21%; Jaguar, down 17%; Kia, 45%; and Nissan, 11%.
Bucking April’s trend was Mazda, up 79% to 288 autos. Saturn was up 54% to 139 autos. Mini Cooper was up 31% to 72 autos. Infiniti, up 23% to 280. Hyundai rose 14% to 304.
Golf Punks
Chip & Pepper opened a store at Fashion Island in a 900-square-foot space next to Original Penguin.
“It’s so us,” said Becky Vieira, spokeswoman for Los Angeles-based L.A. Lab Inc., the apparel maker that runs Chip & Pepper. “It’s outdoors, it’s beachy.”
Twin brothers Chip and Pepper Foster are known for their “golf punk” look of vintage-inspired jeans and a line of university T-shirts. The vintage-look shirts sport the logos of colleges such as Harvard University and University of Notre Dame.
The brothers’ first store, on Melrose Avenue, is called Golf Punk. In the early 1990s, they even had an NBC cartoon series called “Chip and Pepper’s Cartoon Madness.” The brothers are hands on, Vieira said.
“They’re here every day,” she said. “They sign every check by hand.”
Mom Sanctuary
Always out to please South County moms, the Shops at Mission Viejo added a “Lullaby Lounge.”
“It feels like a living room,” said Patsy Sanquist, area director of marketing for the Shops and Laguna Hills Mall, both part of Simon Property Group Inc.
About 95% of the shoppers at the Mission Viejo mall are families, she said. When the Lullaby Lounge opened a few months back, it was standing room only. There is a diaper changing area, a restroom for little kids, a flat-panel TV showing toddler faves and a breastfeeding area.
Retail Market: Big, Tight
A look at the county’s retail market finds 100 million square feet of space and a slim 3.3% vacancy, according to real estate tracker CoStar Group Inc.
The county’s retail market has some 2,454 properties (malls and other types of retail), according to CoStar.
The largest leases so far this year have come from Target, Easy Life Furniture and PetSmart.
Target’s 136,000-square-foot lease is at Imperial Promenade in La Habra. Easy Life Furniture signed up for 52,710 square feet at South Coast Home Furnishings Center. PetSmart is moving into a 42,997-square-foot space at Brea Union Plaza.
Vacancy at the county’s 1,100 shopping centers was 3.1% at the end of the first quarter. Rental rates averaged $2.37 per square foot a month.
Including boutiques and stand-alone stores, the vacancy rate also was 3.1% in the first quarter, leaving 477,126 square feet for lease.
There is 321,702 square feet of retail space under construction.
Sports and entertainment retail has a bigger vacancy rate, 13.4%. There are 36 of these types of centers in OC with 2 million square feet.
In the fourth quarter, 10 deals worth $378 million closed. That beat the third quarter with 11 deals worth $194 million.
One of the largest deals was the fourth-quarter sale of Triangle Square in Costa Mesa. The 200,610-square-foot center sold for $45.5 million, or $232 per square foot. Greenlaw Partners LLC of Newport Beach bought the ailing center, now being managed by RiverRock Real Estate Group of Costa Mesa.
