The $277-million expansion at Chinook Centre, which opens this morning, is expected to boost sales at the popular shopping centre by millions of dollars on an annual basis.
Fifty new retailers, including the ever-popular Apple store, will open at 8 a.m. today in the 180,000-square-foot expansion with thousands of shoppers expected to invade the premises.
“This line of retail is as good as any street in Canada,” said Terry Napper, the mall’s general manager. “This just changes retail in Calgary, totally.”
Napper told the Herald that sales are expected to climb from the current $500 million a year to $700 million with the opening of the expansion. Productivity at the mall peaked at $910 sales per square foot in 2007. Today it is at $840 and Napper said the new expansion could elevate that to $1,000 or even $1,100.
He also said the number of visits to the mall on an annual basis will grow from the current 13.5 million to up to 19 million.
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“If the retail is successful, which it should be, then more and more global retailers are going to start to look at Calgary and they always want to cluster where the other strong brands are,” said Napper.
“I think we’re going to go more to a global-type shopping centre that you would see in Dubai, Las Vegas, the streets of New York,” Napper said.
He said for Cadillac Fairview, owner of Chinook, to invest this amount of money in the expansion of a retail property is unheard of in Canada.
“It’s really just a show of confidence in not only Chinook Centre and its location, but the strength of the Calgary market,” said Napper. “The other thing is we’ve known for years the American brands tend to do very, very well in Calgary due to the fact there are a lot of Americans living here and the fact that Calgarians travel. And when they travel they shop these brands. Now we’re bringing it to them.”
Michael Kehoe, an Alberta-based retail specialist with Fairfield Commercial Real Estate Inc., said Chinook Centre in retail circles is known as a key destination for ‘first-to-market’ national and international retailers entering Western Canada. The mall is a proven success with a combination of above-industry average sales productivity and high weekly customer traffic.
“Chinook Centre is reaping the benefits of long-term, stable ownership with a single management, leasing and merchandising strategy,” he said.
“The most successful retailers including the luxury brands that cater to upwardly mobile, aspirational shoppers, depend on landmark retail venues like Chinook for their prime locations.”
Darryl Schmidt, vice-president of national leasing for the Western Canada portfolio for Cadillac Fairview, said 94 per cent of the expansion is leased.
“Philosophically, we always want to get an aspirational and luxury type retail mix to better serve our core demographic in our primary trade area,” said Schmidt.
The expansion will feature the introduction of a number of stores new to the Calgary market as well as a few first-in-Canada stores, such as Le Crueset, a high-end housewares and cookware store.
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