My latest retail story for WDDE.org, Delaware’s NPR affiliate.

In a retail landscape checkered with SPACE AVAILABLE signs, Christiana Mall is in the enviable position of having more merchants who want to set up shop than there are places for them to do business.

That provides the mall with a rare opportunity to pick and choose, replacing underperforming retailers whose leases are expiring with new merchants who might resonate more with shoppers.

This year, Christiana expects to add at least 11 new or expanded retailers to its lineup of 130-plus stores.

“Christiana Mall is made up of tenants with temporary leases or long-term leases with a variety of unique terms and conditions,” says Steve Chambliss, senior general manager at Christiana. “Leasing cycles give us the opportunity to reevaluate existing merchants and ensure that our customers are receiving the best experience each time they visit.”

The mall is currently just under 1.1 million square feet, the result of an ambitious expansion in 2010-11 that added Nordstrom and Target anchors, Barnes & Noble and a restaurant row that includes The Cheesecake Factory and BRIO Tuscan Grille.

With no room to grow inside the footprint, Christiana has been building outside the mall, with such attractions as a 100,000-square-foot Cabela’s, a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts that will open this spring. A 12-screen Cinemark Theatre will premier in November in a free-standing site across from Nordstrom and Target.

Experiences that complement shopping—restaurants, entertainment and services such as shoe repair and optometry offices—are magnets for merchants, says Jesse Tron, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a Washington. D.C.-based trade group.

“There’s a large push by malls and shopping centers to add those attractions because they increase consumer traffic,” he says.

In 2013, there were few upgrades or additions to the mall.

The only new retailer to debut at Christiana was L’Occitane en Provence, a skin care boutique. Select Comfort remodeled its mattress store and Journeys expanded with Journeys Kidz, broadening its inventory of sporty footwear for men and women to shoes for children. Two restaurants were added to the mix, Noodles & Company, a quick casual concept offering global pasta dishes, and Charley’s Philly Steaks in the food court, said Tom Schneck II, mall marketing manager.

The boomlet of newcomers in 2014 includes youth-oriented retailers, some familiar faces and spinoffs on existing concepts. Shoppers who adore shoes will be kicking up their heels Six of the 11 new stores will sell footwear.

Chambliss declined to identify the merchants who will be leaving to make way for new tenants. In the world of shopping, culling the herd is part of the natural order of evolution.

“Part of the value of our center is the ability to consistently update our merchandise assortment to meet the changing needs of our customers,” he says.

With Delaware’s tax-free shopping and the completion of the Route 1 interchange, Christiana is ideally positioned to capitalize on a consumer market that shows signs of thawing after a long freeze. The mall already boasts a top-performing Apple Store and such destinations as Anthropologie, Michael Kors, Urban Outfitters and Microsoft.

According to its owner, Chicago-based General Growth Properties (GGP), Christiana attracts 18 million visitors a year, about half from neighboring states. Sales are more than $1,200 per square foot, about three times the U.S. average. In the food court, sales are $1,400 per square foot.

Nationally, other regional super malls also are experiencing improved vacancy rates.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the average U.S. vacancy rate was 5.4 percent, according to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries. That’s a sharp spike from the 12 percent vacancy rate logged in the second quarter of 2013.

Some of the improvement might be attributed to merchants pressing for space during the critical holiday shopping season, Tron notes. Space is also getting tighter because few malls have been adding square footage in a protracted sour economy.

In desirable markets, that is translating to competition for space and higher rents.

“With little new space in the pipeline, there is not a ton of room for retailers who are looking to expand,” Tron says. “That, in turn, is putting upward pressure on rents.”

Retail is both an art and a science, with shopping center managers tweaking the mix based on which stores complement one another and which retailers compete with one another, with a sizable measure of consumer feedback blended in.

“We use many methods to strategically select our tenants to balance our merchandising mix,” Chambliss says. “It’s based on a selection of metrics including customer input, local demographics, competition regionally and the correct size and location within our center.”

Most of Christiana’s new faces are focused on apparel. The lineup includes:

• Kids Foot Locker, a purveyor of brand-name athletic footwear, clothes and accessories for children will debut in time for Black Friday shopping. Think Foot Locker for grownups, but with smaller sizes. The 3,319-square-foot store will open in November, next to the Disney Store.
• House of Hoops caters to basketball fans and shoppers who wants to look sporty with exclusive labels from Jordan, Nike, adidas, Under Armour and others. The 7,626-square-foot location takes the court in September.
• Vans, the place to find skateboarding shoes, trendy hoodies and other cutting-edge action sports footwear and apparel, will open a 648-square-foot boutique, also in November.
• Invicta, a 543-square-foot jewel box, sells fashion-forward watches, artsy jewelry, posh writing instruments and bling-y eyewear. The doors open in April.
• Wilsons Leather, which closed its mall stores in 2008, will return with a 2,326-square-foot boutique-style store in May, offering purses, briefcases, travel items and other accessories.
• Zumiez, a destination for young men and women who like to skate, snowboard and surf, will sell both apparel and gear. The store opens in September.
• Victoria’s Secret PINK, a spinoff of the uber undies purveyor, will open a 4,310-square-foot store offering sleepwear and loungewear, in addition to bras and panties. A fall opening is planned but no date has been announced.

Victoria’s Secret also will unveil its remodeled 10,652-square-foot main store in May. While the store is under construction, VS will operate from a temporary location near Macy’s.

A few other retailers are renovating or expanding, including: Gap and its offspring, babyGap, and GapKids; Express, an apparel and accessories store; LoveSac, a modular furniture seller; Sprint’s mobile phone store and Zales jewelers.

There’s no word yet as to whether other retailers will be signed this year, Chambliss says.

– See more at: http://www.wdde.org/57219-christiana-store-roster-change#sthash.DbZ5XSb3.dpuf