Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.
Las Vegas-area shopping malls may have big plans to expand, but they don't have much to announce in the way of tenants.
Aside from Nordstrom's announcement that it will anchor a mall between the Mandalay Bay and Luxor hotel-casinos, few of the area's retail outlets are using this week's International Council of Shopping Centers trade show to announce deals or unveil plans. Indeed, the revelatory offerings from the companies planning to expand their Las Vegas shopping malls are notably light.
Shari Simon, vice president of corporate marketing for the Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, said plans are still on tap to expand the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace by 200,000 square feet.
However, Caesars' acquisition by Park Place Entertainment Inc. has delayed Simon's plans, she said.
"It's taken a little longer with the sale of Caesars," said Simon.
The expansion, which will front on Las Vegas Boulevard, will likely break ground in about a year, and will be completed 18 months later, said Simon.
And, yes, the expanded Forum Shops will feature retailers, including a "high-end, well-known" department store, said Simon. But none of those retailers will be announced until groundbreaking, she said.
Howard Hughes Corp. of Las Vegas also plans a 1 million square-foot expansion at the Fashion Show mall by 2002. Hughes has said the expansion will be anchored by a Lord & Taylor department store. Hughes, a unit of the Rouse Co. of Columbia, Md., does not have a booth at the ICSC show.
Forest City Enterprises Inc. of Cleveland is mum on its plans to expand its Showcase and Galleria malls. Plans to expand the Galleria in Henderson seem especially unsettled.
"The Galleria is still a work in progress," said Nancy McCann, a Forest City spokeswoman.
No floorplans, tenants or timeframes have been finalized, said McCann.
At the Showcase mall on the Las Vegas Strip, Forest City wants to add 92,000 square feet of "branded retail entertainment," said Barry Fieldman, president of Henderson-based Makena Development Co., the company designing, leasing and managing the expansion in partnership with Forest City.
But, like most everyone else, Fieldman is not ready to announce tenants. His company is negotiating with a handful of major retailers with the goal of theming the expansion as it has themed the M&M's World and World of Coca-Cola attractions at the existing Showcase. The idea is to create an entertainment experience -- be it a trip through a mock-up candy factory or cola bottling plant -- that also happens to have a retail component.
"We're an entertainment dollar," said Fieldman.
Also exhibiting at the ICSC show was General Growth Properties Inc. of Chicago, the regional mall real estate investment trust that last year bought the Boulevard and Meadows malls. GGP has no immediate plans to expand either mall, focusing instead on "remerchandising" -- a nice way of saying they're trying to replace poorly performing retailers.
"Expansion, I think, comes after some of the remerchandising we're planning to do," said Robert Michaels, director of leasing for GGP.
At the Meadows mall, GGP would like to open a theater complex and some additional restaurants, said Michaels. Both malls are doing well, he said.
Most retailers interviewed believe there is demand to support new retail projects.
"Look at all the hotels that have been built," said Michaels, arguing that if the market can absorb mega-resort after megaresort, it can certainly absorb retail.
Fieldman said he isn't worried about enough people coming into the Showcase mall. With its prime south Strip location, the Showcase gets plenty of foot traffic, he said.
But Simon speculated that some of her competitors are having a hard time finding tenants. Noting that the Forum Shops has "radius agreements" with many of its tenants -- contracts that prohibit the tenants from opening a second outlet within a certain distance of their Forum Shops stores -- and arguing that the Forum Shops are still "the" mall to visit on the Strip, Simon said she believes she has competitive advantages her competitors can't match, whatever the demand for retail.
"We have the unique tenant mix that provides something for everybody," said Simon.
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