Sixty new stores coming with next Forum Shops expansion

The Forum Shops at Caesars, the nation's most successful retail center by annual sales per square foot, will undergo its second expansion in six years, adding about 60 stores and a new entrance off the Strip.

Randy Brant, president of Gordon Group Holdings Ltd., said today the 200,000- to 250,000-square-foot expansion would be called the Pantheon at Caesars. It will replace the people-mover system and fountains presently in place along the northeast section of the property.

Gordon Group Holdings, Santa Monica, Calif., operates the Forum Shops with the Simon De Bartolo Group, of Indianapolis.

Brant said construction would begin within three or four months with completion planned by the first quarter of 2000.

Although some retailers have committed to locating in the expansion, Brant said he could not disclose details on what stores will be there. Like the rest of the Forum Shops, the Pantheon will be on one level, but some stores will have the option of multiple levels, like the addition that opened last summer featuring Virgin Records, Niketown and FAO Schwarz. That's why the square footage of the expansion isn't specific.

"We're giving retailers the option of using a second level in the Pantheon," Brant said.

In addition to announcing the third phase of construction, Brant said planning is under way for a new attraction on the southeast corner of the property, where the overpasses will enter Caesars property from the south from Bellagio and from the east from an undetermined location between the Barbary Coast and the Flamingo Hilton.

The 250,000-square-foot addition at the skybridges will incorporate what Brant said would be a combination of "retail, entertainment and eatertainment."

Brant would not describe the theme of the project, but said it would be beyond the animatronic attractions the mall currently features at two high-traffic centers in the mall. Developers have previously discussed the development of a live chariot race as part of Caesars' attractions.

"Both of the new projects will feature on the Strip a very dramatic Roman hill town," Brant said. "It will look as if you're looking at the old Forum of Rome with buildings cascading up a hill. It should be very dramatic."

The Forum Shops originally opened in spring 1992, then completed a 276,000-square-foot addition over the Labor Day weekend last year. Forum Shops officials report sales per square foot of $1,200, more than three times the national average of more than $350 in retail malls.

Other details of the the expansion are expected to be unveiled to retail and shopping center executives gathering this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Las Vegas Hilton. The International Council of Shopping Centers begins its convention and trade show on Tuesday.

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